At Lieutenant Beaudett's request, Commander Plomer decided to try to knock out a new battery of 76-mm guns which had only recently been mounted near the tip of Amgak, as these were the guns that had been shelling the Sok-to-junks. Weighing anchor, Cayuga shifted to a position nearer Anigak and prepared to fire.

Orders were given to prepare a buoy in case it became necessary to slip the anchor under heavy fire, and while this was being done Cayuga fired her first ranging shots. Before she had time to fire again there was a whistling noise and three shells, landing in a tight pattern, threw up columns of water 200 yards astern. The ship replied with two quick broadsides before the next enemy salvo arrived. Again the shells fell astern, but this time only 100 yards away. this was getting too close altogether, and orders were given to slip the cable and retire with all despatch. Cayuga, because of her position had only two alternatives: close the range and hope to knock out the batteries before she herself was stopped, or steam stem-first out of sight around the southern tip of Sok-to. Cayuga wisely chose the latter course, and as she got under way another enemy salvo straddled her, two round.s short and one over. The "over" threw up water only 60 feet from the bridge. While all this was going on, heavier shells, thought to have been 105-mm were also falling around the ship, though not with the deadly accuracy of the 76's. Not until Cayuga had disappeared "blunt end first" around the southern tip of Sok-to did these heavier guns cease fire.

The entire action lasted only nineteen minutes, but they were a busy nineteen minutes for both sides. Cayuga fired 155 rounds and the enemy some 100. The destroyer observed several hits in the target area but did not claim to have knocked out any of the enemy guns. The shore batteries did very well, for though the destroyer escaped with the loss of an anchor, two shackles of cable and a motor cutter which was towed under during the withdrawal, it was only by the greatest of good fortune that she was not hit several times. The reason Cayuga had been trapped in such an awkward spot was that accurate shooting, as displayed by the 76's on Amgak, was virtually unknown on the west coast. Ships operating on the east coast had long been accustomed to accurate shore battery fire, but this was the first time a west coast ship had encountered it.

After her skirmish with the enemy, Cayuga returned Lieutenant Beaudette to his island and picked up Lieutenant Saxon and the motor cutter at Chodo. Shortly thereafter she was relieved by HMS St. Brides Bay who took over the inshore patrol. After spending a quiet night patrolling to seaward above the 39th parallel, Cayuga set out for Sasebo where she arrived late on 1 November to complete, as the Commanding Officer remarked, "a patrol of 'full employment' ."