6: Diving at Cape Verde 



OFF Dakar a sloop of the French Navy came to meet us, the 

 Elie-Monnier; she had on board Captains Tailliez and Cousteau. 

 A warship, or more exactly a military vessel fitted out for oceano- 

 graphical research, it serves as a home base for the famous divers of the 

 French Navy who, equipped with the light Cousteau-Gagnan diving- 

 suits, have specialized in submarine exploration in the shallows and 

 have already given us films of great beauty. Algoet, our photographer, 

 did not know that sometimes they fish for cameras as well. A few days 

 later, in fact, while getting into a longboat with both hands on the 

 ladder, he took the strap of his camera between his teeth, but imitating 

 the crow in the fable, he let it drop into twenty fathoms of water. He 

 was most upset, but Dumas, one of the divers, consoled him : ' Take 

 it easy! It will be all right when it's dry.' And putting on his equip- 

 ment, he jumped into the water, dived and came back with the camera, 

 just as coolly as if he had picked a pencil up from the ground. 



DAKAR 



At Dakar the authorities gave us a triumphant reception as if we 

 had already succeeded in our attempt. It seemed premature to me, and 

 I thought about counting unhatched chickens. Several details of the 

 bathyscaphe had yet to be verified and adjusted. I was realizing the 

 drawbacks of the expedition's being under a divided command, and 

 I was regretting that I was not in sole charge. Happily the French 

 Navy gave us all the help we wanted. It was invaluable to us. 



We had to find the bathyscaphe as quickly as possible when it came 

 up after a deep dive. A considerable drift was to be expected, while it 

 was under the water, and a single ship would not be enough to find it 

 again : above all not the Scaldis. Admiral Sol, commanding officer at 

 the Dakar base, decided to give us an escort of two frigates, Croix-de- 

 Lorraine and Le- Verrier^ and to attach two hydroplanes to them. May 

 I be permitted here to thank Admiral Sol most cordially, as well as 

 the officers of the French Navy, and the engineers and personnel of the 

 arsenal, for their generous help and for the cordial reception. It is a 

 pleasant memory. 



Our departure for the Island of Bao-Vista, one of the Cape Verde 

 Islands, in the vicinity of which our first dives were to take place, was 



[54] 



