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Just before 4 o'clock the U. S. S. Porter arrived. At 9 the British ships Jessamine and Tamarisk appeared on the scene. But the sea was rough, the wind high, and it was not until 2:30 a. m. that a hawser was made fast and the Tamarisk started towing the Cassin. An hour later the hawser parted. The Tamarisk, two trawlers and a tug worked until morning, attempting to get the vessel in tow again. But it was not until 10:37 a. m. that a towing line from the Snowdrop was made fast, and the Cassin taken to port.

Thirty-five feet of the stern was blown off. Living compartments and store-rooms in the after part of the ship were wrecked or gone. The equivalent of 850 pounds of TNT, in torpedo and depth-charges, had exploded on the Cassin's fantail. Twenty-odd men were in the wrecked living compartments when the torpedo exploded. Their escape was almost miraculous. Dazed by the shock, they automatically closed water-tight doors and performed other emergency duties, but could never tell just how they did it or got away. All declared that from the instant of the explosion they were absolutely blinded. Forty-five members of the crew, including the chief petty officers, lost all their belongings except the clothes they had on. But that did not bother them. The ship was saved, they were still alive, and that was happiness enough.