Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times
Last March we posted “Will Prince Albert of Monaco Save Cousteau’s Calypso?” sadly, the answer to the question appears to be, “no.” Earlier in March, following a long legal battle, a French court ruled, that Francine Cousteau, the second wife of the late Jacques Cousteau, owed €273,000 in shipyard bills and was required to remove the RV Calypso from a Brittany shipyard. If she failed to do so the shipyard would be allowed to sell the 43 meter wooden research vessel. Shortly thereafter, rumors began to spread that Prince Albert II of Monaco might rescue the ship and bring it to the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco where Jacques Cousteau served as director for more than three decades, from 1957 to 1988. These rumors appear to have been unfounded. The Calypso has not moved and appears to be in the first stages of being broken up. As reported by the New York Times:
Today, the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of how Mr. Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have found a solution for its restoration….
Still in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took days to bring it to the surface and much longer to bring it back to France.
Although the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by the explorer, set out to restore it after Mr. Cousteau’s death, there have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat’s wooden frame weathering and its famous false nose with an underwater chamber rusting away.
“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.
In 2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national monument by the state, which would give it a chance to compete for preservation funding.
It would seem that many forces combined to bring Calypso to its presemt state. It might be best for the vessel if it was broken up rather than let it deteriorate further. However, letting the memory of Jaques Cousteau fade away is totally unacceptable. He and other true marine pioneers like Robert Ballard, should be lionized for their efforts to bring the mysteries of the oceans home to the everyday man and woman. Too much emphasis today on the “treasure hunters” and looters who rob us all of our maritime past and then try to peddle their gains to a select few. Bravo Zulu Jaques and Robert.
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Indeed this is sad to see. Unfortunately there have been differences within the Cousteau family which have not helped things over the years.
Good Watch,
Peter
i’ll have to find the biography, but i remember reading that the Captain had actually wished for it to be sunk or destroyed rather than become a floating museum–not wishing tourists to be clambering all over such a special vessel. if true, then i suppose now he’s getting his wish. . . .
Like many others of my age, I still remember the advantures of jaques cousteau and his team during th seventies. He inspired many and gave us a look into the wonders of our oceans. The Calypso was certainly a part of that. On holiday in france 1997 while visiting rochelle. I imediately recognized the still floating remains of her, even though it was thirty years since I saw her on television as a kid of 8 years old. It brought tears to my eyes. Her name was striped off, not even a small sign telling visiters who she was and what made her so famous.
I was pleased to notice that she was being restored in 2005 but the present situation is only a grimm reminder of that.
Unbelievable that we we spend so much on our past memmories but everyone seem to have forgotten the calypso. Is there no one who cares?. This truly should be a fascinating story for National Geographic of even Discovery, a fascinated story whit a bad ending, or is it?
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