Debborah Lecocq and Samuel G. Lecocq

Samuel Lecocq had the privilege to be a guest on the Calypso on many occasions. He witnessed firsthand that Simone Cousteau was not only "the soul of the Calypso," but in reality, she was the captain on the ship. Everyone who knew the Cousteaus knew that to be the fact.

As Jacques Cousteau once replied when asked if it was difficult to be the commander of the Calypso, "Not if Simone is on board. She is the cook, the mother of thirty sailors, the one that advises, the one that ends the fights, the one that tells us when to shave, the one that challenges us to do our best, the one that we can count on, our best critic, our first admirer, the one that saves the ship in the storm. She is the smile each morning and the warm goodnight. The Calypso could have lived without me, but not without Simone."

This was a statement that would prove prophetic.

Simone Cousteau, nee Melchior, was born into a family of the French aristocracy, January 1919 in Oran, Algeria, where her father was posted as a naval attaché shortly after the end of WWI. She had a twin brother and another brother two years older than she. Both of her grandfathers were admirals in the French navy, as was her father. In fact, from the time of Louis XVI, men in the Melchior family had all served as high level civil servants, usually in the diplomatic corps or as highly decorated military officers.

A year after Simone was born, her father returned to Paris to spend Christmas with his family. He had been looking for a position with a civilian company that could benefit from his services and connections overseas as part of the diplomatic corps. He inquired with a company that produced gases and chemicals for civilian and military applications, Aire Liquide. The company accepted his offer to help them develop their business with the French navy and her father was sent to Japan as a naval attaché.

France, like most of Europe at the time, was seeking to exert influence both economically and militarily throughout the world, maneuvering to obtain raw materials and markets in less industrialized countries. As members of the privileged French aristocracy, the Melchior family enjoyed a life of relative leisure. While her father worked at the consulate and traveled in connection with his duties to the French navy and Air Liquide, her mother, as a member of high society, maintained a very active social life. This left little time for the three young children, who were left in the care of a Japanese nanny.

French culture in the early 19th century did not accord to young girls the same respect and freedom to pursue their own interests as it did to young boys. In both France and Japan, boys received a superior education and were encouraged to pursue sports and outdoor adventure, while girls were expected to remain at home and learn the role of mother, wife, and woman of society.

Simone Cousteau and her crew at dinner on Calypso

As a young girl Simone was always dreaming of the sea, but it was not acceptable for a woman of the aristocracy to pursue any interests other than home and family. Simone Melchior was only seventeen years old when she met Jacques Cousteau at a party a given at her family home in Paris where they were living after WWII. He was a young naval lieutenant and she was a dazzling blonde beauty. The two were immediately attracted to each other and Simone was captivated by his stories of skin-diving and exploring the seas. Within the year they decided to marry. She saw this as a way to fulfill her desire to go to sea and have a taste of adventure outside the constraints of high society.

By 1950, this dream became a reality when a wealthy Englishman, Lionel Guiness (of the British Brewery), leased to Jacques and Simone Cousteau an old American minesweeper that would become the Calypso. They were living comfortably in Toulon, France, where Simone was raising their two young sons, but they sold nearly everything they owned to equip the Calypso as a research vessel. When they needed additional funds to complete the maiden voyage, Simone sold all the jewels that had been given to her by the Melchior family to finance their dream of exploring the sea.

From the start, Simone was the captain of the ship, and she proved it on Calypso's maiden voyage. Their first ocean trip was a voyage to the Red Sea. On arriving at the coast of Egypt, all the men went in the water for a dive. The only one left on board was Simone Cousteau. While the divers were underwater, a sudden storm came up. The sea became rough with large rolling waves and a strong wind. The divers realized they could never make it back to the boat in the rough seas, so they sought refuge on shore. Cousteau and all the men feared for Simone's life. She was young and petite with no experience handling boats.

Fearing that all their dreams would end with the sinking of the Calypso, Jacques and the others helplessly watched as the anchor chain broke away from the bow. Almost immediately they could hear the engines rumble to life. The ship swung around to face the storm---with Simone Cousteau at the helm. She was not going to let the Calypso flounder and sink. She took the boat out to sea facing the storm in all its fury. Eight hours went by with the retired minesweeper guided by one tiny and very determined young woman. She had never been in that position on a boat, but at all costs she would save her husband and their dreams from going to the bottom of the sea. Finally when the storm abated, Simone guided the boat back towards the coast she could faintly see in the distance. Having no anchor, she brought the boat close to shore, stopped the engines and let the boat drift close enough so the men on shore could swim back. Upon boarding the ship, they found a smiling Simone, and to the surprise of all, she greeted them with hot coffee.

Simone Cousteau spent forty years aboard the Calypso, the majority of that time serving as captain of the ship while Jacques traveled the globe giving lectures and promoting his movies and books trying to fulfill his insatiable ego. She remained behind the scenes supporting their dreams and raising their two sons.

Both Simone and the Calypso would meet a tragic end. The fantastic dream concluded when her life ended in great sadness. Just before Simone died of cancer, she would learn that her husband of many years not only had a secret life with another woman, but also had two children with that woman. A short while after she died, her beloved Calypso, abandoned in a Singapore harbor with no one on board, was struck by a barge and sunk to the bottom. A poignant end to a beautiful dream.

Sam Lecocq and Ron Church, lead photographer for Calypso, photo credit John Connolly.

For more personal accounts of the Cousteaus and other fascinating personalities involved in the evolution of diving, look for the upcoming release of the biography of Samuel G. Lecocq entitled:

Scuba; Evolution, Intrigue and Controversy;
A first hand account of the development of Scuba,
By Samuel G. Lecocq and Debborah Lecocq

First editions of the biography of Samuel Lecocq will be made available at Portage Quarry in Ohio on August 11, 12 and 13th, 2006 where Samuel Lecocq will be pleased to autograph copies.

© 2006 Samuel G. Lecocq and Debborah Lecocq
All Rights Reserved.