The Captain is 100 Today Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997

[Gilldiver]

RIP My Captain, Your Work will be Carried on by Many Shoulders

O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

 

[kingairpilot]

Happy Birthday, mon ami.

Here is one of my favorite Cousteau/Calypso tributes.

YouTube - Calypso

He may have been a long haired hippy, but John Denver could sing.


ka

 

[Dhboner]

I am 52 and when I was around 10 or 11 I wrote to Jacques asking if I could volunteer to crew on the Calypso. About a month later I got a reply signed by him (or maybe I naively believed it was his REAL signature). He told me that 1,000's of people volunteer each year to work with his team but that I should continue with my love for the sea and marine life and that when I was old enough I should learn to dive and carry out my own "research".

It sounds corny but that short letter inspired me to not only learn to dive but to learn as much as I could about marine ecology and conservation.

Apart from my father he was my greatest influence growing up.

Rest in peace Captain Cousteau!

 

[D_B]

Tip my mask to him

It's good to see that his ship Calypso is being restored ... Homepage | Cousteau

 

[Scared Silly]

Just a little addendum to Pete's post.

For those who do not know O Captain! My Captain! was written by Walt Whitman in response to Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

 

[drbill]

The Captain, or JYC as his crew referred to him. was certainly one of the factors that got me involved in a lifelong love of SCUBA diving and the ocean world. I had the honor of working for him on a TV documentary back in 1985. We never actually met (he was on the Calypso and I was based off Alcyone with Jean-Michel), but this experienced fulfilled one of my "bucket list" items early on. Still have the signed copy of The Amazon he and Jean-Michel gave me after that adventure.

May just have to celebrate his birthday (and mine tomorrow) with the purchase of a copy of "The Silent World" via the Internet. Will pay respects tomorrow at his memorial in the Casino Point Dive Park.

 

[Nikolai]

Just a FYI, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is playing Cousteau Odyssey all day today. Great to see the old shows I grew up with as a child!

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Happy Birthday, mon ami.

Here is one of my favorite Cousteau/Calypso tributes.

YouTube - Calypso

He may have been a long haired hippy, but John Denver could sing.


ka

I have been saying a lot of "Thankyou's" to people for their writing on the influence of Jacques Cousteau on their lives. I too have been greatly affected by JYC, as I saw the original showing of The Silent World as a boy in Salem, Oregon. I remember vividly that the theater had a trailer with a full-sized hard hat diver displayed (ironic, isn't it) when I watched the movie in 1957 or 1958. After watching that movie, I was inspired to spend a summer to pick strawberries and beans (I was in my early teens) so that I could buy a scuba unit. That winter (must have been 1958-59) I tried out several different regulators that a fellow would sell, used, as my first scuba unit. I tried out the USD Mistral, the Dacor Dial-A-Breath, and the Healthways Scuba (it seemed smoother than the Mistral, and I think the Dacor Dial-A-Breath was more expensive). I ended up buying the Healthways Scuba regulator and a 38 cubic foot tank that winter, and started diving them in the summer. I can remember sitting on the lawn simply enjoying breathing through that regulator.

In the summer, I dove with a neighbor named David Hadeen in the North Santiam River, and remember that I got very cold. I had not saved enough for a wet suit, although that went to the top of the list. I dove Suttle Lake with the dive club, and then dove one other Central Oregon lake (Elk Lake, I believe). My parents and family enjoyed trout fishing, and I went diving. My Grandmother was along, and I went down in about 30 feet of water. I stayed down about 30 minutes on that small tank, and enjoyed every minute of it in fairly shallow water (20-30 feet). When I got up, my Grandmother was so happy that I was out. I found out later that she had told my Dad to "Tell him to come up, tell him to come up!" She was really worried. My Dad said simply "How?" That next summer's berry picking money went to a new White Stage wet suit, which I used for about a decade.

So JYC got me started, and I haven't stopped. That was over 50 years ago. He wasn't a biologist, but he was both a visionary and a film person. He put together some of the most memorable scenes I have ever seen on screen. And, they were real. Above, there is an Ode to Calypso by John Denver, one of my favorite singers. But I remembered this song being put to film, moving film, by JYC. Because of this, I looked around a bit on You Tube, and guess what? It's still around. Here is some of the original scenes from The Silent World, World Without Sun, and The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau series, put to the music of John Denver by JYC and the Cousteau Society:

YouTube - John Denver - Calypso

I really wished that John Denver had never taken up flying.

This early inspiration led me to diving, to a nearly ten-year career in the USAF Pararescue, a degree in zoology, work as an industrial hygienist, an MSPH in industrial hygiene and all the learning in between. He inspired life-long learning in me.

Thanks, JYC, and Happy 100th Birthday. I know you are looking down, and smiling. And by the way, say "Hello" to Phillip for us too.

SeaRat

 

[AfterDark]

TMC had a full day of airing Cousteau's programing. The Cousteau Odyssey, Cousteau the first 75 years...I DVR'd most of it and I'm enjoying it more now than when I 1st watched em. I ask myself where are giants like this nowadays?

