| Specials |
Special locating the wreck of O 16 |
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| Specials |
Special locating the wreck of O 16 |
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By A.P. Bussemaker, son of O 16's CO Ltz. I A.J. Bussemaker.
The O 16 and almost all of her crew (only one survivor) were lost off Tioman island, east of Malaysia, in the night of 14/15 December 1941.
After questioning its sole survivor (41 men were lost), Boatswain Cornelis de Wolf in Singapore, which was completely shattered at the time by bombardments and news of the sinking of the world’s mightiest battleship, the HMS Prince of Wales, it was assumed that the O 16 had been hit by a mine from the British minefield near the island of Pemanggil due to a navigational error.
O 16 in Den Helder, note the opened doors of the external-traversing torpedo tubes (beam) and the net cutter (bow). Sven Sjöstrand, a former shipbuilder and highly experienced diver living in Singapore, had been diving a wreck 19 nautical miles (34 km) north-east of Tioman Island. To locate wrecks he relied on information obtained from local fishermen regarding sites where they had lost many nets. Their losses were more often than not due to a wreck and this particular wreck turned out to be a submarine. Knowing that the O 16 was presumed lost somewhere near the island and that the wreck had never been found, he contacted Willem van der Post, a Dutch journalist from the daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, whom he knew from previous diving expeditions. Van der Post then contacted the Royal Navy at Den Helder.
It became clear during telephone conversations with Sven Sjöstrand that there was a very good chance that the wreck may be that of the missing O 16. Time to get a fact-finding commission organized was running short. In November the north-east monsoon would set in and high waves would soon make diving difficult. All necessary arrangements were made in a very short time nevertheless and on the 24th of October 1995, six men boarded a Jumbo Jet for their trip to Singapore, loaded with sea-charts, historic pictures, naval drawings and underwater cameras.
The group consisted of Ltz. I John van Zee (leader of the expedition), Hans Besançon (who had personally identified his father’s ship, the K XVII, in 1982), Ton and Henk Bussemaker (sons of the O 16’s CO) and two journalists, Willem van der Post and Bert van Elk.
Hans Besançon, A.P. (Ton) Bussemaker, John van Zee and Henk Bussemaker discussing the O 16 identification operation (Photo: © B. van Elk, collection A.P. Bussemaker) The six men flew on a small STOL aircraft from Singapore to Tioman island on October 25th and were then ferried to kampong Salan on a motorized prau (outrigger canoe). After settling in at kampong Salan, a meeting was held to discuss specific identification characteristics to be used for the diving operation. They decided to concentrate on those items unique to a Dutch submarine at that time: the identification number welded onto the bow (O 16), netcutters on the bow, retractable A-A guns on the superstructure, the special layout of the bridge and the retractable radio direction finder in particular. Sjöstrand and his crew of four arrived on board his motor cruiser Cadenza in the evening and decided to depart for the diving site at 4 a.m.
The sonar indicates that the Cadenza is above the O 16 (Photo: © B. van Elk, collection A.P. Bussemaker) The wreck was found to be lying at a depth of 53 meters, requiring long decompression times for the divers. Diving times therefore had to be limited to 25 minutes in the morning and 19 minutes in the afternoon. With 4 divers available, this meant two possible diving sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon. A strong south-westerly current and poor visibility varying between 2 and 9 meters made for a difficult operation. Also, after only one diving session, the video camera was found to be leaking, so only one videotape could be used for purposes of debriefing. Sjöstrand later returned to the wreck and made another, extremely good video film under much better conditions.
The aft hatch of the O 16
(Photo: © S. Sjöstrand, collection A.P. Bussemaker)They began searching the wreck at the bow. Both divers from each diving team were questioned independently of one another by Henk Bussemaker immediately after boarding the Cadenza. For debriefing he made use of photographs of numerous known details of the ship, copies of the original Maatschappij De Schelde shipbuilders plans and his own extraordinary knowledge of K and O class submarines.
Two days of diving resulted in the following: the welded identification number O 16 remained indiscernible due to the numerous nets draped around the hull, but the net cutters and two retractable A-A guns were found (one partly removed from its storage compartment) and the bridge layout was correct. The ship had been badly damaged; there was a gaping hole just in front of the superstructure and the entire ship was bent at a 30° angle.
This was indeed the O 16, 38 nautical miles (70 km) north of the assumed sinking position and only 7 nm from the K XVII wreck. Both ships had been sunk by a mine from the very same line of Japanese mines north of Tioman Island. The history books of the Royal Netherlands Navy would need to be rewritten: there had been no navigational error and Cor de Wolf's story was absolutely true: he had survived 35 hours in the water and had covered a distance of 44 nm (80 km) in that time.
The steering wheel of the O 16
(Photo: © B. van Elk, collection A.P. Bussemaker)Two things still remained to be done. The first was to try to recover the steering wheel. The nut initially posed problems but broke after much hammering and the steering wheel came off smoothly. The grease was still in perfect condition. When that steering wheel was brought on deck the Cadenza emotions ran high for everyone present. Here at last was a tangible link with the past and the men lying 53 meters below.
Finally, a brief ceremony was held on the forward deck: Ltz. I John van Zee, dressed in tropical white, held a speech and said a prayer and Henk and Ton Bussemaker tossed a wreath of flowers into the sea on behalf of the families of the deceased.
By A.P. Bussemaker, son of O 16's CO Ltz. I A.J. Bussemaker.
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