Who is Jacques Yves Cousteau briefly. Jacques-yves Cousteau and his underwater world
Historical reference
Jacques Yves Cousteau is our contemporary, not a medieval explorer. This man did not become a pioneer, but he created a device that provided an opportunity to see the underwater world. Jacques Yves Cousteau invented several different technical devices during his life, but scuba diving is considered the most important for the entire human civilization.
Jacques was born in 1910 in a small town near Bordeaux. His father was engaged in commerce, traveled a lot abroad. This gave little Jacques the opportunity, in addition to his native language, to quickly master German and English. The nomadic life negatively affected the training of Cousteau, however, to everyone's amazement, he passed the exams perfectly and entered the Naval Academy. He even had a chance to travel around the world, but the thought of traveling, especially underwater, then did not occur to him.
The car accident changed everything. Jacques wanted to become a naval pilot, but after a long course of treatment, doctors put an end to aviation. Cousteau completed his studies and became a naval officer. During his next summer bathing, Jacques Yves Cousteau drew attention to severe eye irritation from sea salt... Then he got the idea to create special glasses, diving with which, he saw the underwater world for the first time. From that moment on, Cousteau's life changed. He fell in love with the deep-sea environment and set out to bring this beauty to the world. However, it is impossible to hold out for a long time without oxygen, and there was no modern cinema equipment yet.
During the war, Jacques had to conduct intelligence and underground activities, the cover of which was underwater research. In such conditions, after repeated risky attempts, the first scuba gear appeared, or, as the inventor called it, "underwater lung".
Significance for modernity
Jacques Cousteau is known not only as the creator of the main diving apparatus, but also as an active participant in the French Resistance. After the war, he remained in the service and proposed to create a new device for diving to the bottom of the sea - a bathyscaphe. The leadership of the fleet met halfway, but did it too delicately - Cousteau went on vacation and, in fact, with the money of a sponsor he found himself, created the famous floating laboratory "Callisto" and the first diving apparatus "Denise". With the help of these devices, many films were shot, which for the first time on world screens demonstrated the extraordinary beauty of the underwater world. Perhaps these shots, which were later seen by millions of people, prompted the most initiative to organize a popular tourist leisure - diving.
Many lovers of the deep sea travel the world, and in their luggage there is a scuba gear created by Cousteau. Diving is rather a symbiosis of travel, sports and recreation. The most popular places for diving are the island of Bali, Thailand, Turkey, Egypt. The Red Sea is very popular due to the interesting sites for which the diving takes place, the excellent climate, the developed infrastructure and the affordability of air travel.
All this came to us thanks to the creation of scuba gear by Jacques Yves Cousteau. He gathered not only a team of like-minded people, he carried away his whole family with this business. His sons became followers of the study of the underwater world and protection environment... Jacques has repeatedly called on the leaders of the countries that have nuclear weapons to stop disposing of radioactive waste at sea, but since then little has changed.
Conclusion
Jacques Yves Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 at the age of 87, the cause of death was myocardial infarction. In his life there was also a new love after the death of his wife, two more children. He was appointed director of the Oceanographic Museum, but few people know about these facts. Jacques Yves Cousteau is known to the world as the creator of scuba gear, and the rest seems to be attached to his life.
June 11, 1910, the great explorer of the seas and oceans of our time was born Jacques-Yves Cousteau... During his long and eventful life, he became almost the most famous person, whose name in the minds of people around the world is directly associated with the sea. He has created dozens of books and films about the life of the blue continent.
There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped
Jacques-Yves Cousteau dreamed of the sea in his youth and even then had a firm intention to connect his fate with it. At the age of 20, he graduated from the naval school and entered the naval academy. At some point, Jacques-Yves was carried away by the sky and even tried to transfer to the naval aviation. But after a car accident in which he was seriously injured, he had to say goodbye to a new dream. As they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped.It was the accident and the ensuing health problems that brought Cousteau even closer to the sea. To restore his lost health, he began to swim daily. It was during this period of his life that he invented his first diving goggles.
The inquisitive mind of the natural scientist did not give rest: experiments began with special equipment for diving. As a result, in 1943, the world received an autonomous scuba gear, thanks to which it was possible to stay under water for a long time and dive to previously unknown depths. Already in 1946, Cousteau's scuba gear entered industrial production. Further - more: underwater lighting and television cameras. All this, without exaggeration, revolutionized the study of the oceans.
So, as a result of a terrible car accident, the world received a great traveler, inventor and explorer of the seas.
French researcher Jacques Yves Cousteau and TV presenter Nikolai Drozdov in the program "In the world of animals". Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Kukhtarev
Cruel sky
Unlike the surface of the sea, the sky was not so favorable to this man. At the first attempt to connect his life with aviation, Cousteau got into a car accident. Later, already a well-known explorer, he began to use the former Catalina naval patrol bomber in his work. It was on it in 1979 that one of the sons of Cousteau died - Philip.
"Catalina" was used for the filming of another film. Philip, who piloted the seaplane, put him on the water, but the car began to sink, quickly sinking under the water. The engine, which was torn off from the wing, crashed into the cockpit with great force.
All crew members escaped, but Philip's body was never found.
French oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau at a meeting with specialists from the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1987 year. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ptitsyn
Mine minesweeper in the service of science
The name of Jacques-Yves Cousteau is inextricably linked with the name of his ship - "Calypso". But few people know that before becoming the main vessel of the world famous explorer of the seas, it was a minesweeper of the British Navy. During World War II, the ship, then bearing the proud name of HMS J-826, roamed the vast Mediterranean Sea... After the war, it served for some time for peaceful purposes as a ferry that transported people from Malta to the island of Gozo. It was then that the ship became known as "Calypso".
Calypso in the port of La Rochelle, 1999. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Peter Potrowl
Bought the ship for Cousteau Irish millionaire Thomas Loel Guinness... The explorer was leased the ship, the cost of which was 1 franc per year. The lessee converted the ship into an expedition vessel, installed equipment for diving and research on it, and also placed a helipad on the deck. The ship could cover up to 5 thousand miles (about 9200 km) in full autonomy mode. The Calypso team consisted of 12 people, with 10 crew members being the researchers themselves. During the work of the Cousteau team on the "Calypso", the ship has visited almost all oceans and seas of the world, including Antarctica, and even walked along the bed of the Amazon.
From that moment on, a completely new life began for Calypso, full of incredible adventures and distant wanderings. It was bright and ended in 1996: the Calypso sank after colliding with a barge in Singapore. Two weeks later, the ship was raised from the day and towed to the French base of the Cousteau team. All subsequent years, they tried in vain to turn the ship into a museum of the great researcher, but the idea constantly ran into various financial and bureaucratic obstacles.
Submarine Jacques Yves Cousteau in Monaco at the Oceanographic Museum. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / wrecked
In a world of silence
In 1953, Cousteau, in collaboration with Frederic Dumas published his first book - "In the world of silence", and three years later a film of the same name was shot using filming of the underwater world. It took 25 km of film and two years of hard work to create the picture. However, the film itself lasts only 86 minutes. Until 2004, it remained the only documentary film to receive the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes.
But the first "test of the pen" of the researcher was the film "8 meters under water", which was filmed in the early 40s, long before the appearance of "Calypso".
The popularity that Cousteau gained thanks to his first book and film allowed him to expand the horizons of his possibilities - he was appointed director of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco and built his first bathyscaphe to dive to the depths of the sea.
If the main role in the first documentary by Cousteau, "Calypso" was rightfully assigned, then underwater research stations were already in the center of attention of the second film, "A World without the Sun". Cousteau's second film in 1965 was awarded an Oscar. Oscar-winning was also the picture "The History of the Red Fish".
By the early 1980s, the central channels of many countries of the world, including the USSR, showed Cousteau's films almost in prime time. The legendary "Odyssey of the Cousteau Team" - a series of documentaries about the underwater world - is known on all continents of the Earth.
Heritage
Without special education and scientific degrees, Cousteau became the first explorer of the world's oceans. For his discoveries and contributions to science, he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, the Order of Naval Merit and other equally high-profile awards.
Tomb of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Peter17
The researcher inherited his numerous books, dozens of films, translated into many languages of the world. Jacques-Yves Cousteau saw the bottom of the world's oceans in a way that no one had ever seen. The researcher was stunned by the extent of the destruction of marine ecosystems. In 1973, the Cousteau Crew Foundation was created, dedicated to oceanographic research and environmental protection.
Cousteau had four children from two wives. Moreover, children from the second wife were born during the period when the researcher was married to his first wife. After the death of his first wife, Cousteau entered into a legal battle with his eldest son. Jean-Michel due to the use of the surname for commercial purposes. The court turned out to be on the side of the parent and forbade the heir to mix his commercial activities with the scientific merits of his father.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau died in 1997, a year after his Calypso collided with a barge and sank.
Cousteau's team intends to live in the ocean at this base for 31 days, which no one has done before. Fabienne Cousteau is the grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the son of Jean-Michel Cousteau, an ocean daredevil who has lived in a flock of white sharks for four and a half months. His life, fears and why he goes deep again - in the essay by The New Times
In the hardships of ocean life, Fabienne Cousteau is confused only by food, but not very / photo: Carrie Vonderhaar
Everything will go on as usual: first, a question about his grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, then a question about his childhood on the famous Calypso, and Fabien Cousteau will correct it as usual - his grandfather had two ships, a former minesweeper Calypso and a turbo-sailing Alcion, and yes, he grew up aboard both ships. Then a couple more questions about his grandfather, his famous red cap and why Fabien himself does not wear the same one, and in general why he is engaged in all this inexplicable madness, like the case when he lived with a flock of white sharks for more than four months. In anticipation of these endlessly asked questions, Fabienne Cousteau twirls in his chair, examines the black walls of the tiny studio in the BBC's New York office and cheerfully exclaims: "It's even closer here than in an aquarium!" A young BBC employee tries in vain to set up the equipment to contact the BBC head office in London, and does not react to the guest's jokes.
