Even after a “Chinese Gangway Landing” at 60 knots whereby she lost use of her major radar and suffered a damaging hit from a Japanese shell, she fought on, valiantly, and actually passed through the formation of enemy ships.
It was only by the combined might of the winds and the seas that Spence was silenced and finally laid to rest—honorably buried at sea as is befitting a brave and rugged seaman!
— Final epitaph by Rear Admiral Henry A. Armstrong
