Ictíneo II
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''Ictíneo II'' was a pioneering
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
. Its launching took place in the Port of Barcelona on October 2, 1864 by the Spanish engineer Narcis Monturiol and it was the first air independent and
combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...
powered
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
and the first submarine to overcome the basic problems of machine powered underwater navigation.


History

The ''Ictíneo II'' was originally intended as an improved version of the handpowered ''
Ictíneo I ''Ictíneo I'' was a pioneering submarine constructed in Barcelona, Spain in 1858–1859 by engineer Narcís Monturiol. History While living in Cadaqués, Monturiol witnessed the death of a coral harvester, which inspired him with the idea of ...
''. The Spanish Navy pledged support to Monturiol but did not actually supply it, so he had to raise funds himself, writing a ''letter to the nation'' to encourage a popular subscription which raised 300,000 pesetas from citizens of
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and was used to form the company ''La Navegación Submarina'' to develop the ''Ictíneo II''. The ''Ictíneo II'' made her maiden voyage under human power on 20 May 1865, submerging to . After reading about the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and the attempts at submarine construction such as the CSS ''Hunley'', the financially desperate Monturiol wrote to the US Secretary of the Navy; however, the Civil War had ended by the time the Secretary responded. Dissatisfied with the limitations placed on him by human propulsion, Monturiol realized that the only option was steam power, but contemporary
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
s required a fire which was not an option for a submarine. To this end he invented an air independent engine, which ran on a chemical reaction fueled by
peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of Chemical compound, compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined ...
that provided its own oxygen for combustion.El Ictíneo ante la ciencia
''La Vanguardia'', 28 de septiembre de 1890, p.3. (in Spanish)
Monturiol intended to develop the submarine for its commercial use in the exploitation of
coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...
s. Later he installed a gun inside the submarine's hull and performed a number of trials involving underwater shots on predetermined targets from 22 December to 30 December 1865, but this failed to impress the military authorities. Monturiol envisaged a new vessel, custom built to house his new engine, which would be entirely built of metal with the engine housed in its own separate compartment. However, due to the state of his finances, construction of a new vessel was out of the question, and instead he managed to assemble enough funds to fit the engine into the ''Ictíneo II''. On 22 October 1867 the ''Ictíneo II'' made its first surface journey under steam power, averaging with a top speed of . Two months later, on 14 December, Monturiol submerged the vessel and ran his chemical engine, but with a quite slow speed of . The submarine could dive up to and could stay underwater for seven and a half hours. On 23 December, ''La Navegación Submarina'' went bankrupt, having completely exhausted its funds. Monturiol had spent 100,000
duros Intarcia Therapeutics is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, MA and incorporated under the laws of Delaware. It was founded in 1995 under the name "BioMedicines" and changed to its present name in 2004. In 2013, Intarcia relocat ...
– which could have purchased several
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
s, or of gold – and could attract no more investment. The chief creditor called in his debt, and Monturiol was forced to surrender the ''Ictíneo II'', which was his sole asset. The creditor subsequently sold it on to a businessman, and the authorities, who taxed all ships, issued its new owner with a tax bill. Rather than pay, he dismantled the entire submarine and sold it for scrap. The ship's surface motor was removed to a textile factory; the viewports ended up as bathroom windows.Cindy Lee Van Dover
A Utopian's Submarine
. Retrieved on 2008-08-01


Description

The ''Ictíneo II'' was long, wide, and high. Her displacement was 46 tonnes and her interior volume was . She was built of olive wood with oak reinforcements, and a 2 mm thick layer of copper. Her upper side had a deck wide and a hatch with three glazed portholes in diameter and thick glass blocks. The submarine could be steered from the
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...
by means of an endless screw gear. Four ballast tanks of capacity were located symmetrically on each side in the free flooding areas between the streamlined outer light hull and the inner
pressure hull A submarine hull has two major components, the ''superstructure'' and the ''pressure hull''. The external portion of a submarine’s hull—that part that does not resist sea pressure and is free-flooding—is known as the “superstructure” i ...
. The ballast tanks would be flooded at will to submerge and surfacing was achieved by forcing air into them with a pump. Pitch during diving was controlled by a weight which could be moved longitudinally along a rail, remotely controlled by the helmsman. The
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
also had an emergency mechanism intended to jettison the
ballast Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...
to allow it to surface quickly. The most important innovation in the ''Ictíneo II'' was its air independent propulsion for underwater navigation. A reaction of
zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...
,
manganese dioxide Manganese dioxide is the inorganic compound with the formula . This blackish or brown solid occurs naturally as the mineral pyrolusite, which is the main ore of manganese and a component of manganese nodules. The principal use for is for dry-cel ...
and
potassium chlorate Potassium chlorate is the inorganic compound with the molecular formula KClO3. In its pure form, it is a white solid. After sodium chlorate, it is the second most common chlorate in industrial use. It is a strong oxidizing agent and its most impor ...
heated the boiler of a steam engine to provide propulsion and illumination and the oxygen released by the reaction could be used for breathing. Monturiol purchased a six-cylinder steam engine and divided it in half; one half was powered by a coal-burning boiler for surface propulsion while the other half was powered by a separate boiler heated by his chemical mixture.


See also

*''
Ictineu 3 ''Ictineu 3'' is a crewed submersible capable of reaching depths of 1,200 m (3,900 ft), which makes it the ninth deepest submersible, owned by Ictineu submarins SL. Commissioned in 2013, the submersible can carry one pilot and two passe ...
'' * V-80 submarine


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:IctIneo II 1864 ships 19th-century submarines Submarines of Spain Spanish inventions Experimental submarines nl:Narcís Monturiol#Ictineo II Science and technology in Spain