At 01:35 on 27 October 1942, she finally sank at approximately . Several night attacks by radar-equipped Catalinas on "Jun'yō" and "Teruzuki", knowledge of the head start the U.S. warships had in their retreat from the area, plus a critical fuel situation apparently caused the Japanese to reconsider further pursuit of the U.S. warships. After refueling near the northern Solomon Islands, the ships returned to their main base at Truk on 30 October. During the U.S. withdrawal from the battle area towards Espiritu Santo and New Caledonia, while taking evasive action from a Japanese submarine, "South Dakota" collided with destroyer , heavily damaging the destroyer. Both sides claimed victory. The Americans stated that two "Shōkaku"-class fleet carriers had been hit with bombs and eliminated. Kinkaid's summary of damage to the Japanese included hits to a battleship, three heavy cruisers, a light cruiser, and possible hits on another heavy cruiser. For their part, the Japanese asserted that they sank three American carriers, one battleship, one cruiser, one destroyer, and one "unidentified large warship". Actual American losses comprised the carrier "Hornet" and the destroyer "Porter", and damage to "Enterprise", the light cruiser "San Juan", the destroyer "Smith" and the battleship "South Dakota". The loss of "Hornet" was a severe blow for Allied forces in the South Pacific, leaving "Enterprise" as the one operational, but damaged, Allied carrier in the entire Pacific theater. As she retreated from the battle, the crew posted a sign on the flight deck: "Enterprise vs Japan". "Enterprise" received temporary repairs at New Caledonia and, although not fully restored, returned to the southern Solomons area just two weeks later to support Allied forces during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. There she played an important role in what turned out to be the decisive naval engagement in the overall campaign for Guadalcanal when her aircraft sank several Japanese warships and troop transports during the naval skirmishes around Henderson Field. The lack of carriers pressed the Americans and Japanese to deploy battleships in night operations around Guadalcanal, one of only two actions in the entire Pacific War in which battleships fought each other, with "South Dakota" again being damaged while two Japanese battleships were lost. Although the Battle of Santa Cruz was a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, it came at a high cost for their naval forces, as "Jun'yō" was the only active aircraft carrier left to challenge "Enterprise" or Henderson Field for the remainder of the Guadalcanal campaign.