It was an awesome display of shot and shell, terrifying to those involved in it, and no one seemed more terrified than Abe. Hiei was damaged, Abe’s chief of staff lay dead, and he himself was wounded. At 2 a.m., Abe canceled the bombardment mission and ordered his ships to withdraw. Abe’s bosses agreed. At 2 a.m., Kirishima radioed Truk a report of a’severe mixed battle’ in which both sides suffered damage. At 3:44, Yamamoto radioed back. The reinforcement of Guadalcanal and the bombardment were postponed.

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As Hiei’s signalmen began flashing lights across the water, Captain Gilbert C. Hoover of Helena was trying to contact anyone senior by radio. He rapidly discovered that he was the ranking officer of a shattered task force. At 2:26 a.m., he barked orders for the American ships to withdraw.

Now both sides battled for salvage and survival. At 3 a.m., Asagumo and Murasame found Yudachi lying motionless with fires raging forward. The ship was beyond saving, so the crew was removed. Yet Yudachi did not sink.

Hiei got some help, too. Five destroyers joined the big ship. Crewmen put out fires, but Hiei’s rudder was jammed at full right. Flooding prevented access to damaged equipment. Her skipper, Captain Masao Nishida, puzzled over the situation. Some junior officers, full of Bushido spirit, urged him to beach Hiei, shell the airfield, then send the crew ashore to join in a ground assault. While heroic, this gesture was not Nishida’s idea of sound tactics. He was convinced his ship could be saved.

At dawn, a lot of crippled ships lay drifting about Ironbottom Sound, Hiei foremost among them. At 6:18, her lookouts saw a target more than 14 miles away. Hiei trained her 14-inchers and straddled Aaron Ward. American planes distracted Hiei while the tug Bobolink dragged Aaron Ward to Tulagi Harbor by 8:30.

Portland was still circling helplessly, but she picked out Yudachi 12,500 yards off. And Portland’s guns still worked. Her sixth salvo hit Yudachi’s after magazine, and she exploded and sank.

Bobolink came to help Portland, but DuBose sent her to aid Atlanta. Portland streamed her anchor, tried engine combinations, and finally got power. Bobolink returned and shoved Portland at 2 knots to Tulagi. She arrived at 1:08 the next morning.

Atlanta lay drifting, burning and listing from 49 hits that had made her foremast topple over to port. Miraculously unhurt, Captain Jenkins organized bucket brigades to quell fires. Everyone lightened the ship by jettisoning torpedoes, ammunition and excess gear.

Atlanta was still drifting toward a Japanese-held shore. Crewmen hurled out the starboard anchor to stop the drift. The hardworking Bobolink and other vessels came to help. By 2 a.m. the ship had been pulled away, and many oil-covered Americans had been hauled out of the water.

Atlanta was clearly doomed. Halsey gave Jenkins discretion to act, and at 8:15 p.m. demolition charges went off and Atlanta sank. Her crew joined 1,500 other shipwrecked Americans at Lunga Point.

Other American ships were steaming south, exhausted, the remains of Callaghan’s task force, Hoover in charge. The force suffered another tragedy on the way home. The cruiser Juneau was torpedoed and sank, going down with 683 sailors. They were additional casualties in a battle that cost 170 from Atlanta, 165 from Barton and 145 from Monssen; two American cruisers and four destroyers–a grand total of 1,439 American sailors lost, including two admirals.

Back at Ironbottom Sound, life was still hard for the Japanese, too. Hara’s Amatsukaze, riddled with hits, limped home. Hiei was fighting for her life and facing repeated air attacks.

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