HNLMS ''K XVI'' was one of five s built for the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

(RNN). Entering service in 1934, the submarine was deployed to the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. On 24 December 1941, ''K XVI'' torpedoed and sank the ; the first Allied submarine to sink a Japanese warship. A day later, the Dutch submarine was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine ''I-66'' (later renumbered to be ''I-166'') off Borneo, with all aboard killed. The wreck of ''K XVI'' was rediscovered in October 2011 by a group of recreational divers and has since been illegally salvaged.

Construction

''K XVI'' was ordered from Rotterdam-based shipbuilder

Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij The Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij NV (RDM) was a major shipbuilding and repair company in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, existing from 1902 to 1996. It built 355 ships, 18 of which were submarines.:nl:Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, RDM ...

on 30 May 1929, and was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 31 May 1930. The submarine was launched on 8 April 1933, and commissioned into the RNN on 31 January 1934.

Operational history

In January 1935, the boat was deployed to the

. She remained in this area after the start of World War II. On 24 December 1941, approximately off Kuching at , the submarine torpedoed and sank the .Agence France-Presse, ''Missing Dutch WWII sub found off Borneo''D'Albas, ''Death of a Navy'', Brown, ''Warship Losses of World War II'', The destroyer's aft

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

caught fire and exploded, sinking the ship with 121 of the 241 personnel aboard killed. Later that evening, the submarine attempted to attack the destroyer , but was fended off by

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

s. ''K XVI'' was torpedoed by the a day later, and sank with all 36 aboard. The boat was one of seven Dutch submarines lost during World War II. On 25 October 2011, the Dutch

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

announced that the wreck of ''K XVI'' had been found by Australian and Singaporean recreational divers off the northern coast of Borneo. In July 2024 it was reported that the wreck of ''K XVI'' had been illegally salvaged.

Citations

References

;Books * * ;News articles *

Construction

Operational history

Citations

References

Further reading