the two British ships were destroyed by gunfire shortly before noon 1 March 1942, Pope found temporary refuge in a rain squall. Although the Japanese cruisers were evaded by a course change within the squall, Pope was rediscovered by aircraft from after she emerged from the squall. After the destroyer's single 3-inch anti-aircraft gun failed, one of six dive-bombers scored a near miss which wrecked the port engine shaft and started flooding from damaged hull plating. Flooding worsened as Pope maneuvered to evade six more bombers, and only one crewman was lost as the crew boarded life rafts when flooding could no longer be controlled. Pope remained afloat long enough to be sunk about 2pm by the sixth salvo of a Japanese cruiser arriving on the scene. This was to be the start of a long, almost 60 hour ordeal for the men in the water, as the survivors from Pope would not be rescued until almost midnight on 3 March by the Japanese destroyer . The survivors from Encounter and Exeter were to be more fortunate, as those that were not rescued right after the battle on 1 March by the destroyer Inazuma, were rescued the following day by the Japanese destroyer , who picked up the last 400 odd survivors from those two ships on 2 March. These survivors had been adrift for about 22 hours in rafts and life jackets, or clinging to floats, many coated in oil, and some blinded. This humanitarian decision by Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Kudō placed Ikazuchi at risk of attack, and it interfered with her fighting ability, due to the sheer load of rescued sailors. The action was later the subject of several books and articles and a 2007 TV programme. Pope was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 May 1942. She received two battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation for her World War II service. The wreck of USS Pope was located and identified in December 2008 by the dive vessel MV Empress, approximately from the wreck of HMS Exeter, which Empress discovered in 2007. Unfortunately commercial salvage divers had discovered Pope previously and save for a skeleton, little now remains of her wreck. With her location/identification now being finally confirmed, all ships lost during the Battle of the Java Sea and subsequent engagements have now been discovered/located and positively identified. See also Richard Antrim, executive officer of