“Do you have internet here? - Cousteau chuckles and pretends to turn the handles of the console. - Maybe games? You know, I can speak with them in a French accent, if you like. I don't know, will they understand me then? Can I understand their London accent? It will be fun! In general, I can speak French with them. "
In New York it is 10 am, in London it is 3 pm, but the London office hears nothing, the radio station employee nervously understands the sound and sternly says to the oceanographer: “Let's focus on the interview better. English preferable. " “Oh yes, I think I can do it even in a dream,” Cousteau does not take offense at all.
Now, five weeks before June 1, the day when he and his colleagues go to the depths, Cousteau has to communicate with journalists twice as often as usual. He knows by heart all the editorial offices in the city, after the broadcasts, he disdainfully erases the generous television make-up that slowly flows down in the spring sun from his face, responds with hackneyed, almost memorized words and adds jokes to the scene. Fabien Cousteau treats his fate as a test, because otherwise no one will know what he and his team are doing. In five weeks, he and six other people will sail 9 miles from the Florida Keys archipelago, a chain of coral islands and reefs, put on diving suits and scuba gear, dive from a boat, plunge into the Atlantic Ocean to a depth of 20 meters and swim into the Aquarius underwater laboratory, one from several similar bases in the world. Mission-31 will set a record: Fabien Cousteau's team will live and work for 31 days in a laboratory the size of a trolleybus. Before them, not a single person on Earth had lived in the ocean for so long. Army conditions, astronaut-like workloads, three-tiered bunks, a shared toilet, a narrow passage, a small kitchen, 10-12 hours of scuba diving a day, and fish, yes, especially fish, they are silent and do not ask questions.
A BBC employee finally contacts London and hands over the studio headphones to Cousteau. A greeting is heard in the ears, Cousteau responds with a cheerful "Hi!" Everything will go as usual, ideally, smoothly, and once again he will not be asked the most main question: What is it like to be a descendant of two of the world's most famous oceanographers-explorers and still be foolish to do the same?
But Fabien Cousteau has an answer to this.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself developed the turbo sail technology for the Alcion. Waters of Madagascar, April 1, 2003
French in New York
The Frenchman Fabien Cousteau, a native of Paris, spent most of his life in the United States of America. The family constantly moved, and Fabien managed to change his place of residence 24 times. Last years he settled in New York, in the prestigious Brooklyn Heights area, although he assures that he mostly dresses at home and lives in a suitcase. He speaks English without an accent, although he can “turn it on” at any time because Americans find it “charming”. Thinks simultaneously in two languages, sees dreams in both languages, often uses in speech nautical terms like "fishing" in the sense of "looking." He smiles and laughs in an American style, writes dates in a European way - day, month, year. He loves to play the fool like a child, dresses like a New York dude in shirts, jeans and jackets with a dandy pectoral handkerchief and, like a European, wears a backpack with an umbrella sticking out of his pocket. Exceptionally well-mannered and affable, tall, in good shape, short gray hair, sometimes turning into silver. Instead of the typical New York iPhone - Nokia Lumia, one of the main sponsors of Mission 31.
Fabien Cousteau has no salary. His occupation is called "oceanographer-explorer" and "filmmaker". This means that he studies the oceans, makes documentaries and leads a team of two dozen people. Cousteau also runs his own nonprofit, Plant A Fish, which seeks to improve aquatic ecosystem around the world by supporting and restoring ocean flora and fauna. Movies, producing, speaking at conferences and sometimes sponsoring help bring in earnings. And although Cousteau jokes that one cannot underestimate the luxury of a salary, insurance and a pension, he himself does not miss the times when he had all this: it was a period when he tried to convince himself that the ocean was not for him. ...
For more than 20 years they have wanted to rebuild the Calypso from a pile of metal into a museum. Photo taken in 1997.
Roots
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau with his grandson Fabien. 1970 year |
Fabien was born in Paris in 1967. Two years earlier, his grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau, already then a well-known oceanographer, scientist and inventor of scuba gear, received an Oscar for the documentary A World Without Sunshine. The film told about the construction by the Cousteau team of the world's first underwater home - the Conshelf Two base at a depth of 11 meters in the Red Sea, in the Chab-Rumi lagoon, where Jacques-Yves lived with his team for 30 days.
“My grandmother Simone was on Calypso more than my grandfather and dad put together. In fact, she was a real captain of the ship, and it was thanks to her that my grandfather was so successful, she just did not climb into the camera, - says Fabien. "She was an amazing lady, the first female scuba diver, the first female aquanaut." Fabien's mother, Anna Maria, was an expeditionary photographer on board the Calypso and Alcion for many years. Fabien's father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, is an architect by education, but as a result, in 1979, after the death of his younger brother Philippe, he joined his father's team. Philip was the favorite of Cousteau the elder, shot all his films with him and was supposed to become the main successor of the family business. Philip crashed near Lisbon in a PBY Catalina amphibious aircraft. Crushed with grief, Jacques-Yves called his eldest son into business, and their partnership lasted 14 years. Jean-Michel Cousteau eventually became an independent figure in the world of oceanography and environmental protection. Philip's children are also engaged in oceanography, as well as Native sister Fabiena - Celine. In general, a real clan, which, however, Fabienne does not intend to continue: he has no children and will not have, because he does not want to be an eternally absent parent.
