The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau

The creative juices have seemed to slow down for my fellow contributors lately so rather than just writing another Creature Feature, I have been thinking long and hard about what to write that you all might find interesting. When I write my blogs it is always because it is a subject I want to know more about myself. I research it and then I like to share what I find with you.

So what to write about this week? Well, why not write about one of the great innovators of SCUBA, Mr. Jacques Cousteau. For us over 40 folks, the name is pretty familiar, but for the younger generations, maybe not so much. Being a child of the 60's, I remember sitting in front of the TV with our dinners on our TV trays watching such great shows with my family as the forever bubbly Lawrence Welk Show, Laugh In, Hee Haw, The Wonderful World of Disney, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and of course, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

Born June 11, 1910, Jacques Cousteau entered the École Navale (the French Naval Academy) in 1930 and graduated as a gunnery officer. Unfortunately (however fortunate for us) a car accident cut short his dreams of a a career in naval aviation, so during his time of rehabilitation from this accident he turned his interests to what lay under the sea. 

In 1936 Cousteau began his diving career with a pair of Fernez underwater goggles. (As a little side note, Maurice Fernez was a pioneer in the field of underwater breathing apparati. He was elemental in the transition from the tethered diving helmet of the 19th century to the invention of the self contained equipment of the 20th century.) The actual self contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) used by Jacques Cousteau in the 40's was invented by Commander Yves le Prieur in 1926. Dissatisfied with the length of time this unit allowed him to stay under water, Cousteau improved the design by adding a demand regulator invented by Émile Gagnan in 1942. In 1943 Cousteau tried out the first prototype aqua-lung which finally made extended underwater exploration possible and opened the door to the open-circuit scuba technology we use today. With that Cousteau embarked on a long career of ocean exploration and underwater film-making.

In the late 1940's, he took part on a small team assigned to explore the Roman wreck of Mahdia (Tunisia). It was the first underwater archaeology operation using autonomous diving, opening the way for scientific underwater archaeology. In 1950 Cousteau founded the French Oceanographic Campaigns and leased a ship called Calypso which he had refitted as a mobile laboratory for field research and the principal vessel for his diving and filming. For his 1956 film "Silent World", Cousteau, assisted by Jean Mollard, constructed the experimental underwater vehicle SP-350, the "diving saucer", which was able to transport the researcher to depths of 1150 feet. In 1965 Cousteau repeated his success with 2 more experimental vehicles which could now reach depths of 1640 feet.

To recite Jacques Cousteau's numerous achievements and accolades would take longer than this blog's depth. Suffice it to say, Cousteau influenced abundant changes in the perception of our oceans. Cousteau believed in sharing his scientific concepts with the world and regularly referred to himself as an "oceanographic technician". The legacy of his life's work includes more than 120 television documentaries, over 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with an astounding membership of over 300,000 (http://cousteau.org/).

Jacques-Yves Cousteau died unexpectedly in Paris on June 25, 1997, at the age of 87. To this day, he is one of the most famous undersea explorers of the 20th century. If I have piqued your interest in this passionate visionary of the underwater world, you might find one of these other websites interesting:

http://www.biography.com/people/jacques-cousteau-9259496

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100611-jacques-cousteau-100th-anniversary-birthday-legacy-google/