capsizing was now an imminent danger. At 13:33, in a desperate attempt to keep the ship from capsizing, Yamatos damage control team counter-flooded both starboard engine and boiler rooms. This mitigated the danger but also drowned the several hundred crew members crewing those stations, who were given no notice that their compartments were about to fill with water. The loss of the starboard engines, plus the weight of the water, caused Yamato to slow to about . At that same moment, the Americans launched another 110 aircraft from Task Group 58. Twenty Avengers made a new torpedo run from 60 degrees to port. Yamato started a sharp turn to port, but three torpedoes ripped into her port side amidships, jamming her auxiliary rudder in position hard port. With Yamato proceeding more slowly and therefore being more accessible to target, U.S. torpedo aircraft concentrated on hitting her rudder and stern with torpedoes to affect her steering ability, which they succeeded in doing. At 14:02, after being informed that the ship could no longer steer and was sinking, Admiral Itō ordered the mission canceled, the crew to abandon the ship and the remaining ships to begin rescuing survivors. Yamato communicated this message to the other surviving ships by signal flag because her radios had been destroyed. Admiral Itō, along with Captain Kōsaku Aruga, who commanded Yamato for the battle, refused to abandon ship, with Itō retiring to the flag cabin while Aruga tied himself to the binnacle. As the order to abandon the ship was issued after the ship began to capsize, many of her crew were trapped. American aircraft continued to attack Yamato during this period, and she suffered several more torpedo hits. At 14:20, Yamato capsized completely and began to sink (). At 14:23, she suddenly blew up with an explosion so large that it was reportedly heard and seen away in Kagoshima and sent up a mushroom-shaped cloud almost into the air. Japanese survivor Mitsuru Yoshida said that her large explosion downed several U.S. planes observing her end. The explosion is believed to have occurred when the fires ignited by bomb hits reached the main magazines. Attempting to make it back to port, Japanese destroyer was bombed and sunk with no survivors by U.S. aircraft. The Japanese destroyer was also crippled by a U.S. carrier aircraft attack during the battle and had to be scuttled by other, relatively undamaged