Stewart transported marines to Shanghai in January 1925, and during the next years, spent periods augmenting the normal gunboat patrols on the Yangtze River and on the coast near Canton.

[21] Stewart was in collision with the merchant ship SS Luen Ho while on passage down the Yangtze on 5 November 1927, with the destroyer suffering a dented side.

[28] The overhaul continued into March, with Stewart demonstrating a speed of 32 kn (37 mph; 59 km/h) during post repair sea trials.

[27] On 14 July 1934, Stewart dragged her anchor while at Chefoo, colliding with the Chinese warship Chuyku, but only sustained minor damage.

[27] After full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in 1937 Stewart continued to spend much of her time at Chinese ports and was stationed at Tsingtao and Shanghai from 15 August to 17 October 1937.

After a mail run to Yokohama, Japan between 17 and 30 October, she returned to Chinese waters, leaving Shanghai on 18 December carrying newreel footage of the Japanese sinking of the American gunboat Panay.

On the latter date, after the outbreak of war in Europe, she was ordered south for patrol duties in the Philippines, which she continued until entering the Cavite Navy Yard for overhaul on 5 April 1940.

Upon leaving the yard on 1 June, Stewart acted as plane guard vessel for seaplanes flying between Guam and the Philippines and then made a final tour of Chinese Yellow Sea ports from 7 July to 23 September 1940.

Stewart, along with the cruiser Marblehead and the destroyers Barker, Bulmer, Paul Jones and Parrott, was ordered to Tarakan in Borneo, arriving there on 29 November.

[36] On 30 January, Stewart joined Marblehead and sortied with her from Bunda Roads on 4 February to intercept Japanese forces at the south entrance to the Macassar Strait.

However, Marblehead was badly damaged by air attacks during the day, and Stewart escorted her back to the base at Tjilatjap, Java.

Stewart was lead ship in the second group and, in several brief but furious night engagements, came under extremely accurate fire from Japanese destroyers.

However, the steering engine continued to operate under 2 feet (610 mm) of water; and the destroyer was able to maintain her station in column and return to Surabaya the next morning.

Responsibility for the destruction of the ship was given to naval authorities ashore, and Stewart's last crew members left the embattled port on the afternoon of 22 February.

Subsequently, demolition charges were set off within the ship, a Japanese bomb hit amidships further damaged her, and before the port was evacuated on 2 March, the drydock containing her was scuttled.

On 23 August 1944, under command of Lieutenant Tomoyoshi Yoshima, she operated in consort with the anti-submarine vessel CD-22, which sank Harder with all hands, using depth charges, although PB-102 was not directly involved in this action.

On 28 April 1945, still under control of the Southwest Area Fleet, she was bombed and damaged by United States Army aircraft at Mokpo, Korea.

On the trip home, her engines gave out near Guam, and she arrived at San Francisco, California in early March 1946 at the end of a towline.

[38] In August 2024, the wreck, remarkably intact, was found by autonomous drones, resting 3,500 feet beneath the ocean surface off the coast of San Francisco.

A statement read, "This level of preservation is exceptional for a vessel of its age and makes it potentially one of the best-preserved examples of a US Navy ‘fourstacker’ destroyer known to exist.