then en route to relieve their beleaguered comrades fighting on the island. Battle was given at 01:50. At about 02:20 Monssen, forced to rely on radio information and optics, was spotlighted, hit by some 39 shells, including three of battleship caliber, and reduced to a burning hulk. Twenty minutes later, completely immobilized in all departments, the ship was ordered abandoned. After daybreak Monssen was still afire. C. C. Storey, BM2c, L. F. Sturgeon, GM2c, and J. G. Hughes F1c, climbed back into the inferno and rescued eight men still aboard and alive, five of whom lived after reaching land. The survivors, 40 percent of the crew, were picked up at about 08:00 and taken to Guadalcanal. The ship herself continued to blaze until early afternoon, when she sank. Monssen was awarded four battle stars for World War II service. Wreck discovery In 1992, an expedition headed by oceanographer Robert Ballard found the wreck of Monssen and other ships sunk during the Solomon Islands battles. The wreck lies upright on the bottom of the sound, with the gun turrets still trained out to the starboard side as they had been in combat. Notes References External links USS Monssen website at Destroyer History Foundation history.navy.mil: USS Monssen navsource.org: USS Monssen hazegray.org: USS Monssen USS Monssen Roll of Honor World War II destroyers of the United States Ships built in Bremerton, Washington Shipwrecks in Ironbottom Sound 1940 ships Gleaves-class destroyers of the United States Navy Maritime incidents in November 1942 1992 archaeological discoveries