listed heavily; and a third was riding low in the water. While Balao was maneuvering into position for a second attack, the convoy's escorts fired on her, forcing the submarine to dive. Balao lost contact with the convoy and failed in her attempts to reach Silversides to exchange information. She later learned, however, that her consort sank three of the seven ships. Balao stopped at Tulagi to refuel and to load torpedoes. On 28 October, she was assigned to a scouting line south of Truk. On 4 November, the submarine made a submerged approach to a two-ship convoy, but the six torpedoes that she fired missed their marks. Balao then shifted to the Truk-New Hanover route where she conducted an uneventful patrol until 7 November, when she headed for Milne Bay, New Guinea, for refit alongside Fulton. Third patrol, December 1943 – January 1944 Underway again on 6 December, Balao spent two days in training exercises and practice approaches with Ethan as her target. On 13 December, the submarine conducted communication and identification tests with friendly search planes and then began her patrol. No surface contacts came during the first two weeks, but her luck changed on 27 December when two s and two s crossed her track. The four warships maneuvered in a radical zigzag plan at a speed of , passing the submarine so rapidly that she only managed a shot at the second cruiser. Balao fired four torpedoes which overran their target. While rigging for depth charges, she heard three explosions, but upon surfacing, could see no sign of damage. The warships were long gone at their high speed. Balao began the year 1944 with a contact that turned out to be a very large steamer and two escorts. The weather impeded her efforts to close the convoy, but also offered protection when a rain squall covered Balao while she fired six torpedoes. The submarine counted three explosions and then went deep to wait out the inevitable depth charge attack by the escorts. When Balao surfaced the next morning, the convoy had disappeared. Certain that the freighter had been sunk, Balao resumed her patrol of the shipping lanes. She later sighted a convoy of a damaged freighter and two escorts and moved in for an attack only to discover that the freighter was her target of 1 January. The escorts drove Balao off, and on 7 January,