Wreck of World War I submarine recovered from seabed off Germany

A salvage team has recovered the wreckage of a submarine that had been lying at the bottom of the North Sea off Germany for over a century.

A crane vessel operated by local company Bonn and Mees was used to lift the wreck of the Imperial German Navy U-boat U-16 from a depth of 20 metres near the uninhabited island of Scharhörn near Hamburg earlier this week.

The submarine broke into three pieces as it was being lifted, according to local news outlet NDR. Two of the pieces were loaded onto a pontoon and brought to Cuxhaven while the last remaining segment has remained on the seabed.

Preparations are underway to retrieve the last segment. Once all three segments have been recovered, work will then focus on preparing the entire boat for eventual scrapping.

The wreck of U-16 was discovered earlier this year during a routine survey of the waters off Scharhörn by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency.

Built in 1911, U-16 saw service in World War I, conducting numerous patrols and sinking nearly 30 ships.

In 1919, the submarine was on its way to Britain to be surrendered as part of war reparations, but it sank during the journey. Local naval historian Jann M. Witt believes that it may have been deliberately sunk by its crew to prevent it from being handed over to the Allies.