Jacques Cousteau

French oceanographer and engineer

• Born: June 11, 1910
• Birthplace: Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France
• Died: June 25, 1997
• Place of death: Paris, France

Cousteau gained the reputation as the most well-known underwater explorer in the world. He codeveloped the Aqua-Lung, an underwater breathing apparatus that supplied oxygen to divers, later modernized to today’s scuba gear. He likewise invented a waterproof container for filming underwater, helped to start the first human undersea colonies, constructed jet-propelled submersibles for underwater observation, and designed a new wind-power system for boats.

Primary field: Oceanography

Primary inventions:Calypso (ship); Aqua-Lung

Early Life

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (zhahk eev koo-STOH) was born in 1910 to Daniel and Elizabeth Duranthon Cousteau in a small town near Bordeaux, France. Cousteau’s family traveled often in his youth, including overseas. During the summer of 1920, Cousteau and his brother were sent to camp at Harvey’s Lake in Vermont while their father worked in were chosen. One of the chores at the camp was to clean debris from the bottom of the lake near shore. This exercise not only helped improve Jacques’s health but also gave him a lifelong love of underwater activity.

After being expelled from traditional high school, Cousteau was sent to a strict boarding school, where he graduated in 1929. In 1930, he gained entrance to the French Naval Academy at Brest. After graduation in 1933, he spent two years aboard a French naval cruiser. Returning to France in 1935, Cousteau decided to enroll in a naval aviation program in the hope of becoming a pilot. However, a 1936 car crash in which both of his arms were severely broken put an end to that dream. After months of recuperation, Cousteau was assigned to the navy’s base at Toulon as a gunnery instructor. During the same year, he tested a pair of underwater goggles near the base. His utter fascination at what he saw changed his life, and he began to develop ideas for sustained exploration of underwater milieus.

Life’s Work

During World War II, Cousteau served in the French Resistance against the occupying German army. In late 1942, he and French engineer Émile Gagnon invented the Aqua-Lung, a breathing apparatus that allowed divers to swim freely while being able to breath underwater. The device was valuable not only for underwater filming but also for inspecting and repairing ships and for removing enemy mines in the waters surrounding France. After the war, Cousteau showed a French admiral an underwater exploration film that had been made during the war. In 1946, the French navy placed Cousteau in charge of an assemblage, the Undersea Research Group, assigned to continue such investigation. From 1946 until Cousteau left the navy in 1949, he and his colleagues searched underwater caves, conducted physiological tests of the impact of deep diving, performed underwater archaeology by probing shipwrecks, and participated in the rescue of a bathyscaphe.

After leaving the navy, Cousteau sought to continue his undersea explorations. He acquired a former French minesweeping ship in 1950 and converted it for use by his diving team. The ship, named the Calypso, would be Cousteau’s home away from home for much of the next forty years. In 1952, the Cousteau team discovered a sunken Roman cargo ship near Grand Congloué Island off the coast of France. The ship dated back to 230 b.c.e., making it the oldest ever uncovered up to that time. Subsequently, the Calypso and its crew studied marine life and environments in oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian), seas (Aegean and Red), and rivers (Amazon, Nile, Mississippi, and St. Lawrence). Cousteau recorded his findings on paper and film, which were later turned into books, documentaries, and television specials.

During the 1960’s, Cousteau planned and implemented the Conshelf Project, which was designed to investigate the long-term effects of living under the ocean. The Cousteau team built three dome-shaped structures of various sizes as part of the project. Conshelf I, set up in the Mediterranean, housed two divers for a week in 1962. Conshelf II, built on the floor of the Red Sea, housed five divers for a month. Conshelf III, established off the coast of Nice, France, housed divers more than three hundred feet deep for a month.

Two other Cousteau inventions related directly to his explorations. In 1967, Cousteau launched two small submersibles created for underwater exploration. These vehicles, called Sea Fleas, permitted filming underwater and had mechanical arms for recovering objects. In 1980, Cousteau and two other Frenchmen designed a new engine system for ships that was partially based on wind power. Referred to as the Turbosail, the device furnished a renewable source of power while reducing reliance on oil-burning engines.

