Despite a gash in her side, she was considered seaworthy and ordered to proceed under cover of darkness to Efate, New Hebrides, escorted by the minesweeper "Hovey". Apparently unaware of the order because her radios had been disabled, her commanding officer, Lt. Comdr. William W. Graham Jr., decided to steam to Sydney, Australia, for immediate repairs from the destroyer tender . Unnoticed by her own ships, "Jarvis" departed Tulagi at midnight on 9 August and moved slowly westward through "Ironbottom Sound" and between Savo Island and Cape Esperance. At 0134 she passed northward of Rear Admiral Mikawa's cruisers, steaming to meet the Americans at the Battle of Savo Island. Mistaking her for a cruiser of the New Zealand "Achilles" class, they fired torpedoes, and the destroyer later engaged her briefly, all without effect.