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Once a symbol of adventure, Cousteau ship rots in oblivion

CONCARNEAU, France — In its day, the Calypso was more than an oceanographic research vessel. It was the constant companion of the famed French explorer Jacques Cousteau, as the ship and its captain logged more than 1 million nautical miles together from the Red Sea and the Amazon to Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.

Now, all that can be seen of it is a skeletal hull, extending outside a warehouse in this small port town on the coast of Brittany in western France.

It is difficult to recognize it as the same boat that starred in award-winning films and televised adventures beginning in the mid-1950s and extending into the 1980s. Over those years, the Calypso and Cousteau turned into icons of a vibrant ecology movement, raising awareness of the wonders and fragility of the world’s oceans.

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Today, the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of how Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have found a solution for its restoration.

Cousteau, the country’s premier oceanographer and environmental advocate, was as much showman as scientist, and he astutely recognized that in order to get funding, scientific research had to appeal to a popular audience. By refining underwater filming, he did just that, creating a wealth of documentation of life beneath the oceans’ waves.

But he left little clear direction about what should become of the vessel that accompanied him in his explorations for more than 40 years when he died at 87 at his home in Paris in 1997.

Still in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took days to bring it to the surface and much longer to bring to France.

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Although the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by the explorer, set out to restore it after his death, there have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat weathering away.

“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.

In 2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national monument by the state.

The neglect is hardly surprising, said Gérard D’Aboville, the captain of PlanetSolar, a solar-powered research vessel. Despite France’s ample seacoast and its many island territories, the government has never shown much enthusiasm for preserving the country’s ships, he said.

The Calypso’s chances for government sponsorship have also diminished as its fame recedes into memory, he noted.

“If you ask the younger generation in France, they don’t know about it at all,” D’Aboville said.

The unresolved fate of the Calypso raises questions about what should happen to a ship when it reaches the end of its working life, especially a boat that was groundbreaking in its day.

Yet the frequent practice of chopping a boat into bits for recycling strikes many as a painful insult to a boat with such an august history.

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No one was talking about such a dire option when the boat arrived in Concarneau for a complete restoration in 2007.

“When we learned that the workshop had succeeded in obtaining the order for the renovation of the Calypso, it was greeted with great joy and pride,” recalled Bruno Quillivic, the deputy mayor for ports in Concarneau, referring to the workshop of Piriou Naval Services, one of the largest employers here and one of France’s biggest shipbuilders.

But by the beginning of 2009, the Cousteau Society decided the renovations were inadequate and stopped payment. Piriou stopped working on the boat and a series of court actions ensued.

A judge ruled in favor of Piriou, saying the Cousteau Society needed to pay the shipbuilder $300,000 and to remove the boat from the Concarneau warehouse. Piriou said that if the Cousteau Society failed to remove the boat by mid-March, it would take steps to auction off the Calypso.

That date has come and gone and no sale has taken place. It is not clear if the company has the right to sell the boat and, even if it did, if there would be a buyer.