A 100-year-old Royal Netherlands Navy submarine has been discovered 38m deep off Rottnest Island in Western Australia by Perth-based dive-team WreckSploration.
HNLMS K XI was launched in April 1924 and served in the Dutch East Indies during World War Two, patrolling what are now Indonesian waters from its base in Surabaya, Java.
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The submarine was particularly remembered for a heroic rescue of 13 survivors of the Australian torpedo-boat HMAS Yarra after it had been sunk by Japanese warships in March 1942.
In 1946 the decommissioned K XI sank while being towed for scrapping in Fremantle, and was later salvaged and stripped before being scuttled. This was recorded as leaving the submarine at a depth of around 80m and almost 16km from where the divers would eventually find it.
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Designated dump-site
The WreckSploration team, led by Andrew Oakeley, say that by the time they found the wreck they had devoted months to “meticulous research, advanced data analysis and technical diving” as part of their Rottnest Ship Graveyard Project. The ’graveyard’ is a designated dump-site for unwanted vessels and military vehicles.
The researchers had been cross-referencing multiple datasets, including museum records and aerial magnetometer survey results, in collaboration with the WA Maritime Museum, Diving Western Australia’s Shipwrecks and the Maritime Discovery Group.
The wreck was located some 5km south-east of the Rottnest Ship Graveyard and dived on New Year’s Day, though its discovery has only recently been announced.
Divers Oakeley, David Jackson and Patrick Morrison had been about to wrap up for the day when “an unusual cigar-shaped image of reef came up on the unit – unusual enough just to have a quick ’reef‘ dive to empty the tanks so we could get back to the ramp”.
The submarine was reported to be in good condition, and although much of it was buried many of its features remained visible, including torpedo-tubes, hatches and the connection point for the removed conning tower.
The Western Australian Museum confirmed the submarine’s identity after comparing archive data with a 3D photogrammetric model based on some 6,000 images of the wreck captured by the WreckSploration divers.
“HNLMS K XI is a protected shipwreck site, holding significant historical value as a record of WW2 co-operation between Allied forces from Australia and the Netherlands,” said the museum. The wreck is automatically protected under the Commonwealth’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018.
Funding for the wreck photogrammetry and documentation came from the Netherlands through its National Service for Cultural Heritage (RCE). It stated that the discovery showed “not only the ties between the Netherlands and Australia in WW2, but also how tight they still are when it comes to protecting and managing our underwater cultural heritage”.
A downloadable report on the wreck is available from the Western Australian Museum site.
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