Missing Dutch submarine found after 80 years off Australian coast

Divers have discovered the Dutch submarine Hr. Ms. K XI off the coast of the Australian city of Fremantle. The submarine had been lying at a depth of approximately 40 meters off the coast of Rottnest Island since 1946. The underwater boat was discovered a few kilometers away from a well-known ship graveyard, Rottnest Deepwater Graveyard.

The Hr. Ms. K XI was found on January 1, after which the Western Australian Museum worked on its identification by comparing archive data with a 3D model that the divers made of the wreck. The Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE), which financed the documentation and photogrammetry of the wreck, can now confirm that it is indeed the Dutch submarine.

“This is the best result we could have dreamed of. It not only shows us the ties between the Netherlands and Australia in the Second World War but also how close they still are when it comes to the protection and management of our underwater cultural heritage,” Martijn Manders of the RCE said in a statement.

The Royal Netherlands Navy submarine once patrolled the waters of Indonesia, then the colonial Dutch East Indies, and in 1942 rescued 13 survivors of an Australian ship that had been sunk by Japanese warships, according to the RCE. The Hr. Ms. K XI was brought to the Rottnest ship cemetery in 1946. It is not clear how the wreck ended up a few kilometers from that location.