Torn Off At Tassafaronga: The Night USS New Orleans Almost Died
- EA Baker
- Sep 4, 2025
- 4 min read
It has been 115 days since the start of the Guadalcanal campaign. The supply problem for the Japanese remains, leading to the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy to clash constantly in the waters around the Solomon Islands. On this night, Task Force 67, consisting of six destroyers, four heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser, sailed into Iron Bottom Sound to intercept a Japanese force of eight destroyers attempting a supply run.
USS New Orleans was in formation behind the four vanguard destroyers consisting of USS Fletcher (DD-445), USS Perkins (DD-377), USS Maury (DD-401), and USS Drayton (DD-366). Leading the cruisers were USS Minneapolis (CA-36) with USS New Orleans (CA-32) following. Then two forces crossed paths as so many ships had done before between Guadalcanal and Savo Island.
Radar Contacts and Hesitation
At 23:14, the destroyer USS Fletcher picked up the first radar echoes: a Japanese destroyer ahead, later known to be Takanami, with several others strung out behind her. Fletcher’s captain, Commander William Cole, requested immediate permission to fire torpedoes. Minutes ticked by with no answer. Rear Admiral Carleton Wright, cautious in his flagship Minneapolis, hesitated. Cole pressed again, insisting the range was good. By the time the order came, the targets had slipped out of the perfect angle. At 23:20, Fletcher and two of her sister destroyers unleashed a spread of torpedoes, but the chance for a decisive opening had already passed.
The First Salvos
A minute later, Wright gave the signal to open fire. Minneapolis’s guns roared, followed in succession by New Orleans, Pensacola, Honolulu, and Northampton. Star shells burst overhead, lighting the sea in a ghostly glow. Takanami was hammered almost immediately, set ablaze by the concentrated barrage. She managed to get her torpedoes away before being reduced to a wreck, burning furiously against the black Pacific sky. But while the Americans pummeled the doomed destroyer, Admiral Raizō Tanaka’s column was already maneuvering.
The Long Lances Strike
Japanese “Long Lance” torpedoes—powerful, oxygen-fueled weapons with unmatched range and punch—fanned out toward the American column. At 23:27, two of them slammed into USS Minneapolis, ripping open her forward tanks and leaving her bow grotesquely bent downward. Fires raged, steam hissed, and steering was lost. Thirty-seven sailors died in the instant.
Seconds later, disaster struck USS New Orleans. A torpedo ripped into her forward magazines. In an instant, everything forward of her second turret was gone. The entire bow sheared off, twisted briefly alongside her hull, then tore free and sank into the dark. Everyone stationed in her forward turrets was lost. The blast killed 183 men and left the ship nearly blind and crippled.
If you want to learn more about this battle, I highly recommend this podcast episode:
Against All Odds
Most ships that lose their bow don’t make it home. But thanks to her crew and some ingenuity, she was able to limp back to repairs. Navigator Lieutenant Commander Oliver F. Naquin, later awarded the Bronze Star, helped guide her battered hull into Tulagi Harbor. There, the crew turned desperation into invention. Coconut logs, cut from the shore, were hauled aboard and fitted into place, serving as makeshift bulkheads where steel should have been. What nature provided, the sailors pressed into service, keeping their cruiser afloat. Still, New Orleans could not sail like any normal ship. Her bow was gone, her hull open to the sea. In an almost surreal maneuver, she was steered stern-first out of the harbor.
A Backwards Marathon
Over the weeks that followed, the cruiser clawed her way across the Pacific, backward. Nearly 1,800 miles separated Tulagi from safety, and New Orleans made that trek stern-first, creeping first toward Sydney for emergency work, then across the ocean again to reach an American yard for full reconstruction. In time, she was fitted with a new welded bow, reborn for the fight.
Now, eighty-three years later, the story took a new turn. In July 2025, the research vessel Nautilus found the long-lost bow of New Orleans, resting deep in Ironbottom Sound more than 2,000 feet below. Despite decades of salt and silence, the wreck still bore telltale signs, hull plating, and anchor fittings that confirmed her identity.
Now, her broken steel has become a reef. Corals and sea stars thread through the wreckage, marine life making a home of what was once a proud warship’s forward end. Yet for all the life she shelters now, the bow is also a tomb. A solemn reminder of the men lost in that furious night battle, and of the crew who, against all odds, brought their ship home.
Watch the footage of the bow’s discovery below:
If you're interested in this battle, the second installment of Jeffery R. Cox's series on the Guadalcanal Campaign covers the Battle of Tassafaronga. Check it out below:
Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign November 1942–March 1943
Between November 1942 and March 1943, the Solomon Islands became the stage for one of World War II’s most brutal and decisive campaigns. In Blazing Star, Setting Sun, Jeffrey R. Cox takes readers deep into the chaos and intensity of the Guadalcanal-Solomons conflict, where the fate of the Pacific hung in the balance.
Naval fleets clashed in deadly night battles, supply convoys ran the gauntlet of enemy fire, and the air above the islands was a constant battlefield of dogfights and bombing raids. On land, Marines and soldiers fought through impenetrable jungle, disease, and exhaustion to hold critical positions, while commanders on both sides made decisions that would echo across the war.
Cox’s narrative captures not only the grand strategy and tactical maneuvers of admirals and generals but also the grit, bravery, and ingenuity of the men who endured unimaginable conditions. From the deadly night of Tassafaronga to the relentless struggle for Henderson Field, every page brings the tension, heroism, and sacrifice of this pivotal campaign into sharp relief.
For readers of military history, naval warfare, and World War II narratives, Blazing Star, Setting Sun is a vivid, meticulously researched journey into the heart of the Pacific theater.
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