WEBVTT - How Did Jacques Cousteau Fall in Love with the Sea? 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:04.800 I guess what will what's that man go? So a 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.280 few years ago I got to go in this incredible 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:10.480 experience to Kenya and we were off the coast. It 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:13.160 was in this place called Lamu, and I had heard 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.200 we could go see dolphins, and of course, you know, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.319 I'm a huge animal lover, and even though I'm not 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.360 a great swimmer, I just had to go. So we 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.319 go out onto the open water. It's beautiful, but the 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.880 water just starts getting rougher and rougher, and as we're 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:29.960 going you can see the dolphins getting closer. So I 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:31.680 was getting a little excited. But also the water was 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.839 just getting choppier, and We're on this little boat and 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.240 my stomach is turning and I'm not usually affected by seasickness, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.240 but this was just something else. So I'm trying to 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:44.520 figure out how to control it, Like do I puke? 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.240 Do I look at the horizon? Do I close my eyes? 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.720 It was really really miserad not sound pleasant. So what 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.400 did you end up doing? So I tried a little 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.160 of all of it. Like I closed my eyes, I 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.440 was trying to look at the horizon, but in the end, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.840 the boat captain just pushed me into the water, and 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.200 he said the only way to get over it is 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.000 to get into the water, and he was absolutely right, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.240 Like it was crazy. Luckily the water was so warm. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.959 And then, you know, I obviously had this life jacket on, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.960 but I'm in the middle of a school of dolphins 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:15.679 all of a sudden, and I peered down and they're 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.440 just swimming and playing, and it's this incredible experience but 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:25.120 also totally terrifying because I don't swim well. But this 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.679 week I was reading this thing on Jack Custo and 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:29.440 his son was saying that even though he grew up 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.960 on the clips, so you know, with Jack Custo going 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.160 on these adventures, you still get seasick a little. And 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.119 he said the only way you can get over it 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.440 is to get into the sea like that, and so 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.280 I felt a little bit calmed by that, and and 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.680 also felt better about the sea captain just pushing me in. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.160 But you know, I was curious after reading that. I 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.640 wanted to know more about Jack Custo's life. You know, 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.720 how did he get into exploring, did he really work 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.320 as a spy, and why did he and his crew 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.600 always wear those red hats so grab your snorkels were 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:25.239 about to dive in hei their podcast listeners, Welcome to 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.720 Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.960 joined by my good friend man Guesh Ticketer and on 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.480 the other side of the soundproof glass sporting this red 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.760 knit hat, of course, in honor of the undersea explorer 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.160 Jacques Cousto. That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.920 I feel like he finally got one spot on this time. 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:44.520 He did, But I actually think it might be a 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.240 tribute to Steve Zizoo from The Life Aquatic, like just 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.280 judging from all those Bill Murray posters behind Tristan. But 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.000 you know, since they both were hats like that, why 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:55.880 don't we just call it a duel tribute and that 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.120 way another of them will be offended. You know. I 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.680 actually read that in the original note from the movie, 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.800 Bill Murray's character was supposed to be named Steve Cousto, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.959 and that obviously changed as the script evolved, but it 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:09.680 still shows how big of an influence Jacque was on 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.400 the movie. Yeah, and I mean not to nerd out 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.000 on Wes Anderson, who does happen to have my birthday, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.440 but there's a reference to Jackusto and Rushmore, where like 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.240 Max tries to build that aquarium and and he gets 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.119 this book from Jackusto. So obviously he's been a hero 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.840 of his for some time. Yeah, I'm curious, just I 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.560 haven't checked on your your movie rankings recently. Is Rushmore 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.760 still in your top five or so? Yeah, it's still 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.359 one of my favorite movies. That's awesome. Well, after looking 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.400 into Custo's life this past week, it's easy to see 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.480 why he would be, you know, a hero to him 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.800 and his inventions basically revolutionized undersea exploration in the mid 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.720 twentieth century. Plus you consider the work he did in 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.400 film and TV that sparked a public interest in ocean research, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.040 and it's really been difficult to match that in the 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.080 decades since then. And that's before you get into all 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.720 the conversation of the work that he did later in life, 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:00.920 like you know, the time in nineteen sixty when he 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.200 helped prevent the French government from dumping nuclear waste into 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.040 the Mediterranean. See, I mean that's I feel like that's 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.120 a pretty decent accomplishment, pretty incredible. Yeah, And there was 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.440 a period there when you know, he was pretty much 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.600 everywhere you looked. Yeah, of course, and and this was 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.719 the day is when oceanographers could actually be rock stars. