On 23 August, during "Stringham"s second run to Guadalcanal, a torpedo passed her close astern; and she immediately charged to the attack. She dropped 11 depth charges; forced the submarine to broach; and then lost contact. Although her crew thought at the time they had sunk the submarine, subsequent checking failed to verify their victory. Not long after her scrape with the submarine, "Stringham" was ordered out to join the group of ships attempting to tow the destroyer , torpedoed the previous evening, into Tulagi. The imminence of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, however, forced that weak formation to abandon "Blue" and seek shelter. Accordingly, "Blue" sank at 2223 on 23 August. "Stringham" resumed her supply runs in the Solomons until 5 October, when she got underway from New Caledonia to return to the California coast.