Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor who Wanted to Save the World - Brief Article - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Dec, 2003

Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor who Wanted to Save the World. Matthew Stewart. Profile Books. [pounds sterling]15.99. 404 pages. ISBN 1-86197-470-1. Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol was the nineteenth century Spanish inventor who, in 1864, launched the prototype of modern submarines.

It exceeded fifty feet in length with a displacement of 72 tons. It could go down to 100 feet and had a device to provide the crew with fresh air. Monturiol was, like so many Spaniards, caught up in the Carlist wars which racked Spain. He was on the radical wing of the liberal followers who supported the young Queen Isabel. His life was as tumultuous as the Spain of his time and after his death he was buried in a pauper's grave. Years later his country recognised his greatness and published his treatise on submarines. Ironically, Monturiol had not foreseen his invention as a method of making war yet it was the submarine that almost destroyed British shipping during the last war. This biography places the inventor and his invention into the Spain of his era and pays tribute to a man who, in the English-speaking world, is usually ignored.