With Calypso in 1951, Captain Cousteau found a ship that would let him
realize his vision: to use his inventions as a pioneer in unveiling the
continental shelf.
Calypso was transformed by Cousteau from top to bottom into an
oceanographic vessel. So it is only right that, in her retirement, she
should tell the story of her magnificent history, inseparable from that
of Captain Cousteau.
From one legend to another
Calypso was, according to Greek myth, the nymph who held Ulysses
captive on the island of Gozo for ten years. Today, the name is linked
to another legend, that of the Cousteau ship. This floating legend is
known throughout the world and sailed the ocean planet for nearly half a
century to reveal its beauty and fragility. She is the symbol of human
hopes to understand Nature, the better to protect it.
Cousteau meets Calypso
In Malta, Jacques-Yves Cousteau discovered a former Royal Navy
mine-sweeper that had been converted to a ferry and named Calypso. The
ship was christened in 1942 but her first prosaic name, J-826, belied
the exceptional life she would lead. To Cousteau, she was the ideal ship
for his plan to explore the seas. Thanks to the financial help of Loël
Guinness, the sale contract was signed on July 19, 1950. Calypso left
immediately for the shipyard in Antibes, France, where she was
transformed into an oceanographic ship and a new Calypso was born. One
of her many innovations was the " false nose ", or underwater
observation chamber built around the prow and equipped with eight
portholes for viewing.
Much of the equipment was donated by the private sector, including many
companies, and the French Navy. Jacques Cousteau and his wife Simone
also devoted a major part of their personal resources to the ship.
First trials, first expedition
In June, 1951, Cousteau decided to put the ship in the water and run
her first trials off Corsica. On board, the improvised crew was made up
of a few friends. The whole Cousteau family made the trip: 12-year-old
Jean-Michel and 10-year-old Philippe served as cabin boys.
On November 24, 1951, the real adventure began. Calypso sailed from the
Toulon arsenal, headed for the Red Sea to study corals. The crew
brought back valuable topographic and photographic documentation and
samples of theretofore unknown fauna and flora. Cousteau came back
convinced that there was only one solution for understanding the sea: "
We must go see for ourselves. " Calypso was the ideal tool for that
challenge.
A film platform
In July, 1952, Calypso left Toulon for Marseilles. She shuttled back
and forth to the little islet of Grand Congloué where the team was
studying a shipwreck from the third century BC, lying 40 meters
underwater. That was when a young Albert Falco joined the crew.
Thousands of amphorae and pottery shards were brought to the surface and
taken back to the Borely Museum and the Roman Docks Museum of
Marseilles.
During the summer of 1953, Calypso was used to test new underwater
cameras and electronic flashes invented by Dr. Harold Edgerton that made
it possible to photograph deep water animals, pushing the limits of
underwater exploration. The ship was ready for the fantastic film and
television adventure that lay ahead of her. These 42.35 meters of
floating wood became a laboratory, a film studio and home to a crew of
28.
The Silent World
In 1954, the ship left on expedition to look for oil, resulting in the
discovery of a rich oil field in the Persian Gulf. The year 1955 saw the
production of The Silent World, which later won the Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar. Calypso, by then famous, began a
series of scientific cruises, studies and expeditions that would require
further modifications to the ship. She was equipped with submersibles, a
helicopter and all the tools needed for her mission. With her huge
crane, bristling antennas and knobby underwater observation chamber, the
ship looked like no other in the world and was known to everyone in the
world.
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
For 40 years, Calypso carried Captain Cousteau and his teams to explore
all the riches and the fragility of the oceans. At once a vessel, an
operations base and a home, the ship sailed from the warm waters of the
Indian Ocean to the ice of Antarctica. She towed the Conshelf
structures, sailed up the Amazon River, housed film teams and became the
symbol of a world to be explored and cared for.
Breakdowns, hurricanes, storms, ice, sand banks—through them all,
Calypso was the leading actress of the " Undersea World of Jacques
Cousteau ". She surmounted many an adventure and challenge. In the Suez
Canal, she was almost sunk by mistake during the 1956 Egypt-Israel
conflict.
A second life
It was three o'clock in the afternoon, in the port of Singapore,
January 8, 1996, when a barge, in the process of being moved, seriously
damaged Calypso just as she was about to depart for a Yellow River
expedition. Her hull perforated, the grand old lady who had traveled
through so many challenges heeled over and sank. The hearts of all her
crew members over the years sank with her. It took 17 days to get the
ship out of the water. Forever wounded, proud Calypso was now headed for
one last mission: to bear witness for future generations of the
extraordinary life of Captain Cousteau. Born of war, Calypso has become
the messenger of peace and of protecting the water planet for future
generations. Expeditions continued with her younger sister, Alcyone, daughter of the wind, launched in 1985.
Calypso Saved!
Calypso did not belong to the Equipe Cousteau when she was sunk in the
port of Singapore. She was actually leased by Loël Guinness to Captain
Cousteau and then to his organization. After her tragic sinking, she was
brought back to France and sold to Equipe Cousteau for the symbolic sum
of one franc by Loël Guinness’s grandson and heir, which precipitated a
flurry of legal problems. Equipe Cousteau was finally recognized as
owner of the vessel with full rights to undertake her restoration, which
was begun on October 12, 2007.
Scale: 1/4 Metric: 1:48
Length: 36” Height: 16” Bredth: 7”
Price: $450
Shipping: Free
USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for and by the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th state's recent admission into the union, the ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. Although commissioned in 1916, the ship remained stateside during World War I. Shortly after the end of the war, Arizona was one of a number of American ships that briefly escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. The ship was sent to Turkey in 1919 at the beginning of the Greco-Turkish War to represent American interests for several months. Several years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and remained there for the rest of her career.
Aside from a comprehensive modernization in 1929–1931, Arizona was regularly used for training exercises between the wars, including the annual Fleet Problems (training exercises). When an earthquake struck Long Beach, California in 1933, Arizona's crew provided aid to the survivors. Two years later, the ship was featured in a Jimmy Cagney film, Here Comes the Navy,
about the romantic troubles of a sailor. In April 1940, she and the
rest of the Pacific Fleet were transferred from California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a deterrent to Japanese imperialism.
During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Arizona
was bombed. She exploded and sank, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen.
Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona could not be fully salvaged, though the navy removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated on 30 May 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the ship's hull.
