HNLMS K XVI was one of five K XIV class submarine

K XIV class submarine

The K XIV class was a class of five submarines, built for the Royal Netherlands Navy. Used for patrols in the Dutch colonial waters. The class comprised K XIV, K XV, K XVI, K XVII and K XVIII. The submarines diving depth was 80 meters. Three of the five ships were lost in World War...

s built for the Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 (RNN). She was ordered from Rotterdam-based shipbuilder Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij

Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij

The Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij , was a shipbuilding and repair company in Rotterdam in the Netherlands from 1902 to 1996.-History:RDM was established on 23 January 1902 in the Heijplaat district, located on the banks of the river Meuse...

 on 30 May 1929, and was laid down on 31 May 1930. The submarine was launched on 8 April 1933, and commissioned into the RNN on 31 January 1934.

In January 1935, the boat was deployed to the Netherlands East Indies. She remained in this area after the start of World War II.

On 24 December 1941, the submarine torpedoed and sank the Japanese destroyer Sagiri

Japanese destroyer Sagiri

was the sixteenth of twenty-four destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. When introduced into service, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world...

. K XVI was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-66 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

Ministry of Defence (Netherlands)

The Netherlands Ministry of Defence governs the Netherlands Armed Forces. The Minister is assisted by a State Secretary...

 announced that the wreck of K XVI had been found by Australian and Singaporean recreational divers off the northern coast of Borneo.