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eskimo3883
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My Father, the Captain

Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:19 pm

They are finally going to release an English version of "My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteau written by Jean-Michel Cousteau. It will be released on Amazon.com on May 18, 2010. They are currently taking pre-orders for the hard cover ($17.16). Amazon France lists the French language book of the same name at 350 pages (Mon père, le commandant, written by Jean-Michel Cousteau and first released in 2004). The new English language version is 272 pages. Not clear if the two books are identical or just in the sizes of the pages. If anyone knows more I would love to hear back.

I want to consider Cousteau the great man I remember from my youth but IMHO his life story remains severely tainted by all the fiction, much of it spread by him. The Cousteau biography I am most interested ("Cousteau, une biographie", Bernard Violet) is still only available in French. It contains some of the less popular topics. He is known to have performed a single mission for the resistance in January 1941. However, although he was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1946 the mission was carried out at the request of the Vichy government (Darlan) and not for the Free French movement. His actions on the mission are challenged by teammates. The resistance fighter Weliachew Dimitri was working with Cousteau at the time and he criticizes Cousteau of deliberately fleeing without caring the least about the fate of the rest of the team. Dimitri was imprisoned and tortured. Cousteau’s first free diving film, Eighteen Metres Deep, was screened on April 10 1943 to the collaborationist French education minister, the cultural cinema director of the Third Reich, and several hundred German army officers. Also in 1943 he develops a regulator and speaks of secret dives. However, within a short time that same year he is using it to dive under orders from the Italians and Germans. Cousteau writes his biggest competitor in SCUBA design (Commeinhes) died while diving his equipment instead of being the truth, that he was a victim of a German sniper while member of a French tank crew. Cousteau never mentions Commeinhes patent was awarded 3 years before Cousteau’s even though it is known through Taillez that the GERS tested Commeinhes unit. The Commeinhes unit ended up with less than a full sentence in the GERS produced 1949 diving book Plongee en Scaphandre.

I found the following articles of interest:

"20,000 lies under the sea The fishy world of Jacques Cousteau".

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 02346.html

"Cousteau was anti-Semitic and a liar" (Jon Henley, The Guardian, UK, Friday 18 June 1999)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/jun/18/jonhenley1
“A skin diver is a fellow who pulls on a pair of fancy swimming trunks, some rubber fins, a diving mask and canvas gloves, then fills his lungs with air and noses down into the ocean looking for two fisted trouble.”

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USdiver
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:22 pm

That our hero has warts has been known for years. The fact that his brother was a convicted NAZI collaborator, originally sentenced to death is also widely known. His womanizing is what brought about the rift with his son Jean-Michel, was apparent from their fallout after the death of Cousteau's first wife, Simone.

He was a man, and men are by their nature weak. I am still grateful for his opening up of the world below the surface of the sea to mankind, the sense of wonder of the ocean world that he was able to capture so authentically in his films, and his ability to make us care about the sea and its creatures.
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Bryan
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:37 pm

And he was really good at blowing up lagoons to study the fish, running over whales and killing sharks that ate the whale they ran over.....All while looking extremely stylish in a red cap, speedo and smoking an unfiltered cigarette...That my friends is MAN STYLE..... No doubt some bad life decisions on his part but then again he lived in a different time and world than we do now and I'm not here to pass judgement on my childhood hero this late in the game.
Doing it right should include some common sense, not just blindly following specs and instructions. .Gary D, AWAP on SB

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capn_tucker
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:52 pm

Yes, whatever his faults, were it not for Cousteau who knows when or if sport diving would have gotten started. And most of our favorite regulators would not exist either..
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antique diver
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:51 pm

Bryan wrote:And he was really good at blowing up lagoons to study the fish, running over whales and killing sharks that ate the whale they ran over.....All while looking extremely stylish in a red cap, speedo and smoking an unfiltered cigarette....

And don't forget about his dynamiting the reef around the Blue Hole in Belize so he could get the Calypso over the hole for that famous arial shot... that was pretty important. Oh yeah, while he was there he sawed off one of the huge spectacular stalagtites that the Blue Hole is famous for, and hauled it aboard for trophy photos, er, I mean "research". Wow, its a good thing he was such a conservationist or who knows what damage he might have done!

But I grant you that he did more to popularize diving and interest in the sea than anyone since Mike Nelson.
The older I get the better I was.

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eskimo3883
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:26 am

I recieved my copy of My Father, the Captain and have read about a third of it so far. It is a good read and I would recommend the purchase.

A lot is new to me. This is the first time I heard Gagnan handed Cousteau a design for a firemans reg, and not a reg for a car. Very believeable that Air Products woudl go after this market and it would make more sense to use a firemans reg to bridge to an undwerwater unit. Was the story changed back in the day to avoid comparisons to Comeinhes device? There are great stories of childhood. Jean-Michel is not afraid to speak of his uncle. I am a bit disapointed in the coverage between 1940 and 1945. It comes across with some of creativity of past efforts. Still, a book that needs to be read.
“A skin diver is a fellow who pulls on a pair of fancy swimming trunks, some rubber fins, a diving mask and canvas gloves, then fills his lungs with air and noses down into the ocean looking for two fisted trouble.”

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sitkadiver
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:14 am

Ocean Futures Society is selling signed DVDs, blu ray and books:

http://www.oceanfutures.org/store/speci ... s-cousteau

After reading the book I was interested in seeing the DVD becuase I figured there would be several rare photos and film segments. I was happy to see that there were tons. There are quite a few film out takes in the beginning which I will have to compare to The Silent World to see if they're different out takes, but lots of early views of the Aqua Lung.

Another surprise in the film were all the interviews of some very famous people. JMC interviews a whole pile of big names in the underwater world. To name a few:

Capt. Albert Falco
Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev
Dr. Sylvia Earle
Dr. Phil Nyutten
Mr. Ted Turner
Mr. James Cameron(prior to Challener Deep fame)

And many more.

I was also happy to see in the Name Bernie Campoli in the credits.

Image
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luis
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:49 am

Thanks for the link.
I read the book when it first came out and thought it was very interesting. I am looking forward to the video.
Thanks
Luis

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Popeye
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Sat Jun 15, 2013 9:45 am

One of my image's of Cousteau and Gagnan appears in the french version of "My Father,the Captain" also in JMC's "Ocean Futures" website. If you look at the photo credits at the end of the Video you will my credit line for 6 of my still images dating back to 1959-60.

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eskimo3883
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Re: My Father, the Captain

Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:21 am

Thanks for re-pointing out the DVD. It was a bit too costly when it came out but it finally came down a bit. Just watched the DVD and enjoyed it.
“A skin diver is a fellow who pulls on a pair of fancy swimming trunks, some rubber fins, a diving mask and canvas gloves, then fills his lungs with air and noses down into the ocean looking for two fisted trouble.”

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