SM U-16 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 countryôs Institute for Federal Real Estate (BlmA) and the state of Hamburgôs WasserstraÃÂen- und Schifffahrtsamt Elbe-Nordsee, the fate of U-16 remained unsettled. 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 WasserstraÃÂen- und Schifffahrtsamt Elbe-Nordsee finally decided to raise the wreck. Without BlmA approval.
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. During the operation, the submarine broke apart. Part of the vessel remained on the seabed off Scharhörn, the rest was brought to Cuxhaven. The remaining bow section was raised two days later. 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 save it. Others estimated a preservation to be possible but too expensive.
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.