89 torpedoes at Trinity at shortly after 0630. The sound man aboard I-123 reported hearing one torpedo hit Trinity, but in fact all four torpedoes missed, although Trinity sighted three of them and reported the attack. Alden immediately reversed course in the predawn darkness and searched for I-123, made sound contact, and conducted a brief depth charge attack at 06:41 before losing contact with I-123 and abandoning the search. I-123 escaped unscathed. "Mindful of leaving (the) convoy unprotected" if she continued to seek out the submarine, Alden returned to her screening station and arrived at Port Darwin without further incident. At 1620 that afternoon, though, while she was taking on fuel from the tanker British Sailor, Alden received orders to accompany Edsall to the scene of the above attack. Underway at 1641, leaving a third of her crew behind to break out stores on board Black Hawk, Alden rushed to the scene, finding already dropping depth charges. Alden and Edsall patrolled one area in proximity of the submarine contact, while two Australian ships patrolled another. Alden developed a good contact early the following morning (21 January) and dropped six charges, with no result. A plane from reported carrying out an attack on a submarine a short time later, and Alden steamed to the scene. Seeing oil still rising, she attacked, expending the rest of her depth charges in the tracks. Bringing up more charges from below, the destroyer carried out another attack soon afterward. Then, having expended her last charge, Alden returned to Port Darwin. Edsall and the Australian ships, accompanied by a PBY Catalina, returned to the scene but were unable to locate the slick, last seen by Alden, because of a heavy rain squall in the vicinity. A short time later, it was determined that the victim of the earlier attack by Edsall and was , a large Japanese mine-laying submarine had laid 27 mines near Darwin that had already sunk three Allied merchantmen. Clearing Darwin on 3 February, Alden sailed with a convoy, bound for Java. Fueling from Trinity en route, the destroyer reached Tjilatjap, on the south coast of Java, late on the afternoon of 10 February. Getting underway late the following day, Alden joined Paul Jones and on the morning of 12 February, and convoyed the Briton to the port of Koepang, Timor. The convoy arrived on 16 February, with the destroyer returning to Tjilatjap