Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 18 January 1951, page 2


Submarine Refloated,

Salvaged For Scrap

By A STAFF

CORRESPONDENT

THE Dutch submarine K12,

which was driven ashore on Fairlight Beach, near Manly, in a storm l8 months ago, has been refloated and is being salvaged for

scrap.

When it was driven ashore it was owned by the Port Jackson and Manly S.S. Co. Ltd., which had bought it from the Royal Australian Navy.

For many months K12 had been lying-alongside the Manly harbour pool, and had been open for pub-lic inspection.

Tow Ropes Snap

A storm on June 5, 1949, pounded the submarine against the fence around the pool. It had to be moved to safer moorings at Neutral Bay.

As the submarine was approach-ing the heads the tow-ropes snapped and the submarine drifted helplessly with four men aboard. One was washed overboard, but later rescued, and the other three all had lucky

escapes.

For eighteen months the sub-marine lay stranded and badly holed on Fairlight beach.

Meanwhile a syndicate of seven men bougnt K12 with the idea of salvaging it for scrap.

One of the submarine's new own-ers, Mr. A. H. Stephens, a demo-lition contractor, said all authorities, including the Maritime Services Board, told him that it would be practically impossible to move the submarine m one piece

Mr. Stephens said one man was even prepared to bet 50-1 that he could not do the job.

The holes in the hull were tem-porarily patched with canvas and cement. The tanks were filled with compressed air, and at high tide one morning last week K12 floated

again.

Two firefloats then towed it across the heads to Kerosene Bay, where it is now being salvaged for scrap

During the war K12 was based at Surabaya, Java, with two other Dutch submarines-K11 and K13. K11 was later wrecked off the Queensland coast and K13 was scrapped at Fremantle.

And now K12 comes to its in-glorious end-a heap of scrap.