Good question. When I was a kid I lived in coastal North Carolina and the old timers all talked about the submarine warfare off the coast in WWII. IIRC, there was a tanker sunk about 60 mi. offshore that was still releasing oil well into the 1970’s and maybe still is AFAIK.
It was one of several that were hit by the Nazi U-Boats.
Nazi or japanese? I know japanese subs surfaced off of santa barbara and shelled the town. Didnt know the german u boats made it to the west coast.
The Japanese torpedoed the tanker SS Emedio off the Mendocino county coast and it went aground off Crescent City Calif. I have a couple of picture postcards of it in my extensive collection...
http://www.militarymuseum.org/Emedio.html