’ only major surface vessel sunk with no survivors’
Well the Hood came close with only three.
It’s astonishing that the Hood had any survivors in view of the main magazines being hit.
HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth were lost with all hands. So was SMS Scharnhorst 5 weeks later.
The following is in part from the history of PIEDMONT...
On the morning of 10 November, while anchored in Seeadler Harbor, Piedmont heard two explosions to port. Mount Hood (AE-11), lying about 3,500 yards away, had blown up. No trace of Mount Hood remained. Between Mount Hood and Piedmont, Mindanao (ARG-3) was anchored and took terrible punishment from the explosion. Fire and rescue parties were immediately dispatched from Piedmont to Mindanao and ships alongside her. Though Piedmont suffered only superficial damage from the explosion, numerous 5ineh projectiles and steel fragments flew over Mindanao and landed on Piedmont's decks and superstructure, most of them ricoehetting off. One man suffered fatal injuries from a direct hit by the base of a 5-inch shell. One 250 pound aerial bomb penetrated the movie locker on the boat deek while another pierced the forecastle and plowed through a tier of bunks. Fortunately neither bomb exploded and remarkably enough, personnel in both compartments escaped injury.