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.240 But you know that said Cousteau was kind of a 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.520 tough guy to pin down. Like. He was an explorer, 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.880 he was a conservationist, he was obviously an author, a filmmaker. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.200 He won apparently as many awards his Meryl Street. He 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.640 was a scientist, a government spy, and I mean he 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.840 was pretty much the greatest dinner guest in history. Yeah, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.359 and obviously anybody with a resume like that is worth 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.560 taking a closer look. So today we'll talk a little 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.839 bit about Jacques's background, his legacy, including a few of 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.800 the advances he made during his many years at sea, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.920 and then later in the episode, we'll try to figure 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.719 out if the beloved explorer is actually to blame for 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.240 a toxic strain of seaweed that happened to escape into 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.720 the world's oceans forty years ago. And the spoiler is 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.240 man he totally is. But we can get to all 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:04.760 of that in a little bit. I feel like we 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.320 need to back up a little bit. Where where do 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.200 you think we should start? So, at the risk of 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.680 seving hat of cessed I I do kind of want 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.679 to start with the origin of those red knit caps 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.400 that Tristan started to show off, because one thing I 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.640 was surprised to learn this week is that divers actually 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.479 wore hats like that long before Jacques Cousteau came on 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.520 the scene. In fact, it was pretty standard attire among 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.680 hard hat divers going all the way back to the 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.000 turn of the twentieth century. Wait, you said, hard hat diver. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.359 What what's what's a hard hat diver? Yeah, it's a 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:34.680 real term. So it's the name for the old school 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.359 diving helmets that you'd see something like in uh, like 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.520 twenty leagues under the sea, and sometimes like you see 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.320 picks of like Salvador Dolly holding them too. But it's 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.920 those big, bulky spherical helmets with those little like glass viewports. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.080 But you know, when commercial or military divers were in 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.400 their diving suits, they would wear knit hats under them 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.039 for just a little bit of extra cushioning. And the 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.120 divers were red ones specifically because they often would rest 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.040 on the docks betwe wean their dives, and obviously they 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:03.920 have their helmets off at this point, and the bright 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.200 has just made it easier for crane operators to keep 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.560 track of them and also to avoid smacking them in 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.200 the heads with heavy machinery. So that's that's the reason 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.839 Cousta wore a had like to avoid cranes. Yeah, I mean, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.440 eventually wearing a red beanie just kind of became like 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.240 a diving symbol on its own, you know what. Whether 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.520 that was for like practical reasons or just out of 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.320 the sense of tradition. But one likely reason for why 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.440 the caps endured so long is that they were a 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.440 way to honor this famous British diver. His name was 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.080 William Walker. And I know we're talking about Sacasto today, 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.039 but Walker story is pretty great and it really takes 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:38.640 a minute. So I'm going to go on a tangent 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.920 if you're okay about Yeah, sure of course. So back 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.880 in the early nine it was discovered that England's Winchester Cathedral, 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.560 which is one of the largest in Europe, was in 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.200 danger of collapsing. Apparently, when the builders laid the foundations 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.120 back in the eleventh century, they unknowingly built them on 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.279 top of the Pete Bog, and sadly no one realized 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.640 this until the cathedral actually started to sink. So engineers 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.240 quickly determined that the cathedral could actually be saved if 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.560 someone dove in into this bog and you know, went 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.360 to the cathedrals foundations, removed the bottom layer of pete 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.120 and then replaced it with a whole bunch of concrete. 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:15.880 And so this is exactly what William Walker did. He 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.800 was this experienced diver. He was hired from a nearby dockyard, 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.200 and over the course of the next six years, Walker 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.520 spent six hours a day submerged in twenty ft of 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.840 pitch black water like it was so dark he could 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.520 barely even see the foundations he was supposed to be underpinning. 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.920 But despite the setback, Walker actually got the job done. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.000 He had a hundred fifty men top side support crew, 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.840 and all told he managed to lay a staggering twenty 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.640 five thousand bags of concrete and over a million concrete 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.760 blocks and bricks. I mean, it's stunning. And because of 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.320 that effort, the cathedral was not only saved, it actually 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.760 still stands today. That really is impressive. And I'm guessing 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.520 this whole time he was wearing the rednet hat while 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.840 he was doing this, right, that's right. And and so 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.280 Walker obviously got a amount of pressed during the ordeal, 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.640 and it's likely that other divers knew of him and 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.080 adopted the look in his honor, possibly even Jack Custo himself. 