Jacques Cousteau Research Paper

Jacques Cousteau spent much of his life in, on, and around the water and changed the way people see the other 71% of the world. A man who lived through World War II and did not run from it, but help with the war efforts; all the while continuing his study of the depths below. Inventing, publishing, and documenting, each step of the way to give him a world-wide status. While Cousteau was born on June, 11, 1910; his story significantly begun at age 26 (6 years after he joined the army to become an aviator pilot) when he was involved in a severe automobile accident that not only forced him out of the cockpit-- the accident almost took his life as well. After the accident he took up rehabilitative swimming and the French Navy, thus, beginning his fascination with the ocean. Later the next year (1937) he married his first wife, Simone Melchior and later had two sons with her (both of their sons would later take up their fathers’ interests themselves). In 1943 he met a woman by the name of Emile Gagnan, a French engineer who shared Cousteau’s passion for discovery. During
these years Cousteau and Gagnan invented the Aqua-Lung—known today as a SCUBA tank. During the war, Cousteau joined the French Resistance Movement, spying and documenting Italian Armed Forces; he was later recongnized for his efforts and awarded several medals—including the Legion of Honor from France. After the war he accompanied the French Navy to clear underwater mines. In 1948 he and Phillippe Tailliez, et al set off on an expedition to find the shipwreck Mahdia—a Roman ship; this was also marked as the first underwater archaeological operation using SCUBA wear.
In 1950 he leased a one-time minesweeper and converted it to be an oceanographic research vessel, he renamed the vessel Calypso. Silent World (1953) was the first book that Cousteau published about the ocean landscape and the different creature that lurk below the surface. Then in 1957 Cousteau was elected Director of Oceanography in the Museum of Monaco. A few years later in 1961 he received the National Geographic Medal and is considered one of the world’s foremost undersea explorers. In 1990 Cousteau’s first wife falls ill and soon dies from cancer. The next year, Cousteau announces he has another son and daughter from long-time mistress, Francine Triplet whom he marries soon after the
announcement. After an exciting life full of curiosity this great undersea explorer’s life came to an end following an episode of cardiac arrest on June, 15, 1997 in Paris, France. Following this incident his sons (from his first marriage) are continuing his legacy through their own work in the crystal blue waters of the ocean.