The Silent World

[El Dude]

I just got "The Silent World" by Jacques Cousteau as a gift from a friend. It seems like a good read from what I've heard. It's a little late to start reading...but I'm diving in tomorrow, with a BIG cup of coffee. I'll be sure to come back and post on it.

 

[Jendra]

I haven't read it yet... Keep us/me informed.

 

[Tortuga68]

Not to ruin it for you, but he lives. Well, until the end if the book anyway. He dies later. In a what most people would consider a shocking undersight, this is not covered in the book, apparently on the grounds that it was published before he died. Pretty weak excuse if you ask me

 

[syndony]

At first it's hard to figure out why this slim volume became such a success. It's not a textbook, it doesn't cover the history of diving or even much of Cousteau's own research, and it's not an adventure book. Though Cousteau was French, he wrote The Silent World in English as he had attended American schools in his youth, widely traveled the US, and, of course, extensively lectured in his enchanting French-accented English. Yet, The Silent World clearly reveals its author's non-English origin and decidedly "non-English" thinking. The writing, while precise, often suggests that Cousteau frequently described a word or concept that existed in his native French, but did not directly translate into English. As a result, the writing at times seems a bit flowery and, well, foreign, and you need to read a sentence or paragraph two or three times to figure out what it actually means. Cousteau's liberal use of metaphors, artistic nuances, poetic concepts and words that have since fallen out of currrent language only serve to make The Silent World even more unusual of a literary treat.

Anyone looking for technical explanations, precise history, a logical flow of events, or anything one might expect from a world-famous documentary maker and researcher will not find it in this book. The Silent World is a totally unique, very compressed tale flowing from Cousteau's mind. Read half a chapter and you know the man; he's a unique combination of inspired philosophical observer and gifted researcher with uncanny intuition. While others conducted their research methodically and ploddingly, Cousteau always just seemed to know what to expect, how to behave, and what to seek and avoid to make it all seem easy. He and his close associates and friends Phillipe Tailliez and Frederic Dumas used their "aqualung" to experient liberally in sort of a "Hmmm.... this is probably what will happen, let's go check it out!" approach.

Using this, Cousteau describes the difference between "helmet divers" and the newly liberated users of their "aqualung" -- what we now know as air tanks and regulators. The book casually touches on all the principles of diving physics and physiology, the stuff we learn in our PADI and NAUI classes. He describes sea life, how it reacts, where it lives, how it behaves, and what is dangerous and what is not. They see just how deep they can go. They check how colors change. What nitrogen does and why we need recompression chambers. He offers his views on treasure hunting (not worth it; if you find real treasure authorities and hordes of lawyers will soon apprehend it). He reports on atrocities he witnessed underwater, like the needless destruction of corals and cruel killing of fish. He debunks myths of sea monsters, seeks answers to geological phenomena such as the Fountain of Vaucluse near Avignon, one that almost cost him and Dumas their lives in a pioneering effort at extreme cave diving. He describes what fish do and how they react. And sea mammals and other sea critters. Sharks remain an enigma to Cousteau as his conclusion is that you simply cannot understand or predict them.

 

[DaleC]

After you read the book post your thoughts in the thread on the book that already exists here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/book-media-reviews/311361-silent-world-cousteau-dumas.html

 

[Sam Miller III]

Still and always searching for foreign editions of the "Silent world"

It is my understanding that it was printed in 23 different languages and as many countries.
I currently have the American, English, German, Norweigian and Russian editions. Only 18 more to go...

sdm

 

[Akimbo]

The Silent World is one of the true classics of Scuba diving — akin to Guy Gilpatric's The Complete Goggler to freediving spearfisherman or Sir Robert H. Davis' Deep Diving and Submarine Operations to deepsea/heavy gear divers. Even after 50 years, I still pick my copy up now and then and re-read different chapters. It was my first book on diving.

Snag a copy of The Living Sea if you can. I believe it was Cousteau's second book. It chronicles some real pioneering work including development of early deep submersibles and saturation dives. The chapter on how the Calypso came about is a favorite.

