What is this picture?

I ask, of what is this picture?

In a post last year, I identified it with the following caption:

The US destroyer Pope sinking by the stern in the Java Sea March 1, 1942 under gunfire from the Japanese cruisers Ashigara and Myoko. Note the four stacks, characteristic of the World War I-era class of destroyers of which Pope was a member. Taken from the Japanese cruiser Ashigara, who filmed the action.

This particular picture, however, has always been the subject of some controversy. There has always been a theory that this picture does not show the Pope, but instead the US destroyer Edsall. Donald M. Kehn, Jr., takes this view in his new book A Blue Sea of Blood: Deciphering the Mysterious Fate of the USS Edsall.

The Edsall was returning to Tjilatjap, Java (pronounced "Chilachap") after her escort mission of the tender Langley ended in disaster. She never reached Tjilatjap and was never heard from again.

It was later determined that the Edsall was attacked in the Indian Ocean south of Java by the surface escorts of the Imperial Japanese Carrier Striking Force Kido Butai - battleships Hiei and Kirishima, heavy aircraft cruisers Tone and Chikuma -- and sunk by gunfire with all hands. One old destroyer against two modern battleships and two modern cruisers.

The Japanese propaganda film from which this picture was taken (and modified) identified the ship as the "HMS Pope." Obviously incorrect, but the Pope had been sunk with two British ships, the heavy cruiser Exeter and the destroyer Encounter, when she was chased down by seaplanes, an aircraft carrier and four heavy cruisers.

Kehn has long argued that this is a picture of the Edsall. Based on my first skim of the section of his book discussing this picture, I am not so convinced, but I haven't dived deeply into it yet. Any confusion is understandable - the Pope and Edsall sank under similar circumstances and both were sister ships.

I am anxious to dig further into this book. Kehn is performing a valuable service to history in highlighting the fate of the Edsall, which has been largely obscured by the other disasters occuring in the Far East at that time.