Happy Birthday Captain Cousteau!!!

[drbill]

One reason I no longer have TV and have turned to my earlier loves, reading (and using the TV to watch DVDs). I never had cable so I'm not missing the good stuff on Discovery, National Geographic, etc.

I just received a DVD copy of "The Silent World" that I ordered from Hong Kong. Will look at it soon. Hope the quality is reasonably good (it only cost about $5 including shipping).

 

[Sam Miller III]

I suspect that I have known Jacques Cousteau longer and up close and personal longer than most on this board and most divers in the world today. what follows is a little information about that 50 plus year relationship



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

In 1963 Cousteau had the world premier of his third Academy award winning movie "The World With Out Sun" in small Hollywood theater --- even though Cousteau was known at that time he was not yet a household name and the hand full of attendees primarily consisted of LA County and a smatering NAUI instructors ( PADI was still about 10 years in the future)

A few years later I was a guest of the sea trials of Cousteau's DDS the Denise off San Diego. At that time I befriended most of his crew and obtained an inscribed copy of the "Silent World" from his chief diver Alberto Falco

On 3 November 1965 we once again personally crossed paths at which time Jacques Cousteau inscribed his book the Silent World to me...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 diving instructor we met many times, and as his books were published he inscribed them to me.. I now have seven (7) books personally inscribed to me.

I own and have read all of the books written about JYC ( aka Zeek); Axel Madsen, Richard Munson the very rare James Dugan book, Undersea Explorer and the most recent Brad Madsen book Jacques Cousteau; The Sea King

It will be most interesting to read his son JMC's account of his stormy life with the God of Underwater and his out of step mother.

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.

In the past 40 or so years I have also collected editions of the Silent World from all over the world...I have the English (UK), the German, the Russian and several I have not IDed as to the county...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 Sam IV who is a ER/Hyperbaric doctor..


sdm

 

[LadyAyla]

"People protect what they love. All of you, who love the sea, help us to protect her." Jacques Yves Cousteau

Thank you sir, for inspiring me to love the sea and all contained therein. You are sorely missed, especially now. I pray for reruns of your show to appear some time in the near future.

#18 of your series of books is especially poignant these days...


LadyAyla

 

[stakanak]

I think he was my first hero, a siding my dad, when I was a young boy. I could feel his passion emanating from that wonderful voice of his and knew that scuba was what I wanted to do.
Skip to 35 years later and I am finally certified. I once again feel like a young boy with a new world ahead of me. Thank you Monsieur Cousteau! You are truly a hero in my book...

 

[drbill]

"People protect what they love. All of you, who love the sea, help us to protect her." Jacques Yves Cousteau

Actually the original quote comes from the Senegalese poet and environmentalist Baba Dioum who said: "In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will only understand what we are taught." I gave my friend Jean-Michel Cousteau the origin of that quote.

 

[LadyAyla]

Actually the original quote comes from the Senegalese poet and environmentalist Baba Dioum who said: "In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will only understand what we are taught." I gave my friend Jean-Michel Cousteau the origin of that quote.

You would know better than I, sir I was merely quoting his words from a video on Youtube. You can find it by typing in Cousteau and love in the search engine there (I would post the link but not allowed to yet).

Do we know the source/date for Baba Dioum stating that famous line? Heck, our local Master Naturalist program via UF/IFAS extension uses that quote.

I think it is amazing, the restoration of the Calypso!

 

[LadyAyla]

 

[drbill]

You would know better than I, sir I was merely quoting his words from a video on Youtube. You can find it by typing in Cousteau and love in the search engine there (I would post the link but not allowed to yet).

Do we know the source/date for Baba Dioum stating that famous line? Heck, our local Master Naturalist program via UF/IFAS extension uses that quote.

I think it is amazing, the restoration of the Calypso!

Understand you were merely quoting his line. He has stated that thought in several different ways over the years. Not a criticism of you, but a clarification of its source.

Baba Dioum apparently stated it in a 1968 speech to the general assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), giving it international reach.

I think it is amazing that The Cousteau Society couldn't act on restoring the Calypso much sooner. I never got to travel on board her (although many of my friends did), as the only TCS vessel I was on was the Alcyone.

 

[LadyAyla]

Understand you were merely quoting his line. He has stated that thought in several different ways over the years. Not a criticism of you, but a clarification of its source.

Baba Dioum apparently stated it in a 1968 speech to the general assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), giving it international reach.

I think it is amazing that The Cousteau Society couldn't act on restoring the Calypso much sooner. I never got to travel on board her (although many of my friends did), as the only TCS vessel I was on was the Alcyone.

Thank you so much for the source on that quote sir! Perhaps I should go look for the transcript, for it sounds wonderful. I sometimes get mailings from the IUCN, so I find it ironic I had no idea it was sourced to them.

I have to agree about the Calypso. I understand it sunk at some point. When I watch the videos of it finally being restored to its former glory, I want to cry. Such willful neglect of an honorable man's flagship vessel.

I recently acquired his book Whales, in mint condition. I also have two of his book series, but sadly do not have the full set, so I look upon others' collections with great envy. Such a trove of information, still relevant to this day (whether one finds that shameful or not depends- the same problems still exist only now, at higher frequency).