 

[Sam Miller III]

Reading these posts brought back long dormant memories of events past...I guess it all relates to timing...

I first became aware of Jacques Cousteau in the 1940s via James Dugan's article describing "Cousteau divers" who used gills of compressed air via the "Cousteau diving lung." After WW 11 there were surplus stores on every corner so I went about construction a Cousteau Lung using WW11 air craft LP walk around bottles.. Needless to say a complete failure but documented for posterity in an early issue of the "Historical diving magazine."

I first met JYC in the early 1950s after he and a group of SoCal investors purchased US Divers from Rene Buzzo. At that time he was known as a ex French navy officer who was a film maker turned businessman and and certainly almost unknown out side the very small pioneer diving community. He gathered a very small group of local divers for a reception and brain storming session- to met him and to discuss what was needed in new diving products.

In 1963 Cousteau presented the world with his third academy award winning movie "The World with out sun" a documentary on his Conshelf experiment photographed entirely underwater. Although Cousteau was some what famous at that time via US divers and some of the instruction agencies ( PADI was about 10 years in the future) he had not invaded the homes of the world via the Black and White TV screen.

The west coast Premier was at a small theater on a side street some where in Hollywood area. About 200 attended, most who knew each other from the local beaches or via the then strong and still very prestigious LA County Underwater Instructors Association. Needless to say it was not a big hit with the general public who were fascinated and had been romanced by NASA and the space program.

On 3 November 1965 we once again crossed paths at social event at which time he inscribed his book the Silent World to me.."Por Samuel Miller, un fansastic du monde du Silence, tres confident, JY Cousteau, 3 Nov 65 (???) --Often wondered what that book is currently valued? .So far as can be determined one of his first inscriptions of the Silent World in the US or the world. A little over a year later he joined with David Wolper who introduced him to the world via "The undersea world of Jacques Cousteau." The rest is history....

Later on when I was a consultant to US Divers and the official US Divers company SCUBA diving instructor JYC aka "Zeek" and I crossed paths many times, in meetings in the hall ways and once in the parking lot. As his books were published he inscribed them to me.. I now have seven of his books personally inscribed to me.

I also own and have read all of the books written about JYC ; Axel Madsen, Cousteau,an unauthorized Biography, Richard Munson; The Captain ands his world, the very rare James Dugan book, Undersea Explorer and the most recent Brad Madsen book Jacques Cousteau; The Sea King.

Over thirty years ago my son who at 12 years old was large for his age completed the week long US Divers Equipment repair course. As the youngest person to complete the course he was recognized by JYC & the then president of US Divers, John Cronin with a set of US Divers equipment several US Divers shirts and an a inscribed copy of JYC's latest book. I don't think JYC had much influence on him but he did become a ER/Hyperbaric Doctor

At the time of his death I was living in Orange County, California and was interviewed by the OC register news paper which resulted in a quarter page article about my then forty year association with Cousteau. Most recently, just last week, I was interviewed by the local TV and news paper about JYC and his environmental impact upon the oceans and the tragedy now occurring in Louisiana.

Yes I have been on the Calypso on several occasions when it was in California.

In 1963 I was involved in DDS Beaver program and was invited as a participant and observer of the US sea trials of the Cousteau's DDS the "Denise" when it was exploring the La Jolla canyon for SIO.

I met and was seated next to his son Philippe and his American born wife who was from Long Beach California at an LA County banquet- It was an interesting evening.He and his wife were real people and totally unaffected by their fame. We chatted not about diving but about children and the problems associated with raising children. I was later to learn that Tommy Thompson, a neighbor and fellow LA County UW instructor had orchestrated the meeting and had arranged the seating. Sadly the friendship never blossomed since Philippe lost his life a few months later-- flying and airplane.

I met his brother J. M. on several occasions but never really connected with him as I did the rest of the family.

I met his first wife on two occasions. In the current vernacular " She was a kick!" The title of the current french book about her says it all "The Madam of the Calypso." And indeed she was the power behind the throne ..

Never met the "Out of step mother..."

In the past 40 or so years I have also collected editions of the Silent World from all over the world which has been printed in 23 languages. So far I have the English (UK), the German, the Russian and several I have not identified as to the county or language...I am still collecting so if you have a unique edition and would like to trade or sell, please PM me.

The collection is not for sale... Some day it will become the property of son Dr. Sam IV, who is a veteran diver

FYI: The first American to be a member of the Calypso was Owen Lee, just back from his searching for the Virgo Bay treasure, the second was a dive buddy the famous UW photographer and so far never equaled Ron Church and the third was another dive buddy the now famous commercial UW photographer Bill Mac Donald who was on the boat for several years and acted as JYCs private PR.

<< Nero & Captain along with a few selected friends-- we can discuss "the rest of the story" over a cool one in the dark of the night at Portage quarry in August...>>

sdm