S.S. Emidio Memorial
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
The wreckage of the S.S. Emidio floated to north where it crashed on the rocks off of Crescent City. It wasn't scrapped until the 1950s.
The S.S. Emidio Memorial
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The S.S. Emidio was built in 1921 in Alameda, California for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which became Mobil Oil. On December 20, the Emidio was sailing from Seattle to San Pedro, California when the Japanese submarine spotted it 200 miles north of San Francisco in the vicinity of Cape Mendocino. The submarine attacked the Emidio using its 14-cm deck gun and fired a torpedo as well. The tanker's captain sent out an SOS and raised a white flag, then ordered the crew to abandon ship. The Japanese ignored the flag and continued to attack. Three crewmen were killed while lowering a lifeboat, and when the torpedo hit (in the engine room), two engineers were killed. A Catalina Flying Boat attacked the sub with depth charges but by that time it had dived and was too deep to be hit. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter eventually rescued 31 crew members who managed to row for 16 hours to Humboldt Bay.
Sources
Mann, Cody. "Remembering the S.S. Emdio." Del Norte Triplicate. August 10, 2019. https://www.triplicate.com/news_paid/remembering-the-s-s-emidio/article_29b21a78-be5b-11e9-ab79-0bf4fe0e07cb.html.
"S.S. Emidio, Historical Landmark." California Office of Historic Preservation. Accessed October 8, 2019. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/497.
"S.S. Emidio." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed October 8, 2019. https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=113247.
Militarymuseum.org, via The Historical Marker Database
The Historical Marker Database