Beneath the Frozen World: Cousteau in Antarctica

The last continent to be discovered, Antarctica remained hidden behind barriers of fog, storm, and sea ice until it was first sighted in the early 19th century. Because of the extreme cold and the lack of native peoples, forests, land animals, and obvious natural resources, the continent remained largely neglected for decades after discovery. Scientific expeditions and seal hunters had explored only fragments of its coasts by the end of the 19th century, while the interior remained unknown. Explorers first reached the South Pole in 1911, and the first permanent settlements scientific stations were established in the early 1940s. From that time the pace of exploration accelerated rapidly. Scientists continue to conduct research in Antarctica, and in recent years increasing numbers of tourists have visited Antarctica to appreciate the regions majestic scenery and wildlife.


Seven nations Argentina, Australia, the United Kingdom, Chile, France, New Zealand, and Norway claim territory in Antarctica. Other nations, including the United States and Russia, do not acknowledge these claims and make no claims of their own, but reserve rights to claim territory in the future. Since 1961 the continent has been administered under the Antarctic Treaty, an international agreement to preserve the continent for peaceful scientific study.


Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) was a French naval officer, marine explorer, author, and documentary filmmaker. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac and educated at the Naval School in Brest. Cousteau was serving in the French navy as a gunnery officer when he began his underwater explorations. In 1943 he and French engineer Émile Gagnan perfected the aqualung, a cylinder of compressed air connected through a pressure-regulating valve to a face mask, enabling a diver to stay underwater for several hours. Cousteau made full-length films, film shorts, and numerous television films; The Silent World (1956) and World Without Sun (1966) each won an Academy Award as the best documentary feature of the year. Cousteau wrote many books, including a series entitled Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.


Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, to Daniel (a lawyer) and Élisabeth Cousteau. In 1930 he entered the French Navy as the head of the underwater research group. He later worked his way up the ranks as he became more famous and more useful to the navy. In 1937 he married Simone Melchior, by whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel (1938) and Philippe (1940). In 1991, one year after his wife Simone's death of cancer, he married Francine Triplet. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (1980) and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau (1982), born before their marriage. Cousteau died at the age of 87 of a heart attack while recovering from a respiratory illness. He is buried in the Cousteau family plot at Saint-André-de-Cubzac Cemetery, Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France.



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