I-17 fired a shot at the vessel, forcing the captain to stop and order the crew to abandon ship. At the same time, the radio operator on board the tanker sent out an alert to the US Navy. As the crew rushed to lower the lifeboats, the submarine continued shooting at the tanker from its deck gun hitting it five times. One of the shells knocked off an unlaunched lifeboat causing its three crew members to fall into water and eventually drown in choppy seas. While the crew was disembarking the submarine stopped shooting and submerged. Two planes arrived at the scene and dropped depth charges at approximate submarine position with unknown result. After the planes left I-17 surfaced and fired a single torpedo at the tanker, hitting it in the stern. The torpedo passed through the engine room and exploded killing two out of three men still working in there. Thirty one survivors managed to get into two lifeboats and a workboat and started to row towards the shore. After nearly sixteen hours at sea they finally reached Blunts Reef lightship in Humboldt Bay. There they were picked up by the cutter and taken to Eureka. Emidio was left by the crew in the sinking condition with her stern submerged, however, the tanker managed to stay afloat and slowly drifted up the coast of California until it ran aground on the rocks off Crescent City in early January 1942. The wreck eventually broke into two, with the bow section drifting into the harbor, where it laid until scrapped in 1959. The remainder of the hull is still in the harbor and is marked by a commemorative plaque. The site of the sinking of Emidio has been declared a California Historical Landmark #497. Awards Louis George Finch, able seaman aboard SS Emidio was given the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal by the president of the United States. This was for his extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety in voluntarily going into the sea to lighten an overload lifeboat. He stayed in water for one and half hours till another lifeboat came. For the president the award was given by Admiral Emory S. Land. References Other sources 1921 ships Tankers of the United States World War II tankers of the United States Ships of ExxonMobil Maritime incidents in December 1941 Ships sunk by Japanese submarines World War II shipwrecks