Jaws
Throughout his life, Fabien grew up among scientists, researchers, documentary filmmakers and oceanographers. “I didn’t know anything but this as a child,” he says today. When he was four years old, he asked his dad to bring him fried chicken from KFC "like a good French kid", and while Jean-Michel was wandering around Los Angeles for fast food, Fabien made his first dive. Upon his return, Jean-Michel found his son at the bottom of the pool, alternately sharing one scuba gear with a family friend. “I was curious: I saw that all the family members were diving, and I thought: well, let's see what it’s like in general,” explains Fabien. A week later, he was given his own scuba gear, and the family went diving on the California coast. By the age of seven, Fabien was diving professionally and constantly saw sharks nearby, and it was always something completely natural. Sharks, says Cousteau, are a sign of a healthy ecosystem; now he sees sharks much less often. Then the famous Belgian comic strip "The Adventures of Tintin" fell into his hands. The cover of Fabien's most beloved issue, Treasures of Bloody Rock, features adventure reporter Tintin and his faithful dog Milou plowing the ocean floor in a shark-like submarine. The submarine looks deliberately cartoonish - the "shark" has a silly smile, bulging eyes, and a glass dome grows from its back, like a huge blister, in which Tintin and Milu are visible. This image forever engraved young Fabienne in the subcortex of his head: even today, his iPad-mini has a case with this picture. Fabien is sure: there is no stronger motivation in the world than children's fantasy.
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“My grandmother was on the Calypso more than my grandfather and dad put together. In fact, she was the real captain of the ship. "
”
At the age of seven, Fabienne and his family traveled on a cruise ship across the Atlantic Ocean. The recent premiere of "Jaws" was being played in the ship's cinema, and Fabien asked his parents to take him to the show, but the parents of the child, who had seen real sharks many times, strictly forbade him to watch "Jaws". “Now you're watching Jaws and it's so funny. These are the 1970s! - laughs Cousteau. “But in those years he made many people afraid of the ocean. And they played this movie on an ocean liner, of course. " After listening to the instructions of his relatives, Fabien immediately made his way into the hall. Immediately after that, again "being a smart French child," he began to ask his parents questions, from which everything became clear. Fabien was punished for a month. "It was worth it! - recalls the oceanographer with a laugh. - I was mesmerized, shocked by this incredible animal. I am mesmerized by how it devoured boats, divers, buoys, budget. " The film left the young Cousteau puzzled: how could it be, he himself saw sharks and they are not at all such ruthless killers. He finally understood what he wanted: to show the world the real life of sharks. And Fabien understood exactly how he wanted to do it - with the help of a shark submarine, like Tintin's.
Jacques-Yves and Jean-Michel Cousteau on an expedition to the Calypso. Amazon, 1975
Choice
Fabienne Cousteau understood from the very beginning that he really had no choice. He always knew what he wanted to do, but he knew that being the third generation in a famous dynasty and continuing their work was a suicide job. Then Fabien decided to check: is he really attracted by the ocean, as it seems to him? “I needed a test, a proof - do they pull, do they attract me, do other things baffle me?” He basically did not go to study to be an oceanologist and scientist, instead graduated from Boston University and received a bachelor's degree in environmental economics. Studied international marketing and business, worked as an art gallery sales agent, account manager, graphic designer. These were the days when he received a stable salary and did "traditional work". In his search, Fabien came across only one phenomenon that fascinates him: vintage motorcycles. I never thought to become a racer, but I found a hobby for life: when there is time, he locks himself in the garage, turns off the phone and spends hours digging in heaps of metal. “This is my zen moment, to sit when no one can find me, take some simple thing like a motor, take it apart, put it back together and breathe a whole new life into something that might otherwise go to the junkyard. I love it very much, ”says Cousteau. In general, no matter how he broke himself, no matter how he fought with himself, in the end he came to what he had to come to: only the ocean makes him happy.
In the summer of 1997, a few months before Fabien's thirtieth birthday, Jacques-Yves Cousteau died at the age of 87. He left behind 134 documentaries, 70 books, a new pop-entertainment approach to science, conservation organizations with more than 300,000 members, scuba gear, turbo sail technology, the crashed and flooded Calypso barge in Singapore, heirloom grandeur and family drama. A few years before his death, Jacques-Yves began to sue his son Jean-Michel, who opened the Cousteau hotel in Fiji. Cousteau-grandfather demanded that Cousteau-son should not call his businesses the last name "Cousteau", but called them as they were: "Jean-Michel Cousteau." The scandal was fierce, the press was delighted. If Fabien is brought into conversation, he is ready to remember about it. According to him, the scandal turned out to be big mainly thanks to journalists, because in fact it was only an arbitration dispute, the meaning of which was to separate the non-profit activities of grandfather's environmental protection "Cousteau Society" and the activities of father's business. “Has it affected our family? Of course it did. If we were normal people, non-public figures, this would be resolved the way all disputes in the family are resolved. " The dispute Cousteau-son lost, the hotel is called "Jean-Michel Cousteau", and in the articles about Cousteau-grandfather and Cousteau-son they write only this way: there were big disagreements between them on a common cause. The pure conflict between fathers and children.
