- ISSN: 2506-6730
- E-ISSN: 2506-6749
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oa The Challenge of Cousteau: Honor Frost’s and Hans Fricke’s Approaches to the Undersea Environment in Archeology, Biology, and Documentary Film (1950s-1970s)
- Brepols
- Publication: Journal for the History of Environment and Society, Volume 9, Issue Submerged: Diving and the Undersea in Environmental History, Jan 2024, p. 119 - 147
Abstract
Focusing on the British underwater archaeologist Honor Frost and the West German marine biologist Hans Fricke, the article explores how underwater research in the second half of the twentieth century was linked to the scuba diving revolution. I argue that from the late 1950s through the 1970s, Jacques-Yves Cousteau remained both an inspiration and a challenge for researchers developing ways to conduct fieldwork underwater. With the many “firsts” that Cousteau represented in the exploration and exploitation of the underwater environment, he provided vital cultural and technological inspiration to these fieldworkers. At the same time, Cousteau’s enthusiasm for technological gadgetry and his showmanship in producing images of the underwater world meant that he lacked the disciplinary rigor required by the academy. In addition, and because of his enormous influence on twentieth-century maritime history, Cousteau also presents a challenge to historians. To avoid reproducing familiar clichés of him as a larger-than-life historical figure, the article suggests examining the ways in which subsequent generations of divers have perceived and approached Cousteau’s legacy.
