Sterett tore into the destroyer with her guns and launched two torpedoes. Before the Japanese destroyer could fire a single shot at Sterett, she was lifted from the water by the exploding torpedoes and rapidly settled to the floor of "Ironbottom Sound". By this time, the Sterett had undergone a brutal beating from Hiei and various other enemy ships. Author and torpedo commander of the USS Sterret Thomas O McWhorter wrote in the book Stand and Fight: The Sterett took eleven direct hits, all on her port side, all above the waterline, and sustained severe shrapnel damage from many near misses. Her after deck house and number three gun, an unshielded open mount back aft, were engulfed by flames that brightly illuminated the flag on the small ship's mainmast truck. Her after handling rooms were set afire, causing powder in the ready service storage to ignite ... Twenty-eight men were dead, another thirteen seriously wounded. Four leaped overboard to extinguish their burning clothes. Those who stayed aboard and saved the ship braved burning compartments to turn flood valves and remove wounded from impossible places. They defied smoke to soak powder, grid bulkheads, patch holes, fix pumps, run hoses, and keep electricity flowing. They allowed their hands to melt while connected superheated brass hose couplings to fight fires. At 02:30, with the Japanese retiring toward Savo Island, Sterett, her after guns and starboard torpedo tubes out of commission, began to withdraw. She had difficulty overtaking the rest of her force because of her damaged steering gear and the necessity to reduce speed periodically to control the blaze on her after deck. By dawn, she was back in formation on the starboard quarter of the San Francisco. Before heading for Espiritu Santo on the 13th, she delivered her parting shot by depth-charging a sound contact, possibly the submarine which, about an hour later, would sink the . Sterett arrived at Espiritu Santo on 14 November, underwent emergency repairs, and departed from Espiritu Santo on 18 November, arriving in Nouméa, New Caledonia on 20 November. On 24 November, she departed for Pearl Harbour, arriving there on 4 December. She then steamed into San Francisco Bay on 11 December and entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, where she remained for two months. Sterett steamed from San Francisco on 10 February 1943, joined the at Pearl Harbor, and together they reached Espiritu Santo on 3