Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King

Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King provides a powerful biography of the seafaring naturalist, following his early days as a pilot in the French Navy until an accident forced him to recover by swimming to build his strength. His inventions, increasing passion for undersea exploration, and growing reputation that led to the gift of his world-famous boat Calypso makes for a vivid story, hard to put down.

I've had two heroes in my life - Garrison Keillor and Jacques Cousteau. I've been fortunate enough to meet and spend more than few minutes with both of them(Jaques surprised me with his warmth and friendliness). This book is a truly inspiring account of a man who lived his dreams, whose work was not work, but a joy. The other major theme, which was the huge marketing effort that went into creating and managing the Jacques Cousteau brand, is not inspiring, but a good lesson. The final theme (a familiar one) is of a womanizing celebrity. What makes this aspect of Cousteau's life different is his decision to betray his oldest son. This is a real bombshell without much explanation. I suppose in the end, only Jacques Cousteau knows why he made this decision, which he evidently took to his grave. I enjoy biographies and this was good one.

To cut to the chase, Sea King is a wonderful fast-paced, very entertaining read, a lively unauthorized, carefully researched biography of a 20th Century world icon, warts and all, skillfully told by arguably the best author on marine topics writing today (Matsen's two most recent books: Descent and Titanic's Last Secrets, both terrific). With Cousteau, the author had his work cut out. The man was a complex, formidable personality: inventor, self-taught scientist, filmmaker, adventurer, explorer, visionary, charmer, canny marketer, environmentalist, and celebrated world citizen. With his pitch-perfect narrative voice, Matsen delivers in spades, revealing Cousteau was also a bit of a con, self-absorbed, not a little sociopathic, a tireless ladies man (reportedly he slept with 10,000 women), and oh so French. He also had a secret life: a second family with a devoted mistress who bore him children and who following his death, emerged as the controversial controller of the Cousteau estate. What surprised me is that Cousteau's life story is only now being told-amazing considering Cousteau's decades-long celebrity and profound impact on both scuba diving and the conservation movement. Matsen plunges in with gusto. It's all here: the invention of the double-stage regulator (replete with near fatal experiments), the breakthrough documentary The Silent World, behind-the-scenes tales of the Calypso voyages (groupies and all), the tragic death of Cousteau's son Philippe, Cousteau's quirky successful partnership with media mogul Ted Turner, the meteoric success of the Cousteau Society and its long messy public unraveling. Great stuff, all of it. Matsen never gets in the way, steering an even-handed course, allowing the darker revelations and less-flattering aspects of the man speak for themselves. A bonus: the book's photos, many provided by family members and never before published, are excellent. Highest recommendation. John Grissim, author of The Lost Treasure of the Concepcion and Pure Stoke

An exciting and well written biography of an amazing man. The author tells the story of Cousteau with a nonsensational but highly engaging voice. Although I'm a big fan of all things Cousteau, Matsen reveals many aspects of him I was not even remotely aware of. One of the remarkable things about the book is that it wasn't written a long time ago - as far as I know this is the only English-language detailed account of Cousteau's life and work: a man that not only revolutionized how we look at and engage with our watery planet, invented Scubadiving - but also had a fascinating (and thoroughly complicated...) personal life. This makes for a real page-turner, and Matsen delivers the goods with style. I reccomend it to all people who are interested in the oceans, diving - or just want an entertaining read!