Conditions in the harbor had deteriorated badly by 15:45, when "Memphis" sighted an approaching wave of yellow water stretching along the entire horizon. By 16:00, the wave was closer, had turned ochre in color, and had reached about in height; at the same time, "Memphis" was rolling 45°, so heavily that large amounts of water cascaded into the ship via her gun ports and water even was entering the ship via ventilators above the waterline. By 16:25, water began to enter the ship via her funnels, above the waterline, putting out the fires in her boilers and preventing her from raising enough steam to get underway. She began to strike the rocky harbor bottom at 16:40, damaging her propellers just as she was raising enough steam to begin moving, and her engines lost steam pressure. At about this time, the giant wave "Memphis" had seen approaching over the past hour arrived; she rolled into a deep trough and was struck immediately by three very large waves in rapid succession, the highest of them estimated by the crew to have been in height, completely swamping her except for her highest points, and washing crewmen overboard. The waves rolled her heavily, caused her to strike the harbor bottom, then pushed her to the beach away. By 17:00, she had been driven under cliffs along the coast of the harbor and was resting on the harbor bottom. She was battered into a complete wreck in 90 minutes. "Castine", meanwhile, managed to reach safer waters by getting underway and putting to sea through the large waves, although damaged by them and at times in danger of capsizing. "Memphis"s casualties, including a boatload of her sailors returning from shore leave in a motor launch and caught in the harbor by the huge waves, numbered 43 men dead or missing and 204 badly injured.