Feeling that he would not succeed as a director, Cousteau decided to scrap film making and wanted to try his luck at aviation instead. He took and passed the admission examination for the French Navy Academy in Brest.

He sailed around the world  for the next 4 years, visiting Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, China and Bali. The young Lieutenant was promoted to Captain before applying for his flying license. However, just before his examinations, a terrible automobile accident cut short his aviation plans, and he spent most days undergoing treatment at Toulon, when he was stationed. He still pursued film making as a hobby, but his position as a gunnery officer was still physically demanding given his condition. He was often tired and in pain. Philippe Tailliez, a fellow officer on the destroyer Condorcet, recommended that Cousteau try swimming to regain his strength. The older Tailliez himself was an adept swimmer, even having made some of his own diving equipment.

Almost daily after training, the two men spent their time on the beach of Le Mourillon. Tailliez would go hunting for fish, while Cousteau swam to relieve the pain in his arms. One day, under Tailliez’s encouragement, Cousteau went on his first dive.

“[…] Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been change,to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me on that summer’s day, when my eyes were opened on the sea.”

The dive opened his eyes to the watery world beneath the surface, and since that afternoon, Cousteau immersed himself in learning more about the sea as his ship sailed around France.

Simone Melchior

In the summer of 1936 in Paris, Cousteau was introduced to Simon Melchior at a social event. Cousteau was 9 years younger than Simone, but he quickly caught her eyes with the camera he was holding. Simone was immediately taken in by the officer’s gallant stories of having travelled around the world and his close brush with death. The courtship continued until the couple got married in St.-Louis-des-Invalides, Paris, in 1937. Cousteau and the Toulon-born Simone decided to return to Toulon to settle down in Le Mourillon Bay, where Cousteau and Tailliez would meet Frédéric Dumas and begin the development of the Aqualung.