Cousteau, Jacques-Yves

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997) the famous oceanographer, was also drawn to the Atlantis mystery. In 1967 he was due to join Spyridon Marinatos and James Mavor in an expedition to Santorini but the onset of the Arab-Israeli war prevented him from bringing his famous ship Calypso through the Suez Canal. He later did explore the eastern Mediterranean and subsequently, in collaboration with Yves Paccalet, wrote his contribution^[246] to the Atlantis issue, in which he relates his investigation of the sea around Santorini.

In late 1975 and all through 1976 Cousteau crisscrossed the Eastern Mediterranean in preparation in preparation for a television program ‘In Search of Atlantis – Lost Civilization’. His search for Atlantis also revealed unexpected underwater stone formations off Crete.

A 1976 newspaper report^(c) described Cousteau as having ‘debunked’ the reality of Atlantis, after his thirteen months of exploration in the Aegean.

This may be overstating it somewhat, but Martin Ebon is quite clear that Cousteau did not conclude that Atlantis, as such, actually existed ^[286.36]. While Cousteau may not have believed in the reality of Atlantis, it seems to me that he did believe in the reality of the funding that Atlantis interest provided!>He was also happy to publish A la recherche de L’Atlantide^[246] a book about his unsuccessful search for Atlantis.<

A 1978 TV documentary, Calypso’s Search for Atlantis, is widely available, and most of it can be seen on YouTube^(a)(b).

^(a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZkDjbWuNzA

^(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC7EoS0GIpk

^(c) https://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/131797727?searchTerm=Atlantis&searchLimits=