Jacques Cousteau, Guinness family connection.
Good morning Anons, I was digging on Clipperton Island yesterday and saw that Jacques Cousteau made a documentary there with Ramon Arnaud Jr., he was the child that survived the alleged murders at Clipperton Island. Supposedly his mom killed the rapist. Anywho…I started digging on Simone Melchior, Jacques Cousteau's wife, she was the one with connections. She liked to keep a low profile. According to her bio she was very much involved in the business. Turns out Simone somehow convinced Loel Guinness to buy them the mine sweeper boat and lease it to them for $1 a year. Yep, same Guinness family as Rachel Chandler Guinness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loel_Guinness_(politician)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Melchior
After a honeymoon in Switzerland and Italy the Cousteaus settled in Le Mourillon, a district of Toulon. They had two sons, Jean-Michel (born 6 May 1938) and Philippe Pierre (30 December 1940 – 28 June 1979). Both sons were born on the family's kitchen table.
In 1942, Simone's father provided financing and the manufacturing expertise of Emile Gagnan at Air Liquide to build Jacques Cousteau's aqua-lung. Simone was indirectly to hold the key to this significant step in diving history. She was present in 1943 at the testing of the prototype for the aqua-lung, in the Marne River outside Paris. The new invention was employed to locate and remove enemy mines after World War II.
The Cousteau family's underwater investigation and exploration led to the purchase of the minesweeper Calypso on 19 July 1950. Thomas Loel Guinness bought the ship and leased it to Jacques for a dollar a year. Simone sold her family jewels for the Calypso's fuel, and her fur to buy a compass and gyroscope.[1] The Calypso set off in 1952 on her maiden voyage, to the Red Sea. Simone was the only woman on board.
In 1963, Simone became the world's first female aquanaut by living in Starfish House, an underwater habitat, for the final four days of the Conshelf II project.[2]
Describing his wife, Jacques Cousteau said, "She was the happiest out of camera range, in the crow's nest of Calypso, for example, scanning the sea for whales. Nothing would get by her." He continued, "She lives to spend hour after hour in the wind and the sun, watching, thinking, trying to unravel the mystery of the sea."[3] Simone died in 1990 of cancer. She received a full military funeral, during which her ashes were scattered over the Sea of Monaco.