Interview with Brad Matsen, author of Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King

Jacques Cousteau’s life has not been covered in biographical form since 1984, which is surprising considering he was once one of the most recognizable celebrities on the planet. Author Brad Matsen’s newest book, Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King, details the underwater pioneer’s life, from the invention of the Aqualung to Cousteau’s systematic research on underwater filming and the environmental crusade he undertook to preserve the world’s oceans.

Scrupulously researched and compelling, The Sea King reveals the various facets of a hero who was worshipped by several generations of adoring fans. Starting as a member of the French Resistance who went on undercover missions in World War II, Cousteau left a permanent impression on both the television and film worlds, partnering with a young Ted Turner and PBS, while nurturing a tumultuous relationship with his family.

To find out more about the curiosity and ambition that drove Jacques Cousteau, read on for a conversation with biographer Brad Matsen.
 
Q. What made you want to write about Jacques Cousteau?

A. It began 5 years ago, when I was living in New York and had just finished a book about William Bebe and Otis Barton, who were two men in a very unlikely venture to build and dive in what’s called a bathysphere. They were sealed inside a steel ball 4 1/2 feet in diameter and lowered on the end of the cable into the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the first human beings ever to descend beyond sunlight and see what was in the dark ocean—it was really a remarkable bit of heroism.

And I had been an environmental writer for years: I was an editor for National Fisherman Magazine for 10 years, and writing for Autobahn Magazine, Sierra, and Orien. I realized that I was writing for the same people all the time and I thought that some of the messages I have with the fascination of life and the business of life on earth, was to try to get to people who don’t ordinarily think: where does life come from? What’s in the ocean?

What I was evolving - started about 15 years ago - was kind of a Trojan Horse strategy. To me, if you write real on-the-nose environmental stuff, you’re only going to reach people who are going to pick up that book anyway. So I was really trying to trick them.

…I want to tell stories about incredible heroism in the ocean that attract people because of their adventurous sensibility, but also trick them into learning things about the ocean. That is my destiny and my karma is to write about the ocean.

There are a lot of books by Jacques Cousteau and books with his name on the cover. These were, of course, ghost-written by other people, but there hadn’t been a biography since 1984. And I was stunned. He died in 1997 and there’s 13 years of his life to be accounted for.

And I got going on it. I went to France on a kind of reconnaissance mission. I went to where he was born and where he was buried and I found his old boat Calypso on the dock.

At this point I’m thinking: there’s something to this story that the world doesn’t know and what happened to this man is a very important piece of business. It was really just a desire to reveal in responsible hands the life of somebody who absolutely changed the world.

Q. Why had nobody else written about him before?

A. Francine Triplet Cousteau, his widow, controls everything and she basically wouldn’t allow anything written about him that isn’t basically a polemic - that isn’t basically publicity. And so it was impossible. I think I was the only one who was bold enough to do it.

Q. Let me preface this by saying that this was my favorite book of the year, but do you think it’s possible to write a boring book about Jacques Cousteau?

A. The best thing about him is that he was so complicated. From a writer’s perspective, what we’re looking for is always a story. And that’s what hooked me on the book. When I went to his grave, I felt sympathy. When I went to his birthplace, I felt sympathy. I went to look at Calypso and I said, “Something’s not right here.” There’s a story here. And sure enough, there is a story.

When I started, I would limit my research pretty much to his technological innovations - the aqualung, saturation diving, sub sea habitats, and submarines - but I just couldn’t stay away from the rest of his life. It was just too important to the story.

Q. Do you think he considered himself to be first and foremost a filmmaker or a diver?

A. Filmmaker. He actually flat says, there were three careers that he wanted and one of them was filmmaker. I think there’s a delightful stretch in the book when he was 13-years-old and taking a camera and filming a friend’s wedding. That’s something we can all really relate to. But the thing to remember is that this is 1922, when there weren’t many people with movie cameras. He is a pioneer. He has a wonderfully inventive sense.

Among the other things that are great about Jacques Cousteau is that he had this incredible ability to bring full intensity to the moment that he was in at the time. And I think that filmmaking appealed to him for that reason. It’s one of those activities that we participate in very fully while we are in it.

You know, later in his life, he was the CEO of several multinational corporations and organizations so he wasn’t doing a lot of filmmaking. Other people were doing it for him after the mid 70s.

Unfortunately the beginning of his secret life with Francine really corrupted his life in some way.

Q. That is not all you want to remember about Jacques Cousteau…

A. And if I put too much stuff about that, it would be all people remember. I mean, how many lovers has Mick Jagger had?

The fact is, Cousteau loved women and women loved Cousteau. I mean, he’s a celebrity and he’s a rock star, so 10,000 may be a high number, but Jacques Cousteau had a lot. 

Q. What did he do to advocate against ocean pollution? And was he one of the first to take a stand against over fishing?

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A. Yes he was. And it was because he had witnessed the tuna slaughter in the Mediterranean, when he started skin-diving in in the early 30s and 40s. And this is in spite of the fact that he really invented the aqualung so he could kill more fish.

But the fact is that he was a very pragmatic environmentalist. He wasn’t an idealist at all. He really understood that what was happening was a phenomena and was going to lead to a bad place if we kept overfishing and polluting and killing all the fish that are essential to nurseries. And he was one of the first to protest nuclear power in France because of the runoff and potential damage to downstream habitats.

Q. In the book you mention he had four priorities for the Earth: population control, peace, education and environment. These are still strikingly relevant today.

A. Cousteau was a great visionary. Cousteau knew - he really could see that humanity in the time of his life had grown from 2 billion people to 6 billion people, and it was really a bad thing.

When he talked about the environment, he always talked about it as if humans were just another species with a booming population with a great capacity to destroy.

Q. And what happened to his nonprofit expeditions and his films after he died? His son, Jean Michel, is not allowed to use his name?

A. No. Francine sued him and also sued his widow from using his name. He has an organization called Ocean Futures. Jean Michel is now producing movies that are very similar to what his father produced for PBS. So he is really doing what his father used to do.

After Cousteau’s death, most of the people that worked for Cousteau left. They didn’t want to work for Francine because she didn’t know what she was doing.

So the problem was of course that without any films and production, the membership to the Cousteau Society plummeted. When Cousteau died, it was somewhere between 275,000 and 300,000, but now it’s probably under 100,000. It has really deteriorated under her stewardship to nothing and now there are no films…She basically said that if anyone were going to produce anything about Jacques Cousteau, it would be her. And it’s a tragedy - what has happened.

Q. What do you think made him so identifiable and adored?

A. The accent and the Speedo.