Book Review - The Silent World

No one person has probably done more for popularizing the the sport of scuba diving then Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Through his tv show "The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau," his movies, and his books, he introduced what became known as scuba diving to the world. His first effort to tell the world about the undersea world was the book "The Silent World." This book is initially something of an autobiography of Cousteau's early life as it tells of how Cousteau became interested in the undersea world. It is a fascinating tale with interesting twists of fate. An accident caused Cousteau injuries that would prevent him from becoming a naval aviator. If it wasn't for that accident, Cousteau might've never developed an interest in diving that led to the development of the first successful open circuit Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) device which he called the Aqualung. While the book tells a lot of his life, the book also tells of some of the trials and mishaps Cousteau has as he seeks to learn more about the capabilities of the Aqualung system. Cousteau can be said to have lived something of a charmed life as he nearly drowned a number of times. Cousteau and his cohorts were pioneers who had to discover the limits of open circuit diving through trial and error. Sometimes the errors were fatal to friends of Cousteau as we learn in chapter 8 when Lieutenant Maurice Farques dies after setting a record dive down to 396 feet. The book is also a time capsule back into the early years of scuba diving. Cousteau himself remarks how things changed as he saw people nonchalantly don the aqualung later and dive to 130 feet on their 3rd or 4th dive. When Cousteau and his friends first began testing the limits of scuba diving, it was with trepidation that they broke the 130 feet barrier.

The book also dispells some of the so called terrors of the deep such as octopus and moray eels. We also discover dangerous creatures that people might not have realized as dangerous such as sea urchins with their very sharp spines which can easily penetrate wetsuits and skin causing painful and possible infectious wounds. There are also the dangers of stings from jellyfish which in some cases are poisonous. Cousteau does acknowledge the very real danger of sharks and tells of one of his terrifying adventures with three of them.

The book "The Silent World" is a very easy read and is just 160 pages. It also has some very nice black and white pictures. It costs approximately $13 U.S. It tells of the early years of scuba diving and at the same time tells the early life of one of the world's great explorers and conservationists Jacques Cousteau. For diver and non-diver alike, it should make a fascinating read and I would strongly recommend it.