Famous French People Jacques-Yves Cousteau© by Robert Shepherd

Hello, you’re listening to EnglishWaves and this is Robert Shepherd. Welcome to the latest instalment of Famous French – an episode in which we explore the life of a true polymath. The man in question was a researcher, photographer, documentary host, filmmaker, military leader, scientist, inventor and undersea explorer, who invented diving and scuba devices, including the aqua-lung. He is, of course, the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He was born on 11th June 1910, in the village of Saint-André-de-Cubzac, south-western France. The younger of two sons born to Daniel and Elizabeth Cousteau, he learned to swim at the age of four and it was just the start of a lifelong fascination with the water. When Cousteau entered adolescence, he also demonstrated a strong curiosity for mechanical objects. He purchased a movie camera and took it apart to understand how it operated. Although inquisitive at a young age, Cousteau didn’t do great at school. When he turned 13, his parents sent him to boarding school in Alsace. On completion of his preparatory studies, Cousteau attended Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École Navale in Brest. Having graduated as a gunnery officer, Cousteau took up a post at the French Navy's information service. He took his beloved camera along and shot yards of film at exotic ports in the Indian and South Pacific oceans. However, in 1933 Cousteau’s life was forever altered. He was in a major automobile accident that nearly claimed his life. During his rehabilitation, he took up daily swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in order to help strengthen his badly injured arms. His friend, Philippe Tailliez, gave Cousteau a pair of swimming goggles, which opened him to the mysteries of the sea and began his quest to understand the underwater world. In 1937, Cousteau married Simone Melchior. They had two sons called Jean-Michel and Philippe who would later join their father in underwater expeditions During World War II, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Cousteau and his family took refuge in the small town of Megève, near the Swiss border. For the first few years of the war, he quietly continued his underwater experiments and explorations. In 1943 he met Émile Gagnan, a French engineer who shared his passion for discovery. It was also around this time, compressed air cylinders were invented and Cousteau and Gagnan experimented with snorkel hoses, body suits and breathing apparatus. It wasn’t long until they developed the first aqua-lung device, which allows divers to stay underwater for long periods of time. Not content with creating the aqua-lung, Cousteau was also instrumental in the development of a waterproof camera that could withstand the high pressure of deep water. During this time, Cousteau made two documentaries on underwater exploration called Par dix-huit mètres de fond and Épaves. Away from exploration and technology, Cousteau did his bit for the country as the war gathered momentum. He joined the French Resistance movement, spying on Italian armed forces and documenting troop movements. Cousteau was recognized for his efforts and he was awarded the Légion d'honneur. Post-war, Cousteau was hired by the French navy to clear underwater mines. In 1948, Cousteau, along with Philippe Tailliez, expert divers and academic scientists, undertook an underwater expedition in the Mediterranean Sea to find the Roman shipwreck Mahdia. It was the first underwater archaeology operation using self-contained diving apparatus and marked the beginning of underwater archaeology. Just two-years later, Cousteau leased a one-time British minesweeper and converted it into an oceanographic research vessel he named Calypso. However, Cousteau struggled to finance his voyages, so in 1953, he published the book The Silent World, which was later made into an award-winning film. This success allowed him to finance another expedition to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean sponsored by the French government and the National Geographic Society. In 1966, Cousteau launched his first hour- long television special, “The World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau” on the ABC television network. In 1968, he produced the television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which ran for nine seasons. Cousteau also wrote several books and formed the Cousteau Society in 1973, in an effort to raise awareness of the ecosystems of the underwater world. However, in 1979 tragedy struck. Cousteau’s son, Philippe, was killed in a plane crash. In 1990 he faced more bereavement. His wife Simone sadly died and a year later, Cousteau married Francine Triplet, with whom he had a daughter and son - born while Cousteau was actually married to Simone. Cousteau himself died unexpectedly in Paris on 25th June 1997, at the age of 87. His estate and the foundation fell into dispute among his survivors. However, most of the legal disputes were settled by 2000, when his son, Jean-Michel, disassociated himself from the Cousteau Society and formed his own organization the Oceans Futures Society. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a pioneer whose achievements we take for granted to this very day. Stay tuned to EnglishWaves.