The Silent World: Thoughts

It is a pity I could not have read this book when it was first published in 1953. Back when it came out, Cousteau and his mates were practically the equivalent of modern day astronauts, venturing into a world mankind had only been able to admire from a distance. You get a sense of this by reading the types of things they would talk about after their first few dives.

“We reveled in plans for the aqualung. Tailliez penciled the tablecloth and announced that each yard of depth we claimed in the sea would open to mankind three hundred thousand cubic kilometers of living space.”

They honestly believed at first that they were opening up a new age of mankind. They looked forward to the day when growing populations would move to the sea as their home, forsaking the land entirely. They even speculated on future man developing into a new hybrid species, half man, half fish. This seems a bit humorous to us over half a century later, but to these men, the future held as many possibilities as fish in the sea. And they were all waiting to be discovered.

 They took to the water with the wonder of little children. Every dive was an adventure. They examined sunken ships, searching for lost treasures. They explored underwater caves and once found an underwater tunnel going through the heart of an island and coming out on the other side. They also “discovered” a species of seal that had been thought extinct for at least sixty years. Rather than relating one adventure or a series of adventures in his book, Cousteau took on the monumental task of writing about a lifetime’s worth of adventures.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. Cousteau and his mates had to make a living as well. Fortunately for them, the Navy was eager to make use of their newfound underwater abilities. Unfortunately for them, this often put them in the way of danger, not unlike swimming guinea pigs. Consider for example, when the Navy had them test the ability of a human to endure underwater explosions.

“We went underwater in pairs while one-pound TNT charges were exploded at progressively nearer distances. When a burst caused too much discomfort, we stopped… The astonishing thing was how close we could get and bear it. Sometimes, when two of us were hanging in our stations waiting for the explosion, we would look at each other and wince at the lunatic idea.”

Perhaps my favorite experience described in Cousteau’s book was the time they were attempting to film a submarine laying mines underwater. They were having difficulty coordinating the location of the drop with the sub (they had no underwater radios at the time). Then Dumas had a wild idea, “I’ll ride the sub down and give the order to drop them at the right place." He wanted to ride down on the outside of the submarine. They decided to let him try and the submarine captain watched through the periscope as this crazy diver held on to the rail as he was pummeled with an avalanche of water. Dumas rode the sub down through the waves until he was fully submerged and then at the moment he passed his friends with the camera, he pounded on the sub with a hammer and they dropped the mine. How incredible is that? And this was their job!

It is important to remember while reading this book that no one had ever done these things before. For example, Cousteau invented the shark cage. Before his time no one had ever needed one! The sea was a world unknown before they ventured into it. Mankind’s concept of the ocean had up to this time been formed by the world of science fiction. It is because of these preconceived notions from literature that these men built a poisonous harpoon gun to take down with them, just in case they came across a giant squid or other sea monster. Thanks to them, we have come to truly know the sea, and millions of people have been able to follow their bubbles down into the deep. They were truly explorers and mankind owes them a debt of gratitude for the marvels they uncovered and for the silent world they brought to the surface.

My rating: 7 out of 10