Furutaka in daylight. Furutaka shuttled between Kieta and Rabaul as needed to refuel and resupply through mid-September. The submarine attacked Furutaka south of New Ireland on 12 September, but did no damage. Battle of Cape Esperance So alerted, the American heavy cruisers and , and light cruisers and —all equipped with radar—and five destroyers steamed around the end of Guadalcanal to block the entrance to Savo Sound. At 22:35, Helenas radar spotted the Japanese fleet, and the Americans successfully crossed the Japanese "T". Both fleets opened fire, but Admiral Goto, thinking that he was under friendly fire, ordered a 180-degree turn that exposed each of his ships to the American broadsides. Aoba was damaged heavily, and Admiral Goto was mortally wounded on her bridge. With Aoba crippled, Captain Araki of Furutaka turned his ship out of the line of battle to engage Salt Lake City. Destroyer launched two torpedoes toward Furutaka that either missed or failed to detonate. Duncan continued firing at Furutaka until she was put out of action by numerous shell hits. At 23:54, Furutaka was hit by a torpedo that flooded her forward engine room. During the battle, about 90 shells hit Furutaka and some ignited her Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, starting fires. At 02:28 on 12 October, Furutaka sank stern first at . Captain Araki and 514 survivors were rescued by the destroyers , and . Thirty-three crewmen were killed and 110 were later counted as missing. The Americans took 115 of Furutakas crew as prisoners of war, including her Operations Officer, LtCdr. Shotaro Matsui. Most of these surviving crew were imprisoned at the Featherston prisoner of war camp in New Zealand. Furutaka was removed from navy list on 10 November 1942. Wreck The wreck of Furutaka was discovered on 25 February 2019 by the research vessel, in of water. The ship rests in two pieces with the bow broken off and lying on its port side and the rest of the ship sitting upright. References Sources External links Tabular record: CombinedFleet.com: Furutaka history (Retrieved 4 April 2016.) Gallery: US Navy Historical Center Furutaka-class cruisers Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 1925 ships World War II cruisers of Japan Shipwrecks in Ironbottom Sound Maritime incidents in October 1942 Shipwreck discoveries by Paul Allen 2019 archaeological discoveries