Cousteau used his influence to teach about the effects of pollution on the world’s ecosystems. In doing so, he became an environmentalist and conservationist. For instance, in 1960 he led a protest against dumping radioactive waste in the sea. In 1973, he helped to establish the Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life. In 1990, Cousteau initiated a worldwide petition campaign to stop oil drilling and mining in Antarctica. Not only was the immediate campaign successful, but the world’s nations also agreed to protect the area for the next half century. Because of his expertise and advocacy, Cousteau was invited to address the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, which took place in Brazil in 1992.

Besides writing fifty books and producing two Academy Award-winning films, Cousteau was able to take advantage of the growing influence of television in order to educate and entertain a generation of underwater enthusiasts. As a result of a 1966 television special, Cousteau signed a contract with the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1968 to produce a series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which ran for eight seasons. In 1977, Cousteau produced a new series, Cousteau Odyssey, for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). In 1982, The Cousteau Amazon series premiered on Turner Broadcasting System. From 1985 through 1994, Cousteau’s Rediscovery of the World was broadcast on American television. Overall, Cousteau and his team produced more than 120 television documentaries and garnered forty Emmy nominations.

Despite his success and notoriety, Cousteau encountered his share of heartache during his long career. During his team’s deep-diving tests in the late 1940’s, at least one close friend was killed as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. In 1979, his youngest son, Philippe, was killed when his seaplane overturned and broke apart near Lisbon, Portugal. Cousteau’s wife, Simone, died of cancer at age seventy-two in 1990. In January, 1996, the Cousteau team’s beloved vessel, the Calypso, was rammed and sunk by a barge in Singapore. That same year, Cousteau prosecuted his son Jean-Michel over the use of the Cousteau name. Jacques Cousteau died in June, 1997, at eighty-seven.

Impact

During Cousteau’s life, his work was attacked in certain quarters as nonscientific. That was somewhat ironic, given the alliance that the Cousteau team had with scientists who often came aboard the Calypso. Notwithstanding the latter criticism, Cousteau earned many national and international awards. In addition to several honorary degrees, he received a number of distinctions, among them the National Geographic Society Gold Medal, 1961; the Boston Museum of Science Bradford Prize, 1965; the Franklin Institute Potts Medal, 1970; the United Nations International Environmental Prize, 1977; the Lindbergh Award, 1982; the Bruno H. Schubert Foundation prize, 1983; the New York Zoological Society Gold Medal, 1985; the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1985; the International Council of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Founder’s Award, 1987; induction into the Television Hall of Fame, 1987; the National Geographic Society Centennial Award, 1988; induction into the French Academy, 1989; and the Third International Catalan Prize, 1991.

More than any scientist of his time, Cousteau exposed the effects of pollution on the world’s waterways. The organization that he cofounded to preserve the environment, the Cousteau Society, has nearly 300,000 members and boasts branches in several nations. As of 2009, the Cousteau Society is busy turning the Calypso into a museum and raising funds for the construction of Calypso II. In addition to Cousteau’s impact on the technical side of underwater exploration, his Aqua-Lung, as well as articles, books, and television series about his undersea exploration, increased public interest in recreational scuba diving.

Perhaps one measure of Cousteau’s fame is how he is treated by popular culture. Countless authors and musicians have written and sung about Cousteau’s exploits. For instance, American musician John Denver wrote the song “Calypso” as a tribute to the ship and its crew. The 1975 song reached number one on the Billboard charts.

Bibliography

Cousteau, Jacques-Yves, and Frederic Dumas. The Silent World. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Adventure Classics, 2004. This reprint of Cousteau’s first book, published in 1953, offers a fascinating look into his early projects.

DuTemple, Lesley A. Jacques Cousteau. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner, 2000. This monograph is a companion to the A&E Television Network’s Biography series program on Cousteau.

King, Roger. Jacques Cousteau and the Undersea World. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001. One of several works on the undersea pioneer written during the decade of the 2000’s.

Olmstead, Kathleen. Jacques Cousteau: A Life Under the Sea. New York: Sterling, 2008. Details the life and accomplishments of the French explorer. Written for a juvenile audience.

Zronik, John. Jacques Cousteau: Conserving Underwater Worlds. New York: Crabtree, 2007. This brief work appears in workbook form and contains an excellent description of the Calypso. Written for a juvenile audience.