page_title: Fairlight, New South Wales
section_title: Fairlight Beach
hierarchical_section_title: Fairlight, New South Wales / Landmarks / Fairlight Beach
caption_attribution_description: English: Dutch submarine K12 floundered on Fairlight Beach near Manly, New South Wales after a storm in 1949.
context_page_description: Fairlight is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Fairlight is located 13 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council and is part of the Northern Beaches region.
  Fairlight lies between Balgowlah and Manly on both sides of Sydney Road. The suburb reaches north past Balgowlah Road and the western boundary is Hill Street.
context_section_description: Fairlight Beach is located on the Manly Scenic Walkway on Sydney Harbour, which can be followed for some kilometres to Spit Bridge. The beach experiences light harbour swells and southerly winds. Though swells up to 2 metres were recorded following Hurricane Larry, it is not a surfing beach, as the shore is rocky and the break unpredictable. The beach has sand largely made up of shell grit (largely missing from the beaches on either side), and a small tidal swimming pool.
  The K-12 was a 611-ton ex-submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy (later the United States Navy) that was bought by private buyers after World War II and leased to the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company, who set her up as a museum ship at a custom berth adjacent to Manly harbour pool.  When storms struck in June 1949, an attempt was made by her owners to tow her to a safer berth in Neutral Bay, however the tow ropes broke, and the submarine grounded on rocks near Fairlight Beach.  The hull was lightened by salvagers then re-floated on 7 January 1951, and towed up the Parramatta River to Ryde Road bridge; however here she sank again after her seacocks were vandalised.  Some sources say that the engines and sections of the bow remain in Fairlight and are accessible by scuba divers. However, they are the remains of a large aluminum speedboat that got blown by high winds and sunk on the night of 7 January 1952.
caption: Dutch submarine K-12 on Fairlight Beach in 1949
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