![]() SM U-16 Underway. | |
Class overview | |
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Operators | ![]() |
Preceded by | Type U 13 |
Succeeded by | Type U 17 |
Completed | 1 |
History | |
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Name | U-16 |
Ordered | 26 August 1909 |
Builder | Germaniawerft, Kiel |
Cost | 2,539,000 Goldmark |
Yard number | 157 |
Laid down | 10 May 1910 |
Launched | 29 August 1911 |
Commissioned | 28 December 1911 |
Fate | Sunk in February 1919 in an accident at position 53°59′N08°29′E / 53.983°N 8.483°E while on passage to surrender. Its wreck was raised on September 2025. |
General characteristics | |
Class & type | Unique submarine |
Displacement | |
Length | 57.80 m (189 ft 8 in) |
Beam | 6.00 m (19 ft 8 in) |
Draught | 3.36 m (11 ft 0 in) |
Propulsion | |
Speed |
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Test depth | 50 m (160 ft) |
Complement | 4 officers, 25 men |
Armament |
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Service record | |
Part of: |
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Commanders: | |
Operations: | 4 patrols |
Victories: |
SM U-16 [Note 1] was one of the 329 submarines serving in the Imperial German Navy in World War I.
U-16 was a pre-war U-boat, built by Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft and served up to 1915 when she was utilized as a training submarine. It engaged in the naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic.
During its service, it sunk 11 ships, damaged 2, and took a Swedish ship as a prize.
After the war ended, in 1919 the ship was en route to Harwich to be turned in as war booty. However, an accident occurred wherein U-16 sunk off the island of Scharhörn.
With two institutions in charge of the wreck, the Institute for Federal Real Estate (BlmA) and Hamburgs Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt Elbe-Nordsee, the fate of U-16 remained unsetteled. Experts feared, the wreck, lying at a depth of 20 meters and stuck in the mud of the Wadden Sea up to the original waterline, could move further into the mouth of the Elbe, a major shipping lane to Hamburg and threaten commercial shipping, so the Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt Elbe-Nordsee finally decided to raise the wreck. [3] Without BlmA approval. [4]
During the night of 31 August to 1 September 2025, the wreck was raised from a depth of about 20 meters by the dutch crane vessel Matador 3. [3] During the operation, the submarine broke apart. Part of the vessel remained on the seabed off Scharhörn, the rest was brought to Cuxhaven. [5] The remaining bow section was raised two days later. [4] Museums expressed interest in obtaining some smaller pieces of equipment from the wreck, but the conservation status of the hull was considered to be too bad to safe it. [3] Others estimated a preservation to be possible but too expensive. [4]
The entire recovery was labeled "stuporous" by a BlmA archeologist. After his judgement, moving the wreck a few meters away from the shipping lane would have been sufficient. [4]
Date | Ship Name | Nationality | Tonnage [Note 2] | Fate [6] |
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15 February 1915 | Dulwich | ![]() | 3,289 | Sunk |
15 February 1915 | Ville de Lille | ![]() | 997 | Sunk |
18 February 1915 | Dinorah | ![]() | 4,208 | Damaged |
19 February 1915 | Belridge | ![]() | 7,020 | Damaged |
26 May 1915 | M. Roosval | ![]() | 309 | Sunk |
26 May 1915 | Betty | ![]() | 2,109 | Sunk |
28 May 1915 | Mars | ![]() | 251 | Sunk |
30 May 1915 | Søborg | ![]() | 2,108 | Sunk |
20 September 1915 | Thorvaldsen | ![]() | 1,220 | Sunk |
26 September 1915 | Ellen Benzon | ![]() | 143 | Sunk |
29 September 1915 | Flora | ![]() | 184 | Sunk |
29 September 1915 | Actie | ![]() | 562 | Sunk |
30 September 1915 | Florida | ![]() | 558 | Sunk |
1 October 1915 | Pallas | ![]() | 838 | Captured as prize |