followed by all of the trailing cruisers. Moments later a torpedo fired from Haguro stuck the Dutch destroyer , breaking her in half and sinking her almost immediately. Perth laid a smoke screen to protect Exeter and the Allied ships sorted themselves into separate groups as they attempted to disengage. Exeter was escorted by one Dutch and all three British destroyers in one group and the other cruisers and the American destroyers formed the other group. The Japanese did not initially press their pursuit as they manoeuvered to use their torpedoes against the crippled Exeter, which could only make , and her escorts. The Japanese began launching torpedoes beginning at 17:20 at ranges of , but they all missed. For some reason, two Japanese destroyers continued to close before firing their torpedoes at and Encounter and Electra pulled out of line to counter-attack. They engaged and at close range as they closed. Asagumo was damaged by Electra, but the Japanese ship sank the British destroyer at 17:46. Meanwhile, the Exeter continued south to Surabaya, escorted by Encounter and the Dutch destroyer . Doorman's repeated, unsuccessful, and ultimately fatal attempts to reach the transports concentrated the Japanese on the task of protecting the transports and allowed the damaged British cruiser to reach harbour. Second Battle of the Java Sea The following day, after making temporary repairs and refuelling, the Exeter, escorted by Encounter and the American destroyer , was ordered to steam to Colombo, via the Sunda Strait. They departed on the evening of 28 February, but they were intercepted by the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi, Haguro, , and , and by the destroyers , , , and on the morning of 1 March. At about 0800, the British ships spotted two of the Japanese cruisers, one of which launched its spotting floatplanes. Two others were seen closing in, and both launched their aircraft before opening fire at about 09:30. The Allied ships laid smoke and turned away to the east with the Japanese to their north and south. Exeter was able to reach a speed of before the first hit on her detonated in her 'A', or forward, boiler room and catastrophically knocked out all power around 11:20. Now defenseless as no guns could train or traverse, and wanting to save as many lives as he could, and to avoid the ship's capture by the Japanese forces, Captain Gordon ordered