Spooner died of exhaustion and malaria after his evacuation vessel was attacked by Japanese aircraft and ran aground on an uninhabited island.

Then on 5 January 1942, Vice-Admiral Layton, who had replaced Phillips, moved his headquarters to the island of Java to streamline the organization of supply convoys to the Dutch East Indies and Malaya.

[2] By the end of January, the Royal Navy had almost no real fighting strength left in Malaya, and the decision was taken to abandon Singapore in favour of Java.

Furthermore, Japanese naval and air forces operating in the seas around Malaya destroyed many of the ships that left Singapore in the final days before the surrender on 15 February.

Despite British search efforts, the stranded refugees remained on the island for two months before disease and starvation forced the survivors to surrender to the Japanese.