In the early 2000s, Cousteau-grandson made a choice: he dropped everything and returned to the ocean. Says it was difficult decision: he perfectly understood what the public's expectations he would face. Fabien began directing films and, with his father and sister Celine, created the three-year documentary series Ocean Adventures. And then he finally decided: it's time for the sub-shark.
The Cousteau family: Fabien, Celine and their father, Jean-Michel. 2007, work on Ocean Adventures
Swimming horse
Troy was a masterpiece of insane engineering. Submarine shark had to own appearance to deceive white sharks so that they think that next to them, if not their fellow tribesman, then at least a braked cousin from Australia, as Fabien joked. The Troy was not at all like Tintin's naive boat from Cousteau's childhood. It was a steel killer, huge, terrible, like death itself, almost "Jaws". Evil sharp muzzle, wide, devilish mouth. Frame made of bent steel pipes, the spine is made of elastic plastic, the body is sheathed with thick latex mixed with glass chips and glass to imitate the rough skin of a shark. A folding head made of fiberglass, cameras in the "eyes" disguised as sticky fish, and a closed pneumatic system that drives air like blood through the veins, through the pistons of the tail and fins. The boat is not airtight, so Fabien put on a diving suit, climbed into the womb filled with water through the folding head, lay down on his stomach and controlled this four-meter boat with joysticks. Five hundred and forty-four kilograms of pure floating madness.
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He always knew that being the third generation in a glorious dynasty was a suicide activity.
”
Troy took three years of Cousteau's life. When he just started looking for people who would build a boat for him, they said to him: guy, you are completely out of the way. Then there were the same crazy people like Fabien, the $ 100 thousand needed for the construction were collected as best they could. But when everything worked out, Cousteau's group went to the island of Guadeloupe, and every day Cousteau climbed into this deep-sea mutant, swam after the marked flock, infiltrated it and took pictures and studied its habits for four and a half months in a row. “The only way to learn something new about these animals is to see their behavior when we are not around. When we are not sitting in a cage, we are not poking them with a stick, we are not feeding them, - Cousteau explains with a fanatical aspiration. “Troy was not just a fun gadget, it was a new way to study sharks, camouflage as if we weren't there, swim like one of them. How do they communicate with each other? What kind of reality surrounds them? How do they hunt when you are not stimulating them? " Fabien says that in the days of his grandfather and father, sharks were either simply kept aloof, or were killed from sin, and he decided that he just had to stop being an aggressor. But at least it was scary? “I felt comfortable. They never touched the boat, did not show aggression, were relaxed. We learned that this animal, which is three to five times larger than us, can be frightened by us. " Undercover operation succeeded: Fabien filmed 170 hours unique material most of which, mostly biological, never made it into his 2006 film The Mind of the Demon for the American public channel PBS. Television wanted sharks and spectacles, not science and new knowledge. Cousteau, however, does not look upset: after all, he achieved his goal.
When Fabien came up with the boat shark, he was told that he was crazy. Waters of Guadeloupe, 2006
Mission Florida Keys
Living conditions underwater are a lot like living in space. Near zero gravity, overload, semi-finished products, food in tubes or diluted in water, small living space and boundless silent something around. Actually, NASA often sends astronauts to train in Aquarius, Fabienne compares the base to the International Space Station, and people who live under water for some time are called aquanauts. There are several differences from life in space. First, hair grows faster under water. Secondly, the base itself still has gravity, and since aquanauts swim a lot, their legs do not atrophy like astronauts. Thirdly, Fabien laughs, if colleagues, whom you recognize very closely in a room with an open toilet, are finally bothered, then you can always go out into the ocean. The area is 3 by 14.5 meters, the pressure is three times greater than on the ISS - three atmospheres, along the walls there are cabinets, equipment, multi-tiered bunks, a passage - 70 centimeters, so that seven people will constantly touch each other. But there is Wi-Fi, and with it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, e-mail. Could it be imagined, Fabien asks, that his grandfather sat on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida and taught a lesson by video link for schoolchildren in China? Of course not. And Fabien will teach such a lesson.
Until June 1, Fabien visited Aquarius several times, but only for an hour; his team will break the previous record of being at this base - 19 days. According to Fabien, there are few people in the world who have lived under water for more than a few weeks. The only one who, after July 2, 2014, when Cousteau and the team return to the surface, will be close to such a long stay under water, is, of course, his own grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Conshelf Two. True, Fabien's team will live at a depth twice as deep, and therefore the pressure will be greater, and the conditions will be more difficult. Fabien's team is going to study the impact of climate change and pollution on the ocean, as well as the physiological and psychological impact of life under water, without the sun, on the person himself.
According to Fabien Cousteau, each new generation of people should stand on the shoulders of the previous one, take the best from them, but always interpret the surrounding reality in its own way. Jacques-Yves Cousteau opened the ocean to the world. Jean-Michel Cousteau is dedicated to protecting the ocean as a single environment. Fabien went further: he says that you need to start thinking out of the box (go beyond stereotypes), because if you study the ocean the same way you studied it before, you will not learn anything new. Cousteau believes: the time has come for young, risky, daring, self-confident and enthusiastic people, a lot of discoveries await them. “You have no idea how many white spots still remain in the ocean,” says Fabien. “What we have learned over the past hundred years is less than five percent. We know so little, only basic things. Species, climatic changes, geology, dynamics - we all do not understand well. But this is what drives our whole life, economy, technology, science, medicine. This planet is called "Earth" and should be called "Ocean".
