He was a sailor, explorer, inventor, best-selling author, prizewinning filmmaker, passionate environmentalist and canny businessman. Instantly recognizable by his pipe, red cap and gaunt silhouette, Jacques-Yves Cousteau--a.k.a. "Captain Planet"--was arguably the century's best known, most popular Frenchman. For generations of scuba divers--and millions of armchair explorers--he created a crystal-clear window for the unseen world beneath the waves.
Before Cousteau, undersea exploration was limited by the length of a human breath or the tether on a diving helmet. His co-invention of the Aqua-Lung in 1943 freed us to roam the ocean depths--like an "archangel" flying through the heavens, as he put...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
