1943 to Early 50s...
- I've been reading
The Silent World (the book not the movie) which I think was the first book Cousteau wrote. It actually goes back before 1943 and before the German invasion of France in 1942. I believe 1943 was the year the first Aqualung arrived. Prior to that, Cousteau and his dive buddies Dumas and Talliez were "goggle divers" searching for a way to stay down longer.
- They had tried the "Fernez" system with free flowing compressed air tank. They tried rebreathers. And they probably tried other systems. I am concluded that they paid a lot of dues to learn what a
breathing free diver needed so that when Emil Gagnan entered the picture they could tell him exactly what they needed. Gagnan designed it to address those needs and so, when the first Aqualung arrived, it worked almost perfectly regardless of depth... A seemingly lucky break that took a lot of diving experiences to bring about.
- I am impressed at the ambition and courage of the early Cousteau group. They dove the heck out of those first few Aqualungs. They learned about decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis while diving by the seat of their pants. They did wreck diving, DEEP diving, cave diving, cold water diving, clear water, cloudy water... Some of it was very dangerous and some seems even foolhardy but they pursued it all full throttle and paid a lot of dues... Those that came after Cousteau had some big shoulders to stand on.
- So, when I was reading about the 1960s Sea Lab starting at 200 feet deep and going right to 600 feet deep, I was surprised at how careful and cautious Cousteau's Conshelf program proceeded. Conshelf I was 1 week at 33 feet. Conshelf II was a month at 33 feet with a one week test habitat at 90 feet. Seems overly cautious doesn't it? But the 600 ft Sea Lab ended in tragedy and 400 ft Conshelf III was pulled off seemingly with remarkable ease. I'm thinking that Cousteau had perhaps already learned (the hard way) to proceed cautiously from the early days...For example,
- He nearly killed himself TWICE before he finally swore off oxygen rebreathers. And, his team nearly killed themselves TWICE before they stopped a cave diving expedition to finally figure out they were breathing carbon monoxide. Being the first to make a dangerous mistake is one thing... Getting back into the same ring a second time takes a lot of courage plus an overwhelming drive for answers. Cousteau DID eventually lose some of his divers in tragic accidents... And in those days he did the dangerous stuff right along side them and carried a heavy burden whenever an accident occurred. So, he came to the Conshelf program with a healthy respect for proceeding with caution.
- In the 1940s Cousteau and company dove a lot of "Firsts". In the 50s they had the Calypso and dove alot BIGGER firsts. I think the early 60s were the beginning of the end... They did the Conshelf habitats which were entirely successful and proved out safe methods of saturation diving. But I think they also showed that living in undersea houses was not going to be romantic, much less practical. I think the oil and military industries left Cousteau in the dust when they pursued extreme depths and lock-out saturation diving.
- Which brings me to the '70s, when I was 16-26 years old. I only knew the Cousteau that I saw in those beautiful TV shows. To me, Cousteau was all about the graceful flight of divers in warm, clear waters and futuristic diving gear. He embraced environmentalism and pitched his role of "Ambassador to the Sea". His TV shows were rather austentatious in this regard... from the opening, "Dedicated to All Those Who Fight to Protect Life"... or something like that... To hypocrytically condemning a red coral diver for doing what Cousteau and his divers enjoyed doing just a few years before.
I fell for it all hook line and sinker.