Cousteau’s Calypso, symbol of adventure, rusting into oblivion
CONCARNEAU, France — In its day, the Calypso was more than an oceanographic research vessel. It was the constant companion of the famed French explorer Jacques Cousteau, as the ship and its captain logged more than 1 million nautical miles together from the Red Sea and the Amazon to Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.
Now, all that can be seen of it is a skeletal hull, extending outside a warehouse in this small port town on the coast of Brittany in western France.
It is difficult to recognize it as the same boat that starred in award-winning films and televised adventures beginning in the mid1950s and extending into the 1980s. Over those years, the Calypso and Cousteau turned into icons of a vibrant ecology movement, raising awareness of the wonders and fragility of the world’s oceans. Their travels brought the duo fame and made them synony- mous with the romance of marine exploration, as they pursued sharks, sea sponges and shipwrecks across the globe.
Today, the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of how Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have found a solution for its restoration.
‘Depressing to see’
Cousteau, the country’s premier oceanographer and environmental advocate, was as much showman as scientist, and he astutely recognized that in order to get funding, scientific research had to appeal to a popular audience. By refining underwater filming, he did just that, creating a wealth of documentation of life beneath the oceans’ waves.
But he left little clear di- rection about what should become of the vessel that accompanied him in his explorations for more than 40 years when he died at 87 at his home in Paris in 1997.
Still in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took days to bring it to the surface and muchlonger to bring it back to France.
Although the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by the explorer, set out to restore it after Cousteau’s death, there have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat’s wooden frame weathering and its famous false nose with an underwater chamber rusting away.
“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.
In 2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national monument by the state, which would give it a chance to compete for preservation funding.
Viewed as an insult
The unresolved fate of the Calypso raises questions about what should happen to a ship when it reaches the end of its working life, especially a boat that was groundbreaking in its day.
Yet, the frequent practice of chopping a boat into bits for recycling strikes many as a painful insult to a boat with such an august history.
Noone was talking about such a dire option when the boat arrived in Concarneau for a complete restoration in 2007. Crowds thronged the quays to see it towed into port. The Cousteau Society handed out red caps in memory of those worn by the late Cousteau and people applauded.
But by the beginning of 2009, the Cousteau Society decided the renovations were inadequate and stopped payment. Piriou Naval Services stopped working, and a series of court actions ensued.
On the docks at Concarneau, in the shipyards, and among the fisherman, there is little dispute about the right way to pay respect to the Calpyso: It should be sent to the ocean floor.