White Plains also fired her single 5-inch gun at one of the enemy heavy cruisers, most likely Chokai. Samuel B. Roberts fought Chokai as well, and at 0859 a secondary explosion erupted from the enemy vessel, possibly as some of her torpedoes cooked off. The blast knocked out her engines and rudder, and she sheered out of line. The other enemy cruisers continued firing and a salvo splashed barely 200 yards astern of "Kitkun Bay". Haguro, which took Chikuma's place in position, and Tone appeared to outdistance the rest of the Japanese ships and drew up toward "Kitkun Bay". The enemy ships dropped the range until they closed on "Kitkun Bay"s port beam at 12,000 yards, and their next salvo straddled the carrier as their shells splashed on both sides.