Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Cousteau. It is hard to overstate Cousteau’s influence as an inventor, writer, filmmaker, explorer and ecologist. His first book, the Silent World, written with Frédéric Dumas in 1953, was a memoir which describes how Cousteau and Émile Gagnan designed, built and tested the aqua-lung in 1943. It was an immediate best seller and is still in print, having been published in 22 languages and selling over 5 million copies. The documentary, Silent World, based on the book, co-directed by Cousteau and Louis Malle, earned Cousteau the first of his two Academy Awards. In his lifetime Cousteau would go on to write over 50 books and to produce more than 120 television documentaries. Jacques Cousteau died on 25 June 1997 at age 87.
Most of films and television programs were shot from the RV Calypso, a converted Royal Navy minesweeper. The ship was accidentally rammed by a barge in Singapore in 1996 and sank. In honor of the centennial of Cousteau’s birth, the Cousteau Society has announced that the restored Calypso will sail again.
Jacques Cousteau’s ship sails again
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