equipped with a home-made depth charge rack constructed by the ship's crew, "tulsa" now boasted an antisubmarine capacity and began escorting merchantmen along the south coast of java to tjilatjap, the only port on the island still out of reach of japanese bombers. while engaged on convoy duty in late february, "tulsa" received orders to proceed to a point to the south of java. "en route", she learned that her mission included searching for survivors of the seaplane tender , sunk on 26 february 1942. when she arrived at the scene, however, she found only traces of wreckage, but no survivors. unbeknownst to "tulsa", "langley"s survivors had already been rescued by and .