Something else Jacques Cousteau did on his birthday

Today is the 102nd birthday of famed explorer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Happy birthday Jacques, from your admirers at Upwell.

On the shelves of our North Beach office live a collection of books about social change, online metrics, and of course, the ocean. Our library would not be complete without Monsieur Cousteau.

The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau is an encyclopedia of marine life forms, published in the 70s, a companion to the television series that brought the wonder of undersea exploration to the masses. There's nothing like old encyclopedias to call up our nostalgia. As children, we'd pull the books off the shelves to learn something new, rather than pulling our phones out of our pockets.

And then there's Jacques' memoir, The Silent World, which recounts the first days of scuba diving with wit, courage and humor. The Upwell team sat down with the book for lunch today. We took turns storytelling, using our best Cousteau accents.

Imagine our surprise upon coming to this page, midway through the book.

On this day - June 11 - 69 years ago, just as Jacques was turning 33, he avoided deportation through a bit of cleverness.

When the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944 I left Paris by bike to join my family in the Alps, 500 miles away. I carried 110 pounds of food, wine, and documents and made it in four days, pushing up mountain trails to avoid German and maquis skirmishes. The official wartime work card that saved me several times from deportation to Germany. The first side was made out by my employer, Jacque-Yves Cousteau, producer of scientific films. The other side said that he employed Jacques-Yves Cousteau to direct the films. 

Jacques Yves Cousteau once said, "If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work."

Keeping that in mind, Upwell gets back to work.