CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC REACHES AGREEMENT WITH COUSTEAU SOCIETY TO FUND RESTORATION OF LEGENDARY OCEAN RESEARCH VESSEL CALYPSO

The Cousteau Society and Carnival Corporation plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) have reached an agreement in principle to restore the Calypso, the legendary research and expedition vessel of Captain Jacques Yves Cousteau. Once restored, Calypso will become an exhibit and a center for science and the environment.

The Cousteau Society has been diligently working toward a successful solution for this historic vessel. The last eight months have been used to put together a plan to restore the former American minesweeper as authentically as possible. "I'm so pleased at this outcome, as I know Captain Cousteau would have been," said Francine Cousteau, widow of Jacques Cousteau and president of the Cousteau Society.

Calypso will be restored at a shipyard in Grand Bahama, The Bahamas, at an estimated cost of $1.3 million, with work expected to be completed by the end of 2005. The vessel's new location, following refurbishment, is to be announced at a later date.

The Calypso will maintain its French flag and will remain a historic symbol of the extraordinary work of Captain Cousteau and the Cousteau Society, which carries on his work in science and education for public awareness, as well as for international university research.

According to Giora Israel, vice president of strategic planning for Carnival Corporation, restoring the Calypso is a unique opportunity to preserve a part of history and maintain a world-famous icon for marine research and environmental preservation. "The company views its funding of the Calypso's restoration as a tribute to the Cousteau organization whose contributions to marine science and education are immeasurable," said Israel. "As the world's largest cruise operator, Carnival Corporation's success relies on the health of the world's oceans and the restoration of the Calypso will serve to expose new generations to the Calypso story and allow this famous ship to continue to educate the public on the importance of protecting our precious natural resources," he added.

Mr. Loël Guiness, who owns the Calypso and created, along with Francine Cousteau, Arionis, a non-profit organization to save the vessel, expressed great satisfaction at this outcome, which corresponds to his wishes to see Calypso remain an icon for science and education.

Calypso was involved in a mooring accident and sank in the harbor of Singapore in 1996. Captain Cousteau decided then that the vessel must be saved and arranged to have her transported back to France, writing to The Cousteau Society, "I want Calypso to remain at the service of science and education." He began a campaign to find a permanent shelter for the vessel and ultimately the city of La Rochelle, France, offered a program to secure Calypso's future. Unfortunately, the La Rochelle plans were never realized and the Calypso has remained there in a caretaker status, in an increasingly debilitated condition.

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Carnival Corp. is willing to fund restoration of a marine research vessel, but not their own MARDI GRAS which would also have been "a unique opportunity to preserve a part of history"

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Cousteaus feud as dive ship rusts
Adam Sage, Paris
December 28, 2005

A SHIP made famous by French underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau has decayed beyond repair during a feud between his widow and son over its ownership, according to officials in the port where it is docked.

They say Cousteau's beloved vessel, the Calypso, is so decrepit it would need to be rebuilt before going to sea again.

Authorities in La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast, where the Calypso has languished since 1998, say salvage plans have been blocked by a dispute between Cousteau's second wife, Francine, and his son from his first marriage, Jean-Michel.

Once known to millions of viewers across the world as a pioneering oceanographic research ship, Calypso is rusting and rotting as lawyers argue over its fate.

"According to experts, she can't even be repaired. She has to be rebuilt," said Marc Parnaudeau, the councillor in charge of the case at La Rochelle. "We just want this legal wrangle to end as quickly as possible."

But a swift solution appeared unlikely yesterday as the family quarrel intensified. Ms Cousteau accused her stepson of "irresponsible stubborness" and of manipulating the media.

Both run rival associations that claim to perpetuate the work of the explorer, who died in 1997 at the age of 87. His wife heads L'Equipe Cousteau and his son Les Campagnes Oceanographiques Francaises. Each claims to own the boat and has a different project in mind.

Ms Cousteau says she has signed a deal for the Calypso to be renovated in the Bahamas by the US cruise line Carnival Corporation, at a cost of $US1.3 million ($1.8 million) and turned into a scientific education vessel.

Mr Cousteau wants to keep the vessel in France, where he has asked naval architects to draw up plans for restoration. "This is a historic vessel that ought to have been classified as part of the French national heritage a long time ago," he said. Neither wife nor son can pursue their plans until the court case is settled.

The Calypso is a former Royal Navy minesweeper, bought by the Guinness brewing dynasty after World War II and leased to Mr Cousteau for a nominal one franc a year.

Wearing his trademark red woolly hat, he used it to film some of the most celebrated underwater documentaries ever made, such as Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World), which won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955.

But the Calypso was damaged in Singapore harbour in 1996. It was brought back to La Rochelle and has not sailed since.

Last November a Paris tribunal accepted Ms Cousteau's ownership claim on the grounds that Leon Guinness, the Anglo-Irish multi-millionaire, had sold the ship to her association for E1 ($1.62). But Mr Cousteau's foundation, the COF, has appealed against the judgment, arguing that a 1974 customs document makes it the proprietor. Ms Cousteau's association responded: "This shows the COF is ready to do anything to prevent the ship being salvaged and to paralyse the work of L'Equipe Cousteau."

French commentators have said that personal jealousies are fuelling the row. Cousteau's first wife, Simone, who shared the Calypso with him, died in 1990, apparently unaware that he had had two children with Francine, an air hostess he had met on a Concorde flight.

Six months later, when Cousteau married Francine, who was 40 years his junior, his son reacted angrily. Mr Cousteau's hostility towards his step-mother increased when she claimed to represent her deceased husband's memory.

The Australian

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Originally posted by Waynaro:
Carnival Corp. is willing to fund restoration of a marine research vessel, but not their own MARDI GRAS which would also have been "a unique opportunity to preserve a part of history"

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Carnival Corp. is willing to fund restoration of a marine research vessel, but not their own MARDI GRAS which would also have been "a unique opportunity to preserve a part of history"

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Come on - she is a bit bigger than Calypso - not even Carnival could afford to keep her 'just for fun'.

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Originally posted by empressport:

They certainly could have helped fund a restoration. There would be NO Carnival Corporation had it not been for Mardi Gras!

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You also find some information here. (even more trivial - but also helpful)

imdb link

[ 01-02-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]

[ 01-02-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]

[ 01-02-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]