If I had more money than sense (and some would argue that I've already reached that threshold), I'd buy that boat and spend the rest of my life combing the globe. Ktwn has already said she doesn't want to live aboard a ship. So, this will be a hard sell.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/world/europe/once-a-beloved-french-symbol-a-ship-now-rusts-into-oblivion.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
CONCARNEAU,
France — In its day, the Calypso was more than an oceanographic
research vessel. It was the constant companion of the famed French
explorer Jacques Cousteau, as the ship and its captain logged over a
million nautical miles together from the Red Sea and the Amazon to
Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.
Now,
all that can be seen of it is a skeletal frame, extending outside a
warehouse in this small port town on the coast of Brittany in western France.
It
is difficult to recognize it as the same boat that starred in
award-winning films and televised adventures beginning in the mid-1950s
and extending into the 1980s. Over those years, the Calypso and Mr.
Cousteau turned into icons of a vibrant ecology movement, raising
awareness of the wonders and fragility of the world’s oceans. Their
travels brought the duo fame and made them synonymous with the romance
of marine exploration, as they pursued sharks, sea sponges and
shipwrecks across the globe.
Today,
the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired
in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds
curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of
how Mr. Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite
France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have
found a solution for its restoration.
BRITAIN
IRELAND
English Channel
Paris
Atlantic Ocean
BRITTANY
Concarneau
FRANCE
Bay of Biscay
SPAIN
200 Miles
PORTUGAL
Mr.
Cousteau, the country’s premier oceanographer and environmental
advocate, was as much showman as scientist, and he astutely recognized
that in order to get funding, scientific research had to appeal to a
popular audience. By refining underwater filming, he did just that,
creating a wealth of documentation of life beneath the oceans’ waves.
But
he left little clear direction about what should become of the vessel
that accompanied him in his explorations for more than 40 years when he died at 87 at his home in Paris in 1997.
Still
in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge
accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took
days to bring it to the surface and much longer to bring it back to
France.
Although
the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by
the explorer, set out to restore it after Mr. Cousteau’s death, there
have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat’s wooden frame
weathering and its famous false nose with an underwater chamber rusting
away.
“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.
In
2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s
maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national
monument by the state, which would give it a chance to compete for
preservation funding.
The neglect is hardly surprising, said Gérard D’Aboville, the captain of PlanetSolar,
a solar-powered research vessel. Despite France’s ample seacoast and
its many island territories, the government has never shown much
enthusiasm for preserving the country’s ships, he said.
The register of historic monuments
designated by the Culture Ministry, lists 43,000 buildings and, among
other things, 1,400 pipe organs (many of them in churches), but just 133
boats. “We are a country where the maritime heritage has great
difficulties existing,” said Mr. D’Aboville, who spoke by phone from his
boat.
The Calypso’s chances for government sponsorship have also diminished as its fame recedes into memory, he noted.
“If you ask the younger generation in France, they don’t know about it at all,” Mr. D’Aboville said.
The
unresolved fate of the Calypso raises questions about what should
happen to a ship when it reaches the end of its working life, especially
a boat that was groundbreaking in its day.
Yet,
the frequent practice of chopping a boat into bits for recycling
strikes many as a painful insult to a boat with such an august history.
No
one was talking about such a dire option when the boat arrived in
Concarneau for a complete restoration in 2007. Crowds thronged the quays
to see it towed into port. The Cousteau Society handed out red caps in
memory of those worn by Mr. Cousteau and people applauded.
“When
we learned that the workshop had succeeded in obtaining the order for
the renovation of the Calypso, it was greeted with great joy and pride,”
recalled Bruno Quillivic, the deputy mayor for ports in Concarneau,
referring to the workshop of Piriou Naval Services, one of the largest
employers here and one of France’s biggest shipbuilders.
“We all remembered the Sunday evenings when we would watch the documentaries,” he added.
All went well, initially.
But
by the beginning of 2009, the Cousteau Society decided the renovations
were inadequate and stopped payment. Piriou stopped working on the boat
and a series of court actions ensued.
A
judge ruled in favor of Piriou, saying the Cousteau Society needed to
pay the shipbuilder 273,000 euros, about $300,000, and to remove the
boat from the Concarneau warehouse. Piriou said that if the Cousteau
Society failed to remove the boat by mid-March, it would take steps to
auction off the Calypso.
That
date has come and gone and no sale has taken place. It is not clear if
the company has the right to sell the boat and, even if it did, if there
would be a buyer.
A
spokesman for Piriou refused to comment on the boat’s status or whether
there had been expressions of interest from private parties. So far, no
city or country has come forward to offer the boat a home.
The
Cousteau Society has said only that it is in discussions with Monaco,
where Mr. Cousteau directed the Oceanographic Museum for many years. The
society said that Mr. Cousteau’s widow, Francine, did not wish to
comment on the boat.
Ms.
Cousteau, who has the title of president, has publicly said that she
has wanted to make the boat seaworthy again. But Piriou has disputed
this account, saying that the company was contracted to make it into a
museum and that the society changed its mind.
On
the docks at Concarneau, in the shipyards, and among the fisherman,
there is little dispute about the right way to pay respect to the
Calpyso: It should be sent to the ocean floor.
Jacques
Scavennec, a 70-year old sailor who was checking the repairs done on
his boat at a local dealer before heading to check his lobster pots,
spoke firmly: “It must be sunk 3,000 meters deep and not spoken of
anymore,” he said.
“Yes, it’s possible to renovate it, but no one has the financing.”
Pierre
Nerzic, 36, who runs Concar’nautic, a company near the shipyards that
sells, rents and repairs small boats, and who like many mariners here
speaks of Mr. Cousteau as if he knew him personally, was equally
confident in his judgment.
“The
wish of Cousteau was for it to be sunk in the deep so that it could
become a home for the fish,” he said. “Then the next Cousteau will find
it.”
