Log missing after this date. On 10 January 1943, with Lt. Charles E. Tilden and his crew aboard, PT 43 was damaged by a Japanese destroyer while attempting a torpedo attack in company with PT 40 and PT 112. The PT 43 fired two torpedoes at a destroyer, but excess oil in a torpedo tube, or an imperfect impulse charge caused a tremendous crimson flash as the weapon left the tube. The flare-up revealed 43's position for the Japanese; while Tilden's torpedoes missed, the PT suddenly found itself on the receiving end of accurate Japanese gunfire. The Japanese DD fired two salvos of 5-inch shells at the escaping torpedo boat, exploding a round in 43's engine room with the second salvo. Tilden ordered his crew to abandon ship as the destroyer quickly closed upon the stricken PT, spraying the sea with machine-gun fire. One man was killed and two men were missing as a result of this encounter In the meantime the 43, engines still operating, continued running unmanned at about three knots until it beached itself on the Japanese-held portion of the Guadalcanal shore. After daybreak, the boat was sighted on the beach by Ens. Bartholomew Connolly's PT 115; as Connolly cautiously approached to determine damage and rescue survivors, machine-gun fire from the shore pelted the 115, wounding a sailor in the process. A Royal New Zealand Navy corvette was called to the scene and promptly blasted the boat to pieces with gunfire before the Japanese could learn anything of real value.