Par dix-huit mètres de fond

The war separated the three men until France surrendered in 1940. Tailliez and Cousteau’s units were sent back to Toulon to guard the ships there, while Dumas had escaped home after his unit surrendered. Even though all three of them were back together in Toulon, food was the main priority. There was hardly anything left to eat, and any dive made was essential to bringing food to the table.

Par dix-huit métres de fond

The men’s shared passion of filming underwater was the only constant as battle raged outside of Toulon. With Veche’s help, who had now joined the gang of three, the Sea Musketeers decided to simply build an underwater camera out of an old ten-year-old Kinamo camera in a waterproof casing.

35mm Kinamo

(Photo courtesy of Photos-encheres.com)

It was cleverly simple. However, any of the buttons or levers on the equipment would have to accessible in order for the diver to have control over the camera. If the casing were too tight, the diver would not be able to turn the lever. However, if the casing were too loose, water could seep into the camera and render it completely useless. Furthermore, the camera had to be able to withstand pressure in the deep in order for the diver to film anything at all. After weeks of test diving with a dummy as the camera, the team was ready to try filming with the real thing.

Over the course of a few months, Cousteau, Dumas and Tailliez took turns diving and filming. Cousteau was not interested in filming anything romantic or dramatic. His film would simply involve a skin-diver hunting at sea. Armed with a speargun, he shoots, misses, and tries again. On his third try, he aims for a big fish, shoots it, and struggles to bring it to shore. Cousteau’s first underwater film, Par dix-huit métres de fond (Sixty Feet Down) was released in 1943 in Paris.

After the success of their film, the Cousteaus and the Sea Musketeers returned to Toulon to find it under siege by German troops. The ships on which the three navy men were supposedly stationed at were burned and destroyed. Terrified, the Cousteaus decided that it would be the safest for Simone and their two children to escape to Paris, where Simone’s and Cousteau’s families could look after them. Cousteau however, was ordered to stay in Toulon. The French Navy was aware of Cousteau’s passion, and now success of film making, and wanted him to film the destruction there.

Légion d’honneur

The entire town was in a mess as the Germans tried to gain control over the large city. Taking advantage of the confusion, Cousteau stole the uniform of an Italian solider, and with a camera under his arm, nonchalantly walked into the Italian headquarters. Within ten minutes, he snapped photographs of maps outlining the location of guns, camps, and ammunition stores, and left the building. This later earned him the highest decoration in France, the Legion of Honor.