This long-range submarine cruiser spent the early months of the war in the eastern Pacific and was the first Axis ship to shell the continental United States.

She later supported the Imperial Japanese Army in fighting around the Solomon Islands and remained active in the southwest Pacific until she was sunk in August 1943.

The 6,912-ton General Petroleum tanker SS Emidio was sailing in ballast from Seattle, Washington en route to San Pedro, California.

The tanker drifted north onto rocks off Crescent City, California where the wreck remained until scrapped in 1959.

[3] At night on 19 February 1942, I-17 covertly landed on Point Loma, San Diego to determine her position after arriving from Kwajalein Atoll.

[4] On 23 February, I-17 achieved some notability as the first Axis ship to shell the United States mainland in an incident known as the Bombardment of Ellwood.

A few minutes after 7 pm, she surfaced a few hundred yards off a beach 10 miles (16 km) west of Santa Barbara, California, within the Ellwood Oil Field.

Over 20 minutes, she fired 17 shells from her 14 cm gun at the giant Richfield aviation fuel storage tanks on the blufftop behind the beach.

[2] On 2 March 1943 in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae was bombed and strafed by USAAF and Royal Australian Air Force planes for three successive days.

[2] On 19 August 1943, 40 miles (64 km) southwest off Noumea, I-17's "Glen" floatplane made a reconnaissance flight and spotted a convoy that had just cleared the harbour.