By now, Jacques Cousteau, with help from his sons and team, was filming series after series. Cousteau was finally living his dream.

One day, in 1979, Philippe Cousteau was on a test drive in a flyboat, the PBY Catalina, when it crashed and sank into the Tagus River in Lisbon. Everyone else on the flyboat were saved, but Philippe was nowhere to be found.

The entire Cousteau family came down to Lisbon the moment they heard the news. Together with Cousteau, Simone and Jean-Michel, Philippe’s wife and daughter, as well as Pierre-Antoine’s son, all undertook efforts to find Philippe. The third day after the accident, the Cousteaus received a call from the Portugese police. Philippe’s body was smashed beyond recognition, and Cousteau could not bear to go to the morgue to identify the body. Since that day, Cousteau would not publicly talk about his son’s death.

The following letter was written by Cousteau to his son. It was published in a Cousteau Society report.

Mon cher Philippe:

I will always remember that day then you joined our Conshelf two expedition. I was impatient to show you our Village under the Sea before it became too dark. Hastily, we submerged, I kept your hand in mine, to guide you. I felt strangely proud, not of what we had achieved, but because our dreams were always shared so intimately.

Three years ago, I found myself sitting near you in the cockpit of your Catalina. I tooked at you, my guide in the sky as I had been your guide in the sea. I saw your shining face, proud to have something to give back to me, and I smiled because I know that pursuing rainbows in your plane, you would always seek after the vanishing shapes of a better world.

I love you, JYC

[Taken from Jacque Cousteau the Sea King (Brad Matsen, 2009)]