There are only a few similar Aquarius bases in the world. The size of a trolleybus and conditions like on the ISS. Florida Keys, 2014
Burden of surname
Fabien Cousteau's Brooklyn Heights apartment has a small office. This is a very austere space with white walls, a table, a white marker board and corner shelf... Here Fabien works and gives Skype interviews. That piece of the office, which is visible to a person on Skype, is built so that the eye sees only the most important thing. Here are the Nokia phone boxes that the team will use to shoot the research, here are the Doxa watch boxes, also sponsors, here white board covered with the last points of preparation for the launch of "Mission-31". Before the start of the project - three weeks, Fabien had bags under his eyes, a slight unshaven on his face, and in small handwriting he writes on the blackboard everything that must be completed before leaving New York for the archipelago. Then, finally, media silence before launch, two weeks of test swims, endless repetitions of safety protocols, training, honing communications, preparing for illnesses, accidents, injuries, breakdowns, repairs. There is no time even to get nervous.
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“It infuriates me. I'm not my grandfather! But I have a feeling that people just want to see my grandfather. "
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If, in the midst of all this mess, you ask Fabien Cousteau, which is usually not asked of him - about his conflict with the world around him - then for the first time he will run out of ready-made answers, the media buzz will fly off, and he will begin to select words. All his life he is greeted and judged by his last name. The surname, says Cousteau, on the one hand, opens the doors, but on the other, when you enter this door, the expectations from you are ten times higher than from others. And it would be okay, but after all, the surname often does not solve anything - in the end, the search for funding always becomes a problem for Fabien. But there is a constant comparison with the grandfather and expectations of the best result. “But there is always only one first, one pioneer. People see only the result of decades of work and do not see the failures of their grandfather, and it is simply dishonest to measure the current generation, me, ”- says Cousteau. Cousteau seems that when people look at him, they may think one of two things - either he was just lucky with the genes and he came to everything ready, or he does all this only because of his grandfather. “But this legacy comes with a heavy responsibility and a preconceived audience,” he stammers without practiced phrases. “Sometimes it infuriates me. I'm not my grandfather! I am an independent person! And I do what I dreamed of doing all my life, this is my world. But I have a feeling that people are just expecting to see my grandfather. This is my conflict - to be myself and to have the right to bear this name. This is a privilege and a burden. " Fabienne Cousteau smiles tiredly, really, not in an American way, not pretended. After all, he says, this is only the very beginning of his career, and there are still many crazy ocean exploits ahead. Which ones, he refuses to say, only mentioned that he dreams of one day exploring the oceans of Mars. And he hopes that he will also leave a mark.
Once, in an interview, Fabienne Cousteau quoted his grandfather, who said that there is only one way in the world to photograph a fish - to become a fish yourself. Probably, this principle also works in other cases: for example, to be Cousteau, you need to become Cousteau.
photo: Carrie Vonderhaar, Georges Gobet / AFP, East News, Anne-Marie Cousteau, AFP, East News, naglubine.com, Kip Evans, Missioin Blue
I happened to visit the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco two days ago, where Jacques Yves Cousteau was the director for 32 years. I was surprised that this museum does not even have a photograph of this great man. An entire era of oceanographic research is associated with this name. I have always admired what he did and how brilliantly he did it. Cousteau showed the whole world what the path of a person walking against the current, opening new pages in the book of life, conquering himself, his own laziness, indecision and static, and most importantly, his own fear can be like. What is it like to go down in a single submarine to a depth of more than 500 meters in complete darkness? He died in 1997, and his era ended with him. Cousteau's films do not show, and new explorers cannot reach his level of understanding of the ocean depths. The young wife (and he married for the second time already at a ripe old age) did not love him enough to devote herself to preserving his cause. Younger son died in a plane crash, and the elder became a businessman and also does little to perpetuate the memory of his father. Jacques Yves Cousteau largely determined the fate of his creations, having an affair with an Air France flight attendant Francine Triplet, whom he met in 1976 - this romance was destined to last until his death. While Captain fans around the world continued to see Simone's sons Jean-Michel and Philippe scuba diving in his films, the flight attendant Francine and the two children she bore to Captain remained in the background. For 15 long years, Cousteau only occasionally appeared in company with Francine, introducing her as his niece. Six months after the death of Simone's first wife from cancer, Jacques Yves Cousteau solemnly registered his marriage to Francine. The 81-year-old Captain brought the new Madame Cousteau by the arm of the Paris City Hall - she was 36. On that day, their common children, 10-year-old Diana and 8-year-old Pierre-Yves, were first introduced to the general public. The new Madame Cousteau began to systematically get rid of everything that was associated with the name of the former. “This is the revenge of an insulted woman for 15 years living in the shadows with her children. She erases the history in which she did not take part, "- says journalist Bernard Dussol, author of the book" The Last Adventure of Calypso. " Simone created the legend "Jacques-Yves Cousteau", and Francine removes dividends from her. Simone's youngest son Philip died, all other family members are fiercely suing. Is this the finale of the story of the great explorer? In place of romantic ecologists hungry for new discoveries, the Cousteau Society was replaced by managers eager to increase the company's revenues. Typical gangsters are the new managers of the Cousteau Society, headed by a young widow! They almost write threatening letters: “Beware! We will sue you for copyright infringement! " If Cousteau's popularization does not bring money, its managers slow down any undertakings. One American publisher asked the widow for a photograph of Cousteau for publication in a school textbook - she refused.
