National Museum of the U.S. Navy

Guadalcanal:  Naval Battles:  Battle of Cape Esperance

On the night of October 11, 1942, a cruiser-destroyer task force led by Rear Admiral Norman Scott, USN, intercepted a similar Japanese Navy unit, resulting in the Battle of Cape Esperance.   The Japanese lost the heavy cruiser Furutaka and destroyer Fubuki, with two more destroyers, Natsugumo and Murakumo, sunk by American air-attacks the following day.   U.S. Navy destroyer USS Duncan (DD-485) was the only loss from Scott's Task Force Group 64.2.  This victory was the U.S. Navy's first of the Guadalcanal Campaign.   

Image:  80-G-40069:  USS Boise (CL-47), arrives at Philadelphia Navy Yard for damage repairs received during the Battle of Cape Esperance, November 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.