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.320 I like how you looked him back at the end there. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.680 That was pretty pretty nicely done. All right, let's dig 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.960 into the real man of the hour, which of course 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.360 is Jacques Eves Cousto. And as you can imagine, Jacques 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.960 was born in France near Bordeaux if you happen to 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.720 be familiar with the great growing region there, and this 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.320 was in nineteen ten, and his family consisted of his father, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.040 who was an international lawyer, and his mother, who was 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.640 the daughter of a successful wine merchant and a landowner there, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.760 plus one older brother. So the Custo family was pretty 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.560 well off. But healthwise, Jacques was actually far from it. 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.520 So he suffered from anemia and this chronic stomach issue 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.360 that he dealt with throughout his youth. And it really 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.880 didn't slow him down that much though at least and 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.680 and Jacques learned how to swim when he was just 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.840 four years old, and he later credited his early swimming 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.760 experience as the origin for the passion of his life. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:00.760 And here's what he said, about it. I was four 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.319 or five years old when I became interested in water. 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:08.439 I loved touching water. I mean, it sounds so simplistic, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.680 but I also kind of know what he's talking about, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.160 like the first time you experienced that sensation of floating, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.240 or like the effort it takes to move through something 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.439 other than air, Like it's a surreal moment and it's 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.480 like nothing you felt before. Yeah, and it actually reminds 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.360 me of this other quote from Cousto that I like 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.080 a lot. There there are so many good ones, but 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.360 another one is from birth. Man carries the weight of 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.800 gravity on his shoulders. He has bolted to Earth, but 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.600 man has only to sink beneath the surface and he 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:40.800 is free. Buoyed by water. He can fly in any direction, up, down, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:46.480 sideways by merely flipping his hand underwater. Man becomes an archangel. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.120 So I saw this quote too, and it's from right 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.800 after he learned to swim, right. Yeah, he was four 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.280 years old and he was like, finally I'm free. I'm 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.520 an archangel now. And he was kind of a weird kid, 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.200 I guess. But back to his childhood. Let's just fast 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.320 forward to about nineteen twenty when his family lived in 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.440 New York while Mr Cousteau was practicing law, so they 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.600 lived there for about two years, and it was during 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.520 that time that Jacques learned to speak English, and he 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.240 also got plenty of practice swimming and snorkeling at this 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.680 summer camp that he attended in Vermont, and it's actually 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.840 there that Jacques gets his very first taste of diving. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.560 So the camp had launched this effort to clean up 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.640 a nearby lake, and Jock volunteered to dive to the 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.480 bottom to help clear away the debris that was there. 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.240 And once again, this early experience proved formative for Jacque, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.760 who quickly fell in love with being underwater. You know, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.160 despite the fact that he didn't own any goggles at 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.320 the time, and I guessing on a plus, I there 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.520 probably wasn't all that much worth seeing at the bottom 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.720 of a dirty lake, so I guess he didn't need 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.319 those goggles. Yeah, But I mean, Jacques was completely hooked 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.280 after this experience. So when his family returned to France 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.280 and nineteen twelve, they settled in the Mediterranean city of Marseilles, 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.480 which was not far from the Italian border, and so 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.440 this allowed Jacques to continue snorkeling, and you know this 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.720 is right there along the city's coast. Also, not to 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.560 boggy down with too many origin stories, but this is 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.480 also around the time that Jacques bought a used movie 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.640 camera and then he proceeded to take apart and reassemble 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.600 it so he could learn how it works. So he 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.240 was a very curious kid in terms of, you know, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.160 how things were built and everything. So we've already got 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.840 this boy who loves exploring underwater and who now has 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.319 an interest in both mechanics and filmmaking. So, I mean, 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.080 his trajectory in life really seems to have taken shape 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.480 pretty early on. Actually yeah, I mean, I I think 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:37.400 it looks that way in hindsight, but at the time 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.560 Jack didn't seem to have his designs on a career 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.760 at sea at all, and certainly not as a researcher. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.520 He actually got pretty terrible grades in high school and 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.920 he didn't show any interest in academics. He also acted 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.560 out a lot as a teenager, like apparently he went 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.880 on a windows smashing spree at one point, and it 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.840 wasn't long after that that his parents decided to send 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.880 him away to this super strict boarding school in northeast France. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.280 And so did this experience straighten him up or what? Yeah, 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.040 it actually did. The school it's in, I'll say so, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.160 and it seemed to do the trick for Jock because 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.839 he did well in and out of school from then on, 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.120 you know, he finished his studies, he attended to college 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.439 in Paris and and then in nineteen thirty he was 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.959 accepted to the French Naval Academy and that's where he 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.400 trained for a couple of years before finally being commissioned 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.800 as a second lieutenant. After that, things went pretty smoothly. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.560 For the next few years. Jock actually got to sail 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.400 the world as a gunnery officer. He traveled to exotic 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.440 ports in the Indian and South Pacific oceans. He captured 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.640 what he found there on video actually, and and then 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.600 in with a little bit of prospective under his belt, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.680 Jock finally decided on what he wanted to do for 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.599 his life's career. He wanted to be a naval aircraft 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.200 pilot aircraft. So after all this tooling around and see, 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.160 he wanted to fly and not sail. It's it's just 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.400 seems weird, but I mean that that obviously didn't happen, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.120 So so what changed his mind? So he had a 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.840 bit of a tragedy. Unfortunately, in nineteen thirty six, just 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.280 before his training was finished, John could borrowed his dad's 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.800 sports car to attend to friend's wedding, I guess, And 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:05.640 on the way back that evening, he was going a 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.320 bit too fast around one of the bends in the 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.760 road and all of a sudden, his headlights shorted out, 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:15.120 and you know, Custo had this massive accident. He did survive, 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.840 but not without breaking like a dozen bones and fracturing 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.319 both arms. Um, we're still His right arm became so 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.120 badly infected that surgeons actually thought the best option was 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:28.160 to amputate it. And you know, Custo insisted that his 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.200 arm be left intact no matter how bad the infection got. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.360 But I mean, obviously he recovered, as we know from 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.280 seeing him in later years. So so why didn't he 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.880 go back to piloting? So the damage to his arms 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.320 was just too severe, Like there was no way he 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.640 could have flown a plane in combat after that. But 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.640 the accident provided Jock the opportunity to get reacquainted with 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.080 the hobbies he loved as a child, so he actually 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.120 spent the next several months swimming daily in the Mediterranean 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.360 as a way to strengthen his arms and to make 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.080 the sessions more enjoyable for himself. He borrowed this early 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.920 pair of swimming goggles from a friend, and this was 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.520 honestly the first time he'd done this, and it literally 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.480 opened Jock's eyes to the underwater mysteries all around him, 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.560 and from then on he pretty much spent as much 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.600 time as he could just taking in the strange and 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.880 colorful plants and animals that he found on the sea floor. 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:17.800 When it was time to return his friends goggles, he 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.200 actually decided to craft his own pair for something he 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.320 just happened to have lying around, a pair of aircraft 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.120 pilot goggles. Wow, I mean it sounds like he really 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.360 turned things around after the crash. Yeah, he did, and 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.800 that new outlook extended to his love life as well. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.640 So in ninety seven, just a year after the crash, 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:36.640 Jack married a woman he had met at a cocktail 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.360 party earlier that year. Her name was Simone Melchore, and 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.280 she and Jacques stayed together for fifty three years until 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.680 her death in and the couple also had two sons 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.160 together Jean, Michelle and Philippe. Both of them joined their 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.560 parents on many expeditions when they were young. Well, that 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.640 was what was so interesting, like reading about him as 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.520 a kid or seeing some of the old films and 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.320 things like that. I mean, his wife and kids pretty 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.960 much lived with him on the trick out research ship. 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.520 And that goes back to the fifties or so, doesn't it. Yeah, 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.280 the ship was the Calypso. And it's actually a funny name, 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.360 like if you think about it, Um Custo got the 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.440 name for this c nymph character in Homer's Odyssey. So 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.800 in the story, Odysseus washes up on Calypso's island, and 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.920 when she finds him, she and chanced to adventure to 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.760 make him forget about his wife, Penelope, the one he'd 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.800 been trying to get home to, and so Calypso basically 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:26.920 keeps him there as a prisoner for seven years, and 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.920 the whole time Penelope is just waiting and hoping that 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.520 he finally makes it back to her someday. So it's 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:34.800 kind of strange to name a boat that you sail 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.800 around on with your wife and kids that same name. 