It is somehow difficult to apply the usual measure of the average member of society to talented people who have put their own lives on the altar of science or art, since it is, like a Procrustean bed, too narrow and short for a person who has fully revealed his inner potential. Such people at all times remained not understood by those around them, and even if they gained world fame, they still found themselves in deep loneliness alone with their spiritual impulses, discoveries and prophetic thoughts ahead of their time. So it happened with Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who, even having received universal recognition, a lot of prizes, awards and titles, remained not understood as a person who became the discoverer of another reality. Aquanaut, who looked into the heart of the Ocean, a medium who heard the low voice of the element of water that gave rise to life itself, a wanderer between the world of people and fish, a guide to the kingdom of Poseidon - a lot of epithets for this extraordinary person have been invented, but none of them can claim to be full and the volumetric transmission of the image of the great explorer of the depths of the sea.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau- the famous French oceanographer, one of the inventors of scuba gear, an enthusiast of underwater research. Born June 11, 1910 in the French town of Sant Andre de Kuzbak. His father was a native of Belarus, went to Europe to work and became a lawyer. In 1933, Cousteau graduated from the French Naval Academy and was promoted to lieutenant. He dreamed of a naval career, saw himself as the captain of a military cruiser. Cousteau was assigned to the training ship Jeanne D Arc, on which he managed to sail around the world, but in 1936 he was involved in a car accident that permanently blocked the path of his military career. ...
In 1937, Cousteau met Philippe Tayet, a naval officer, poet, humanist, and a man in love with the sea. It was he who became for Cousteau " godfather"in free diving. From the moment they met, Cousteau forever devotes himself to learning the secrets of the underwater world. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Philippe Tayet and Frederic Dumas, who soon joined them, have since been almost inseparable - they were even nicknamed the" Three Musketeers. " looking for a way to prolong their stay under water by all means known to them.
In 1943, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, together with Emile Gallian, invented an apparatus designed for breathing underwater - the first scuba diving. Already in 1946, the industrial production of scuba gear began. Cousteau's hobby for scuba diving and exploration of the ocean depths prompted him to other discoveries: he came up with an "underwater saucer" - a small maneuverable submarine, as well as different kinds underwater video cameras.
In 1950, he purchased a decommissioned British destroyer and converted it into a floating research laboratory that became known internationally as Calypso. It was on this legendary ship that Cousteau and his team performed more than once round the world travel, explored the marine flora and fauna, made unique records, filming, photographs.
In 1953, Cousteau received world recognition as a writer. World of Silence "- the first book to open the world of the ocean to the general public. The film adaptation of this book was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar. The second "Oscar" Cousteau received for the script of the film " gold fish"(" Golden Fish "). Among his other books should be noted" Living Sea "(1963)," Dolphins "(1975)," Jacques Cousteau: the world of the ocean "(1985). Peru Cousteau owns dozens of books (some of them have been translated in Russian), he also made 104 films from the series "Odyssey of the Cousteau team." In 1956, Jacques-Yves Cousteau retired from the French Navy with the rank of captain.
1957 Prince Rainier of Monaco invites Cousteau to become director of the famous Oceanographic Museum of the Principality. He accepts the offer, and this suits both sides perfectly: the state takes advantage of the cinematic fame of the researcher Cousteau, and Jacques Yves can congratulate himself on his appointment to a scientific position. In fact, he never called himself a scientist, but acted and behaved as if he was. It is enough to listen to his other speeches and comments in author's films to be convinced of this. This state of affairs somewhat irritated some
This is the time to remember the children of Jacques Yves Cousteau. He has two sons. The elder Jean-Michel became an architect in 1960. Soon he was already doing several sketches for his father. The youngest Philip, having received a bachelor's degree in 1961, entered military service in the French Navy, and after a while - at the Higher Cinematographic Courses. Ots takes an active part in research activities father. In 1962, Jacques-Yves Cousteau began his legendary experiment to study a fulfilling life under water. It is on Operation Precontinent I, during which two swimmers, Albert Falco and Claude Wesley, will live for a week on the high seas opposite the shores of Marseille in an underwater house at a depth of 10 meters and work at a depth of 25 meters under water.
The results of the work were encouraging, and in 1963 the operation "Precontinent II" was undertaken in the Red Sea, followed by "Precontinent III" in 1965 ... Five people, including the "veterans" of the first "Precontinent", participate in the second experiment and six in the third. Among them is Philip Cousteau. And if the fact that these experiments made it possible to achieve certain scientific and technical results, to better study the features of the human psyche in an enclosed space at depth, is completely irrefutable, then they were equally regarded by the authorities as too expensive. An interesting documentary was filmed in 2010 about this wonderful, unsurpassed person.
