Dutch Second World War Sub Found

Written by Graeme Gourlay Monday, 06 February 2012 16:56

In December 1941, the submarine K XVI under the command of Lt Cdr Louis J Jarman of the Dutch navy was in position 60 miles north of Borneo to try and hold the Japanese invasion of Borneo and Java. She had recently sunk the Japanese destroyer Sagiri, and then moved away from the convoy she was shadowing as she was depth-charged. The morning of 25 December found K XVI on the surface, presumably charging her batteries or awaiting orders from the Dutch fleet. In an unhappy coincidence a Japanese submarine, I-66, was about to surface and saw K XVI through its periscope. The commander fired a single torpedo and noted a large explosion. This was the last known encounter with K XVI.  All 36 crew died and the precise location of the wreck was not known.
Fast forward to October 2011.  I was part of a group of rebreather divers from Southern Cross Divers in Sydney and Sydney Sub-Aqua Club on a wreck diving trip off the MV Empress, skippered by Vidar Skoglie and embarking from Kuching in Borneo. Vidar has spent the last 20 years finding and diving wrecks in the South China Sea and his ears had perked up when he heard details of a snag in an area he thought was the likely sinking ground of the K XVI.  
When we got on board, we were offered the chance to dive this new site. It could have turned out to be nothing more than a pile of boulders, but all the team jumped at the chance.
The initial marks showed nothing of interest, but 100m away, the echosounder showed something on the sea bed. Vidar was first in and tied the descent line to some netting across the hull. After the all-clear from the crew, we dived in and swam down the line. I was towards the back of the group and I heard the whoops of excitement as the rest of the team encountered the submarine at 30–40m. The visibility was excellent and the wreck was remarkably intact, but almost split in two. There was major damage just aft of the conning tower and the decking was gone, but otherwise she was a well-made submarine.  
Her conning tower was intact and the running lights still had glass in them. The conning tower’s hatch was open but all other hatches were closed. The wreck was shrouded in nets in many places, particularly around the planes and propellers. On a second dive, Vidar recovered the conning tower helming wheel in the hope that it would have an identifying mark on it.
On our return to Sydney, from one of our group, Nigel Sinclair, contacted Onderzeeboot.org in the Netherlands, an organisation set up to document the history of the HNLMS submarines in Second World War. With the descriptions supplied by the team and my photographs, Captain Marc Elsensohn and experts from Dutch Navy team confirmed it was the K XVI and relatives of the captain and crew now know the last resting place of the brave men of the K XVI.
The intention is to present the wheel and some of the images to the daughter of Lt. Cdr Jarman and Capt Elsensohn (as the administrator of the historical collection of the Dutch Submarines) at a later date. For the moment, the location of K XVI, 8–10 miles away from its estimated positions by the Dutch and Japanese navies respectively, remains a closely guarded secret.