According to Dick keresey in PT-105, there was "one garbled transmission" about destroyers running back down the strait, right after he had fired his torpedos at them. He said that the Jap DDs had fled "at flank speed" in the direction of the next division - Kennedy's.
He also said that it was a very black night and that everyone was exhausted on all the boats.
I don't care very much for JFK - but he was in combat, something that I respect and I don't listen to carping from people that were nowhere near that battle, that night.
The real scandal wasn't 109 being lost; It was the failure of anyone to bother looking for any survivors. The Navy was infamous for its negligence in searching for its sailors left in the water after actions. See the Battle of Savo Island or the Battle of Samar, or the loss of the USS Indianapolis.
Read the books !
They’re based on the Naval records.