Maurice Fargues

Maurice Fargues
Maurice Fargues before his final dive.
Born	1913
Died	September 1947 (aged 33–34) Toulon, France

Maurice Fargues (1913 – September 17, 1947) was a diver with the French Navy and a close associate of Jacques Cousteau.^[1] In August 1946, Fargues saved the lives of Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas during their dive into the Fountain of Vaucluse. On September 17, 1947, while attempting to set a new depth record, Fargues became the first diver to die using an aqualung.^[2]

GERS and the Fountain of Vaucluse

In 1945^{[citation needed]}, Petty Officer Fargues joined the newly formed Groupe d'Études et de Recherches Sous-Marines (GERS), commanded by Philippe Tailliez, with Cousteau as its deputy commander and Frédéric Dumas as civilian adviser and chief diver. Dumas trained Fargues and the GERS' other two new recruits, Petty Officers Jean Pinard and Guy Morandière, as Aqua-Lung divers.^[2] Fargues became commander of the diving tender VP 8, a 72-foot twin-screw launch.^[3]

On August 27, 1946, Cousteau and Dumas dove into the Fountain of Vaucluse, a mysterious spring in the village of Vaucluse, hoping to discover the secret of its yearly flooding. Fargues was the operation's surface commander, in charge of the guide rope which allowed Cousteau and Dumas to communicate with the surface. When Cousteau and Dumas became affected by carbon monoxide in their air cylinders, Fargues saved their lives by pulling them back up to the surface.^[2][3]

Death

In September 1947, the GERS planned to make a series of dives to determine the maximum depth a scuba diver could reach. On September 17, Fargues made the first dive near the French Navy base at Toulon.^[4] Fargues descended an anchor line with marker slates attached at intervals, allowing him to sign his name on them to certify the depth he had reached, and periodically tugged on a safety line attached to his weight belt to let his colleagues on the surface know that he was alive. After three minutes, at a record-setting depth of 385 feet, Fargues stopped signalling. Taillez ordered that he be pulled up, and Jean Pinard dove to meet him, only to discover that Fargues was unconscious, his mouthpiece hanging on his chest. Resuscitation attempts were continued for twelve hours, but Fargues was dead. Nitrogen narcosis had caused him to lose his mouthpiece and drown.^[2][3][4]

Fargues' scrawled signature on the slate at 385 feet confirmed his depth record. Cousteau and his group concluded that 300 feet was the maximum depth a diver using compressed air could reach.^[2][3] In the words of Jacques Cousteau: "Dumas and I owed our lives to Maurice Fargues, who had resurrected us from the death cave at Vaucluse. We will not be consoled that we were unable to save him."^[3]

Legacy

On September 17, 2007, the sixtieth anniversary of Fargues' death, a room was dedicated in his honor as the "Salle Maurice Fargues" at the Musée International de la Plongée Frédéric Dumas in Sanary-sur-Mer, France. Fargues' children, Roselyne and Louis Fargues, were present at the ceremony.^[1][5] The room contains a plaque bearing a photograph of Fargues taken before his final dive and a reproduction of his final scrawled signature.^[1][5][6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "INAUGURATION DE LA SALLE MAURICE FARGUES" scuba-museum.com (Retrieved on June 16, 2011)
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Matsen, Brad (2009). Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King. New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 73, 76–79, 85. ISBN 978-0-375-42413-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=sowUaeKaJSMC&pg=PA73. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cousteau, J. Y., with Dumas, Frédéric (1953). The Silent World, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Library of Congress 52-5431
4. ^ ^{a b} Ecott, Tim (2001). Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 0-87113-794-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=5Dw7htaxwtUC&pg=PA124. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Nouvelle salle au Musée International de la Plongée Frédéric Dumas » plongee sous-marine" plongeur.com (Retrieved on June 23, 2011)
6. ^ "Philippe.Tailliez.net - Naissance du GERS et des premiers plongeurs démineurs" philippe.tailliez.net (Retrieved on June 23, 2011)