These are the thoughts that came to my mind after the idea of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.
The monumental building of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, as if carved out of a rock, has been rising on the rocky coast of the Mediterranean Sea for almost a hundred years as a monument to human genius.
For the first time, the idea of creating such a museum appeared in 1899. The founder of the museum is Prince Albert I of Monaco, a passionate navigator and amateur oceanographer.
The prince's huge collections, obtained during sea expeditions, including various exhibits from marine instruments to inhabitants of the deep sea, required special storage conditions, so it was decided to create a specialized museum with a library, auditoriums and a laboratory for their maintenance.
Fortunately, funding problems scientific research in those days in Monaco did not exist - huge incomes from the activities of the casino "Monte Carlo", generously spent on the maintenance of the museum and new sea expeditions.
The death of the prince in 1922, world wars and the post-war economic crisis threatened to close the museum. But the interest of tourists in Monaco, which arose again in the post-war period, did the impossible: Oceanographic Museum of Monaco became the first institution of its kind in the world that could fully cover its costs from the proceeds from ticket sales.
In addition, at the same time, the international committee of the museum decided to invite the famous ocean scientist Jacques Yves Cousteau to the post of its director. Who managed to revive the traditions of Prince Albert I and gave a new round in the life of the museum, which continues to improve to this day.
Today, the museum's 90 aquariums provide visitors with the opportunity to look into the waters of absolutely all seas and oceans. the globe... The museum displays a rare collection of 4000 species of fish, 200 species of invertebrates and 100 species of tropical corals.
Inside the museum is a series of halls equipped with beautiful aquariums, which in themselves are a technological breakthrough in this area.
- the famous French traveler, inventor, author of many films and books that are very popular. Jacques Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910 in a small French town near Bordeaux. My father was engaged in business and the family moved frequently. Little Jacques often had to change schools, which negatively affected his education. On the other hand, frequent travel broadened the child's horizons and made it possible to quickly master English and German languages... The family spent the summer on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. He learned to swim early and loved the sea for life. Since childhood, he endured a love of changing places and the desire to see and learn something new. This probably prompted him to enter the Naval Academy. He successfully passed the exams, their group was the first to go to circumnavigation... After graduating from the Academy, Cousteau ended up in Shanghai at a naval base. But Cousteau dreams of becoming a naval pilot and enters the Naval Aviation Academy. A car accident, as a result of which the radial nerve was injured on his arm, put an end to his dream. In 1930, he returned to the Navy to lead a group of underwater research. In 1936, Cousteau served on the cruiser Sufren.
The love for the sea only grew stronger over the years. Frequent bathing in sea water caused eye irritation, so I had to purchase waterproof glasses. 
Diving under the water for the first time with glasses, Jacques Yves Cousteau was fascinated by the beauty and mystery of the underwater world. From now on, he decided to devote his life to the study of the underwater world and to convey to everyone the beauty and diversity of the underwater kingdom. However, additional difficulties arose - there was no apparatus with oxygen, which would allow to be under water for a long time, there was no modern cinema equipment yet. Cousteau invents the oxygen apparatus, together with Gagnan, he perfects the scuba gear invented by Captain Leprier. Together with the underwater research center, a special vessel for underwater observation and research called the "diving saucer" was designed.
In the early 1950s, using sponsorship money, Cousteau created the floating laboratory "Calypso" from an old minesweeper for the purpose of oceanographic research. 
At the same time, the first device for deep diving "Deniz" was created. In 1953, his book In the World of Silence was published, co-authored by Frederico Dumas. A well-deserved recognition came to Cousteau, and the film based on the book received an Oscar and a Palme d'Or in 1956. In 1957, Cousteau was offered to head the Oceanographic Museum in the Kingdom of Monaco. He moves here with his wife Simone Melichor and two sons. Here he completely devoted himself to oceanographic research. In the 60s, he was engaged in the Conchelf program for the exploration and development of continental shelf zones. In the Red Sea, on the cornice of the underwater coral reef, Shab-Rumi was installed metal house (« Starfish"), Designed for a long stay of five aquanauts in it. And below (at a depth of 15 m) was placed a cabin for two - "Raketa", the inhabitants of which conducted research at a depth of 110-120 meters. In the fall of 1965, a spherical house was placed off the coast of Monaco, in which six aquanauts spent 23 days at a depth of 110 meters. 
In 1967, Cousteau was carried away by a new program for the study of life at different latitudes of the World Ocean. In the 70s, an expedition was carried out to the shores of Antarctica, where whales became the main objects of research. A tireless explorer, Cousteau passionately fights and advocates for the preservation of ocean fauna and the purity of its environment. In 1973 he created the Cousteau Society with the aim of protecting the marine environment. After the death of his wife, in 1991, Jacques Yves Cousteau officially formalized his relationship with his longtime love - Francine Triplet. From this connection, Cousteau had two children, born before marriage, a daughter, Diana, born in 1979, and a son, Pierre, born in 1981. On June 25, 1997, the great explorer, propagandist, humanist, inventor of scuba gear and a passionate fighter for the purity of the oceans passed away. The cause of his death was myocardial infarction. Buried this great person at the cemetery of Saint-André-de-Kubzak.
