unable to close with the ships because they were at a great distance. At 04:06 on 27 July, she fired a single torpedo at the Australian 2,197-gross register ton merchant ship Coolana while north of Cape Howe. The torpedo missed, so I-11 surfaced and attempted to attack Coolana with gunfire, but rough seas made targeting Coolana difficult with I-11′s deck gun. After Coolana transmitted an SOS, I-11 submerged and fired another torpedo, but it also missed, and Coolana escaped undamaged. At 05:00 on 29 July 1942, a Bristol Beaufort of the RAAF's No. 100 Squadron attacked I-11 when she was off Disaster Bay, northeast of Gabo Island, and heading south at . I-11 made a crash dive and submerged before the Beaufort, whose bomb bay doors stuck, could drop its six bombs. The Beaufort's pilot claimed a kill, but I-11 was undamaged, although her crew found numerous bomb fragments on her afterdeck after she surfaced. I-11′s lookouts sighted a convoy with several small escorts while she was on the surface in the Tasman Sea at 23:30 on 30 July 1942, and she set off in pursuit. At 02:50 on 31 July, southwest of the lighthouse at Cape Everard, she fired two torpedoes at overlapping targets and heard one explosion. The convoy′s escorts attempted a counterattack, but could not locate I-11. On 1 August 1942, I-11 reached the southernmost boundary of her patrol area at the eastern entrance to the Bass Strait and began her return voyage. She arrived at the Japanese naval base at Truk Atoll on 11 August 1942. Second war patrol While I-11 was at sea, the Guadalcanal campaign began with United States Marine Corps landings on Guadalcanal in the southeastern Solomon Islands on 7 August 1942. On 20 August 1942, she began her second war patrol, departing Truk for a patrol area in the vicinity of the Santa Cruz Islands and southeastern Solomons. While in the Coral Sea southeast of Tulagi at 04:05 on 31 August 1942, she attacked what she identified as a 15,000-ton transport escorted by a destroyer and claimed two torpedo hits. At 11:49 on 6 September 1942, I-11 was submerged northwest of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides at when she detected United States Navy Task Force 17, centered around the aircraft carrier and battleship . She penetrated the task force′s screen and identified Hornet as an "Enterprise-class" aircraft carrier. As Hornet passed