At approximately 2:17, additional torpedoes hit the port side.
The list passed roughly 15 degrees and kept increasing.
At that angle, ordinary shipboard work becomes difficult.
Decks are no longer level.
Loose equipment moves.
Men struggle to stand.
Machinery designed to operate upright may fail.
Gun mounts lose useful firing arcs.
Water enters openings that normally remain above the sea.
The problem accelerates.
As the port side sinks lower, more water can enter.
As the starboard side rises, parts of the underwater protection system come out of the sea and become exposed.
The ship moves closer to the angle from which recovery is impossible.
Yamato was approaching that point.
Captain Aruga received the recommendation nobody wanted to make
The executive officer reported that damage-control officers were dead and that counter-flooding could no longer stop the list.
The ship should be abandoned.
At the same time, Yamato's communications had largely failed.
Vice Admiral Ito used flag signals to cancel the operation and release surviving escorts from the mission.
The strategic goal was over.
Yamato would never reach Okinawa.
The destroyers were free to save themselves if they could.
For thousands of sailors aboard the battleship, however, the cancellation came too late.
A ship more than 860 feet long does not evacuate quickly.
The list was already severe.
Aircraft were still overhead.
Fires were burning.
Many men were below decks.
Some had no clear path outside.
The abandonment order therefore did not mean thousands of men calmly climbed into lifeboats.
There was no time for that.
Yamato began to roll
By approximately 2:08 p.m., the capsize was clearly underway.
The ship continued leaning to port.
The angle increased.
Vice Admiral Ito chose not to leave.
Captain Aruga also remained aboard.
Accounts describe Ito retiring to his cabin and Aruga fastening himself near the command position, although details differ among sources.
Around them, other sailors tried to reach the water.
The starboard side rose high.
The port side disappeared.
Men jumped or fell.
Equipment tore loose.
The massive main turrets, each weighing thousands of tons, were designed to sit in armored barbettes rather than remain mechanically fixed to the hull when inverted.
The entire physical order of the ship was breaking down.
At around 2:20, Yamato's main deck was nearly vertical.
Minutes later, she rolled over.
Then came the explosion.
The magazine explosion became the final image of Yamato
At approximately 2:30 p.m., after Yamato had capsized and was sinking, one of the forward main-battery magazines detonated.
The blast was enormous.
Yamato carried ammunition for her 18.1-inch guns.
Each main shell weighed roughly as much as a small automobile.
The magazines contained a huge quantity of explosive material.
When the detonation came, the sea erupted.
A column of smoke rose thousands of feet.
American aircraft photographed the event.
NHHC states that the smoke could be seen from as far as 100 miles away.
The explosion may even have destroyed American aircraft flying nearby.
NHHC notes that it is possible more U.S. planes were knocked down by Yamato's final magazine detonation than by the battleship's antiaircraft guns.
That would be a grim final irony.
The most effective explosion produced by Yamato that afternoon came after the ship was already lost.