Undersea Explorer by James Dugan

First published: 1957; illustrated

Subjects: Explorers and scientists

Type of work: Biography

Time of work: 1910-1956

Recommended Ages: 13-18

Locale: France and the oceans of the world

Principal Personages:

• Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a marine scientist, the captain of the Calypso, and the inventor of modern scuba gear
• Frédéric Dumas, a friend of Cousteau who shared early diving adventures and later was a key member of the crew of the Calypso
• Philippe Taillez, a friend and diving associate of Cousteau who helped develop diving equipment and techniques
• James Dugan, the author and the first non-Frenchman to sail with the Calypso, who helped to make the film The Silent World
• Ferdinand Benoît, an archaeologist with whom Cousteau worked, especially in excavating the undersea remains of a Roman merchant ship from the year 3 b.c.

Form and Content

Undersea Explorer is a narrative concerning the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, from a brief look at his pre-World War II childhood through his work as scientist and explorer into the mid-1950’s. This is not a comprehensive biography containing much personal detail but rather a treatment of Captain Cousteau’s life relating to his focus on the world beneath the surface of the sea. James Dugan spent time working with Captain Cousteau aboard the Calypso, the converted British mine sweeper that serves as a floating marine laboratory, an exploration vessel, and living quarters for Cousteau and his crew of scientists. Dugan writes in an easy-to-follow and interesting manner about his own firsthand experiences and also records stories of Cousteau’s earlier life and adventures.

Interspersed within the text are twenty-eight black-and-white photographs and line drawings. These illustrations diagram details of the equipment and techniques used in underwater exploration and provide a record of the personages who appear within the text. The book also includes fourteen color photographs that provide vivid images to accompany some of the incidents discussed within the text. The author also provides an annotated bibliography for thirteen books and periodicals to which the reader can turn for additional information and entertainment about the world under the sea.

The history of modern undersea exploration began with Jacques-Yves Cousteau before World War II. As a French navy officer, Cousteau had the opportunity to visit many places. His abiding interest in exploring the sea and in seeing the beauty beneath the waves was only partially fulfilled by his ability to dive for the amount of time that he could hold his breath. He tried using some of the earliest oxygen-breathing apparatuses but found some rather serious problems with the available equipment. The arrival of World War II temporarily ended Cousteau’s work with the navy. He moved to Paris and became an active member of the French Resistance. In between his somewhat daring adventures with the underground resistance, Cousteau maintained his interest and involvement in diving, especially in finding a way in which a human being could breathe underwater for extended periods of time without bulky suits and air lines to hinder movement. In Paris, he met Émile Gagnan, an expert in working with gasses under pressure. Gagnan worked from Cousteau’s ideas, and together they developed the key element for what was to become the Aqua-Lung: the pressure regulator that controls the amount of air that will flow through a breathing tube, irrespective of outside water pressure. In 1943, Cousteau descended into the Marne River outside Paris using this device connected to a tank filled with compressed air. The regulator worked well, and the same basic device is still used in all self-contained underwater breathing apparatus—or scuba—devices.

Following the war, Cousteau, along with friends and fellow navy personnel and divers Philippe Taillez and Frédéric Dumas, unofficially started the Undersea Research Group of the French navy. They even managed to procure two diving vessels. When an order arrived for Lieutenant Cousteau to move to a dull desk job in Marseille, he convinced an admiral that there was a purpose for his group. With the official blessing of the French navy, Cousteau and his crew were able to expand their diving operation and requisition materials through official channels. During the following years, they made a number of advances in the science and technology of diving, including the construction of decompression chambers that helped cure the diver’s malady commonly known as “the bends.”

Undersea Explorer follows Cousteau and the Calypso through the early days of his explorations. Among the highlights of these journeys is the six-year-long project to bring to the surface the cargo and remains of a Roman merchant ship, three times larger than Calypso, that had lain on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for more than two thousand years. Other, more modern wrecks are also explored. Cousteau and his divers encounter and, for the first time ever, film sharks in a feeding frenzy. Other sea-dwelling creatures come to the attention of the crew of Calypso, including sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and a huge “truckfish,” which turns out to be a giant wrasse. The reader joins Cousteau in a deep-sea submersible vehicle as he journeys more than a mile down into the darkness of the ocean.

The story of Captain Cousteau’s life does not end with the final page of the book. This account provides a contemporary record of the early days of Cousteau’s work, an account that has not been distorted by time and legend and that brings the reader an up-close look at this scientist and explorer.

Critical Context

Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s professional life has been revealed to the public through numerous television programs and many more films and books. Indeed, Cousteau has provided much of this material himself, such as his first undersea film, The Silent World (1956), and one of his earlier books bearing the same name. Undersea Explorer provides a worthwhile portrait of the early Cousteau, penned in contemporary terms by an author who was living some of the adventures along with him. Other historical accounts may be more comprehensive, but this biography uncovers the more salient parts of Cousteau’s early life and exploration and keeps the young reader actively involved in the processes of the scientist as he goes about his business. First published in 1957, the story remains dynamic and important as an abridged biography. It provides a view of the emerging scientist that might be overshadowed in later works, which seem to focus on the accomplishments and not on the man.