On 2 August 1964, the destroyer USS "Maddox" was in the Gulf of Tonkin, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast. The US said that three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the destroyer. The Maddox fired back and damaged the three torpedo boats. The US then claimed that two days later, the torpedo boats again attacked the "Maddox" and the destroyer USS "Turner Joy". In this second attack the US ships did not actually see the torpedo boats, but said they had found them using the ship's radar.