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.080 I think you made one mistake though I thought Calypso 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.400 comes from Pirates of the Caribbean, the film series. We'll 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.560 correct that later. But all right, we're getting ahead of 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.560 ourselves here, because an awful lot happened between Custo's wedding 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.120 and the time the Calypsos set sail, including the invention 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.880 of the aqua lung, and of course a little something 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.960 we called World War two. Yeah, definitely a lot to 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.000 talk about. But let's take a quick break first and 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:20.240 then we'll get back into it. You're listening to part 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.400 time genius, and we're talking about French oceaneering legend and 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.000 scuba pioneer Jacques Cousteau. All right, Mago, So let's talk 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.120 about the war years and what those were like for Cousteau, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.920 because I remember he was serving as a gunnery office 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.640 in the French Navy when the fighting began, and this was, 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.920 of course, in nineteen thirty nine. Yeah, and from what 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.040 I read, that was a really difficult time for Jacques 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.440 emotionally because suddenly his country was at war with the 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.400 Italians right next door. Like he'd had so many friends 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.360 over there and and now he was on board the 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.640 ships that were attacking their naval bases, and he clearly 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.880 felt conflicted, you know, wishing war in the Mediterranean against 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.160 all these people he'd grown up with, right, And so 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.880 then a year later France surrendered to Anti Germany and 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.280 the Italian occupation began. So it's a pretty rough going 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.480 there in those early years. And thankfully, once Paris felt 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.679 Custo was able to flee with his family to this 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.679 small town near the Swiss border and they lived there 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.399 peacefully for the next few years. And in fact, this 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.840 period of relative safety was when Jacques began to focus 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.280 on that underwater exploration and beginning to do some research, 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.720 and you know, it was really the beginning of of 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.600 of what would make this huge career. That's true, but 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.040 we should also mention that it's not like Cousto was 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.159 just on holiday up there, because following francis surrender, he 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.200 actually joined the French resistance movement and he began working 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:40.440 against Italy's intelligence services, so basically spying on Italian troops, 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.080 kind of keeping track of their movements, that kind of thing. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.600 And then after the war, Custo returned to work for 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.959 the French Navy to help clear underwater mind So really 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.840 all the years of underwater excursions and scuba stuff that 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.360 we're talking about, that's all happening in between these long 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.320 running series of military operations he was involved in. So basically, 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.119 if you weren't impressed enough already, keep in mind that 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.280 all the ocean research and these technical breakthroughs like that 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.200 was really his side gig during World War Two exactly. 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.679 And it's strange to think about, but it's true. You know, 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.320 Custo is living in the heart of occupied France during 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.720 the darkest days of the war, and he somehow managed 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:17.800 to turn them into some of the most productive years 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:22.160 of his life. It is truly impressive in in particular 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.680 that ended up being this pivotal year for Custo. First, 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.520 it was in the town where he had fled. He 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.120 had actually met this fellow explorer named Marshall Echok, and 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.200 together that year they made the first underwater film. It's 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.240 called eighteen meters Deep but sorry, it's the first French 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.520 underwater film, and and they shot at themselves in the 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.200 waters around this group of islands in the French Mediterranean. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.680 And this was really the first step in what we 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.320 become this very long career of underwater filmmaking for Custo. 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:50.399 That wasn't the only life changing thing he did in 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.400 three because that's also the year that Custo co invented 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.440 the aqua lung with this French engineer named Emil Gun. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.240 All Right, so let's give a little bit of background 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.439 on on why that's important, because it's not like the 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.880 aqua lung was the first breathing apparatus ever made, or 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.600 of course even the first scuba gear, right m hmm, 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.399 Like the hard hat diving suits we talked about earlier 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.640 had been around for almost hundreds of years by that time, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.280 you know, And actually Leonardo da Vinci created designs for 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.840 a diving suit way back in the early sixteenth centuries, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.600 so the idea of breathing underwater definitely was not new. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.199 That's weird. I'm curious that, Like, do you know what 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.480 da Vinci had come up with. Yeah, it was basically 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:32.760 this um dual snorkel system, but with these really long snorkels, 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.679 Like he suggested making a boy out of cork so 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.280 that it would flow, and then attaching these long cane 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.960 tubes to either side, so the diver below could I 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.920 guess breathe through the submerged ends. But you know what 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.119 the best part of Da Vinci's design is, and I 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.520 had never realized this before. It's that Da Vinci actually 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.480 came up with this bag that the diver would wear 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.320