 

[Sam Miller III]

The correct title is The Compleat Goggler-- the old English method of spelling ala "Compleat angler" by Izzac Walton written over 300 years ago

Do you have a copy of Gilpatrics Compleat Goggler? If so have you read it?

Or Deep Diving and Submarine Operations by Sir Robert Davis? Which edition? Have you read it?

Inquirring minds want to know

 

[Akimbo]

The correct title is The Compleat Goggler-- the old English method of spelling ala "Compleat angler" by Izzac Walton written over 300 years ago

Do you have a copy of Gilpatrics Compleat Goggler? If so have you read it?

I stand corrected. I finally found a copy of the Compleat Goggler 25-30 years ago, which is when I read it. I wanted it more for the references to the Fernez surface supplied gear than spearfishing. My Scuba instructor in 1962 had a first edition (the only other copy I have personally seen) so there was also some sentimental value. Mine is a 1957 revised edition and has the original dust jacket. I was looking for it about 10 years before finding a copy in a used book store in San Diego — the pencil notation inside the cover says $4.00.

I am pleased I have it in my collection, but I doubt I would spend much money for it unless spearfishing meant more to me than augmenting dinner.

Or Deep Diving and Submarine Operations by Sir Robert Davis? Which edition? Have you read it?

I've read most of it, not exactly a great cover-to-cover read. It is about the only book out there that deals with the origin and development of heavy gear — Augustus Siebe is credited with inventing it. The pre-1850s salvage stuff put me to sleep. The submarine escape stuff was even worse. My copy is the seventh edition reprinted in 1969, Parts I and II. I picked it up new when at Siebe Gorman in 1973. I traded some Navy and Doria photos for the book.

It is an interesting historic study of diving development in the UK, but shows almost no awareness of anything in the rest of the world. It is sort of a diving manual, sort of a Siebe Gorman catalog, and sort of a UK diving history book. It includes Haldane's air tables, Siebe Gorman's own air with O2 decom tables, and the US Navy's mixed gas tables. I was (and probably still am) a HeO2 saturation snob so never compared their air tables to ours.

They were not producing much for the diving business by then, virtually all mine safety gear. They had (have?) a small dark room stuffed with heavy gear, etchings and photos. It didn't sound like they were even selling hats to the Brit Navy anymore. Most heavy gear was Yokahama's Kirby-Morgan copies by then. I don't think Bev Morgan had built any copper hats for several years by that time.

If you like the spun-copper salvage era, Ellsberg's On the Bottom is a much better read and provides a lot more insight into what diving was actually like for those guys. Davis was the Principal and Managing Director of Siebe Gorman and did some evolutionary work on rebreathers, but brought surprisingly little perspective of the divers. There is definitely more Brit Navy information than any commercial diving of that era.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Bravo! Best response ever! Very educational!

Suggest that you investigate the English Deane Brothers "smoke helments" who predate Seibe Gorman

Sir Robert Davis history is interesting-- began as a office boy at age 12 died at his desk at age 96!

By the way did you know Les Aston-Smith? He was the last GM of S/G probably about the same time you visited the factory.

re; Commander Ellsberg

Commander -- (later Admiral) - Edward Ellsberg authored seventeen (17) books.

It is universally concurred that only 8 of his books were factual and of the eight only three were related to diving operations.

Therefore:

Eight (8) are factual
* Three (3) maybe considered diving related
** On the bottom
** Men under the sea
** Under the Red Sea sun
* One is marginal
**No Banners; No bugles
*The four remaining book are related to military activity and NOT diving

*Six (6) are fictional books and may or may not be a reliable representation of the facts

*Three (3) are juvenile books, and traditionally not a reliable source of facts.

Please bear in mind that it very important that the short history of diving be preserved and one of the most reliable is via the written word in factual books; not non fiction or juvenile books. Therefore, only three of Commander Ellsbergs books may be considered applicable to the underwater world;
1)On the bottom;
2)Men under the sea
3)Under the Red Sea sun.

The remaining books certainly have value to a collector but not as a document of diving history.
SDM