Failure™ Magazine

Narcís Monturiol

The man who gave the world the submarine.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under History, Science & Technology

Diver Down
By June of 1859 the seven-meter-long Ictíneo was ready for its first real-life test, one that nearly had to be aborted when the boat scrapped against underwater pilings during launch and required hastily-made repairs to the exterior hull and portholes. The sub stayed submerged for 20 minutes on its maiden “voyage” and performed admirably in 20 increasingly demanding tests. Only the sub’s cruising speed of one knot was a disappointment—although expectations should have been modest considering that the Ictíneo‘s propeller was hand-driven by a crew of four men.

In order to build a bigger and more technologically sophisticated submarine Monturiol would need considerably more cash, an amount that could only be supplied by a national government. Yet, much to Monturiol’s dismay, the Spanish government responded coolly to his advances. “In this story the Spanish Navy plays the role of hideous bureaucracy,” begins Stewart. “There were a couple of figures who wrote glowing reports [about the Ictíneo], but it seems everyone else in the Navy couldn’t imagine why on earth anyone would want to go underwater.”

Ultimately, Monturiol had no choice but to build version 2.0. In January of 1862 the Ictíneo was smashed in its berth at port by a wayward freighter. Although it took a full two years to amass enough private money to begin work on the 17-meter-long Ictíneo II, the new model (launched on October 2, 1864) was a dramatic upgrade, particularly in regards to buoyancy control, maneuverability and life support systems. The Ictíneo II could stay submerged for eight hours or more, and was even outfitted with a weapon—namely, a single cannon that could be fired while completely submerged. A pacifist by nature, Monturiol tried to rationalize the addition of a cannon by postulating that heavily armed submarines would actually encourage world peace. “He argued that they would be so powerful that once every nation had them no other nation would dare threaten any other,” says Stewart. “It was a curious anticipation of the kinds of arguments you heard during the Cold War.”

Yet, even successful demonstrations of the underwater cannon did not attract the attention of the Spanish Navy and in late 1867 Monturiol finally ran into an obstacle he could not overcome—bankruptcy. After spending 100,000 duros—“which would have bought several frigates for the Navy, 160 kilograms of gold, or 125,000 pairs of shoes,” says Stewart—Monturiol could attract no more investors. When creditors came calling and discovered Monturiol had only one asset—the Ictíneo II—they took apart the boat and sold it as scrap. Depressed and impoverished, Monturiol was reduced to taking a job as an editor and flogging some of his earlier and less ambitious inventions.

Later, Monturiol tried to preserve his place in history by writing his “Essay on the Art of Underwater Navigation” (1869). His rationale was that even if he couldn’t build the submarines he designed—which were as large as the largest subs utilized in World War II—he could at least document how he created the Ictíneo. His efforts, however, were mostly in vain. “By the time people realized what he had accomplished—which was over 20 years after the fact—the rest of the world had caught up,” says Stewart.

Today, the world remains largely unaware of Monturiol’s contributions to humanity. “His name recognition is pretty high in Barcelona and Catalonia. But outside of Spain his name recognition is zero,” claims Stewart. Regardless, Stewart believes Monturiol deserves some credit for the sacrifices he made while working for the greater good of humanity. “We tend to forget that not all invention and progress is motivated by self-interest narrowly defined. That’s the accepted model but I don’t think that’s the case. In that sense, Monturiol is a perfectly iconic success.”

See also:
Get Your Wings: Rediscovering the remarkable achievements of the Wright Brothers

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