Jaques Cousteau Essay, Research Paper

Jaques CousteauJaques Cousteau was born June 11, 1910 in France. His father Daniel, alawyer worked for Eugene Higgins. His mother Elizabeth looked after him andhis brother Pierre. Jaques Cousteau loved the water. As a child, he would place his hands inthe water to feel the current over his fingers. Unlike other children, youngJaques could not play in the ocean or run along the beaches because he wassick. Jaques had to remain inactive to stay healthy. At age 7, Jaques turned tothe world of books for adventure. His favorite books were about water, or hadsomething to do with water. Eugene Higgins helped Jaques build musclethrough playing tennis, horseback riding, and Jaques favorite, swimming.Swimming seemed to be the cure to Jaques problems. Swimming made himhealthy and strong. In 1920, Jaques moved to New York City which was acompletely different world. With their friends, the Cousteau boys played stickball in the streets of the city. At a lake in Vermont, Jaques would dive down tothe bottom of the lake and see how long he could hold his breath. He also triedto breathe through a garden hose underwater but it didn’t work. At age 13,Jaques bought one of the first motion picture cameras ever sold. Most of hisfirst films were not very well done. During high-school, Jaques was expelled for throwing rocks through it’swindows. His parents sent Jaques to a boarding school to be disciplined for hisactions. The plan seemed to work, Jaques even studied with a flashlight in bed.After graduating in 1929, Cousteau Became a naval officer. He took his camerato record sights during the trip. Back in France, Cousteau enrolled in aviationschool. Flight training for Jaques ended quickly. After a bad auto accident,Cousteau’s arm was paralyzed. A friend encouraged him to swim after theaccident. The swimming strengthened Cousteau’s arm. Cousteau made awaterproof cover for his camera so he could film underwater. On July 23, 1937, Cousteau married Simone Melchior shortly after shegraduated from high-school. A problem Jaques had while diving was lack of air.To solve this problem Cousteau invented the aqualung which helped him breatheunderwater. In the 1940’s, Jaques and Simone had 2 sons, Jean Michael and Philip. In 1945,Cousteau ordered 2 small aqualungs for his sons. During their first dive, theboys lost their mouth piece many times trying to talk. After WWII, Cousteauand Some friends in an research group retrieved cargo from sunken ships.Cousteau filmed some of the ships that had sunken. One of the films he named”Wrecks.” While filming, he realized how rich how rich the sea was in naturalresources. In 1950, Cousteau bought a small ship and named it Calypso. TheCalypso was used to transport divers to the dive site. The crew of the Calypsoencountered floating light bulbs and 2,200 year old bottles of bitter wine. By1950 Cousteau was publishing books and making movies. Cousteau resignedfrom the French navy in 1951. In that same year, he was named the director ofThe Oceanographic Institute. In 1962, 2 divers lived in a dome 33 feet underthe surface of the water. In 1963, the second dome was placed 36 feet below thesurface, and housed 5 people for a month. In 1966, the world of JaquesCousteau aired on ABC. In the present day, Cousteau travels over the world

seeking adventure undersea. Born in 1460 with Dona Maria and Don Jose as his parents. JuanPonce de Leon started his life. Bartolo their servant helped his familyraise cattle.. When he was still a teenager he fought the Moors of Granadaunder his master Don Pero Nunez de Guzman. After Columbusreturned from his first voyage to the new world, Juan Ponce wanted toreturn with him. Since Don Pero was a very influential man hepersuaded Columbus to take Juan Ponce. They left on September 24, 1493 from the port of Cadiz andspotted land November 3. The ships landed at the island of Hispaniolaand they settled making a colony named Isabella. Juan Ponce was incharge of making the men build forts on this new island. In October of1495 his bride, Inez came to live with him in the new world. Since Juan Ponce worked so well, he was promoted to captain,and was ordered to build a fort at the mouth of the river Ozama to becloser to the gold mines. Years later, after Juan Ponce was made governor of San Juan.Don Diego Columbus (Christopher’s nephew) was put in charge of theIndes. Since Juan Ponce didn’t help Christopher when he was in jail,Don Diego took away Juan Ponce’s governorship and made his lifehard for him. Juan Ponce couldn’t hardly stand this and one day when an oldnative lady came and talked to him he listened. She told him about theisland of Bimini and the very valuble fountain of youth. Juan PonceThought it would be nice to find this place because there, theColumbus family would have no control over him. He decided to do it,and went to see the king. The king approved but didn’t want JuanPonce to talk about it to anyone. On March 4, 1513 Juan Ponce sailed North west with 3 smallships looking for Bimini and for a fountain with magic waters. JuanPonce had no previous experience of being a captain but on April 2they spotted land. From the many flowers he could see he named theplace La Florida which means “flowery easter”. On Sunday he set footon the land. The found no natives however. They sailed North toexplore more, finding even less sight of natives they decided to sailsouth. They found natives and were attacked. Two men werewounded, but they continued south and captured a native and theymade him be their guide. They sailed to the mouth of a river he namedSanta Cruz and loaded some water and fire wood. One of the ships needed repairs so they stopped at an island henamed Santa Isabella which is now called San Ybel. After the repairswere complete he sailed home. Because the king had told him not totell anyone what he found, the people thought he was either crazy or acheat. He sailed to spain and told the king Ferdinand of his findings.The king made him a knight and gave him two good ships with whichto return with. His plans to return were held back, and even more sowhen the king died in 1516. After that his wife died of a fever. When he finally did return he took 200 men and domesticanimals. His plans were to return to San Ybel and build a great housefor his children to live in. When they got to the island the indiansseemed peaceful so the men built huts and pens on shore. After thiswas built they decided to explore inland. They were attacked byCaloosa natives and he got an arrow in the leg. They sailed to Havannabut a good doctor couldn’t be found. His leg got infected and he diedat the age of 61 in 1521.