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"A Wilderness Where Man Is Unknown"

© Meg Greene Malvasi

As an oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau combined his love for the seas with his fascination for film-making. Using his abundant talents at both, Coustea brought the science of oceanography to millions of people the world over, through his many books and films. But Cousteau did not just show people the amazing new frontier of the sea and its creatures. His research, conducted over a period of forty years, collected vast amounts of information that helped shape the fields of marine biology, botany, and ecology. He also made great contributions to the science of oceanography as well, co-inventing the aqualung, the bathyscaphe, and as the inventor of the one-man, jet-propelled submarine.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in 1910 in Saint-André-de-Cubazac, France, located in the province of Bordeaux. His father was a lawyer whose work for an American lawyer allowed the family to travel extensively when Jacques was a child. Because of Costeau's fragile health, doctors warned his parents from allowing their son to participate in any kind of strenuous activities. While Costeau was unable to play at many of the games that other boys enjoyed, he was allowed to go swimming, spending many hours at the oceanside. It proved to be the beginning of a life-long love of the seas.

School, however, was another matter. Cousteau hated school, and at one point was expelled for breaking windows. As much as he hated his classes, Cousteau did discover that he had a talent for engineering. In 1930, after finishing his studies, Cousteau enlisted in the French École Navale (Navy School), graduating second in his class. Later, he enrolled in flight school. But just before winning his wings, he was in a near-fatal car accident, breaking both arms.

While recuperating from his accident, Coustea spent many hours in his favorite pastime, swimming. Equipped with just a pair of underwater goggles, Cousteau began his own diving career. But he was unable to stay underwater for very long. His desire to explore the deep waters of the ocean inspired him to invent an apparatus that would enable him to stay underwater for longer periods of time. He was still refining his design when World War II began.

It was during the war that Cousteau made his first underwater films, and he continued his work on the aqualung. In 1942, he teamed up with engineer Émile Gagnon who helped Cousteau refine his design. The improved version was successfully tested in 1943 off the French Riviera with Cousteau and his colleagues making over five hundred successful test dives. But because of the war, production of the aqualung was delayed