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Frédéric Dumas (14 January 1913 – 26 July 1991) was a French writer. He was part of a team of three, withJacques-Yves Cousteau andPhilippe Tailliez. Tailliez coined for themMousquemers in allusion toLes Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers).[1] They had a passion for diving, and developed thediving regulator with the aid of the engineerÉmile Gagnan.[2]
Dumas participated with Cousteau in the discovery ofdeep sea reliefs andflora and fauna ofdeep sea life and in bringing it to the attention of the general public.
Frédéric Dumas was born on 14 January 1913 inAlbi, France.
A pioneer of underwaterfishing on theFrench Riviera, he metPhilippe Tailliez andJacques-Yves Cousteau in 1937[3] and his exploits served as a subject in Cousteau's first filmPar dix-huit mètres de fond (Eighteen meters deep), made in 1942. He performed also in Cousteau's second film,Épaves (Wrecks) in 1943, the first featuringAqua-Lungs developed in 1941 by Cousteau andÉmile Gagnan. On October 17, 1943 he was the first to exceed a depth of 60 m (200 ft) with a Cousteau-Gagnan regulator to 62 m (203 ft). On the same dive, he was also the first scuba diver to suffer the effects ofnitrogen narcosis.[3][4]
Dumas was a dive leader aboard theRVCalypso, and co-author or actor in many films and stories from the Cousteau team.
In 1953 he co-authored with Cousteau their first bookThe Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure.[4] In 1956 he was one of the principal architects of the ground-breaking filmThe Silent World, in which hisballet with thegrouper Ulysses (French:Jojo) is famous.
From 1945 to 1965, Dumas was also a civilian collaborator in theFrench Navy'sGroupe d'Études et de Recherches Sous-Marines (GERS, Group for Underwater Studies and Research), which was set up by Cousteau and Taillez.[3] After the death ofMaurice Fargues in 1947 it was renamed toCentre Expert Plongée Humaine et Intervention Sous la MER (CEPHISMER, Expert Centre for Human Diving and Underwater Intervention).
In 1946, Cousteau and Dumas dove into thekarstic spring ofVaucluse, the largest in France (with an average flow of 22 m3 / second and ranked fifth in the world with 110 m3 / second during snow melt),[5] hoping to explain its annual 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 bycarbon dioxide poisoning due to a faultycompressor setup,[3] Fargues saved their lives by pulling them back up to the surface.[4][6]In 1947 he set a depth-record with 94 m (308 ft) in theMediterranean Sea.[7]
Dumas was one of the major players in the rescue of ProfessorJacques Piccard'sbathyscaphe, theFNRS II, during the 1949 expedition inDakar. Thanks to this rescue, theFrench Navy could use the bathyscaphe's sphere in creating theFNRS III.
In 1950, he invented what he called thecollerette de sécurité (safety collar), the firstbuoyancy compensator, already fitted with a compressed-air reserve separate from the main cylinders.
He was a founding member of theSea Research Society and served on the Society's Board of Advisors.[citation needed] In 1972 Dumas participated in the creation of the research/professional degree of Doctor of Marine Histories.
After he retired from the GERS, he devoted himself particularly toundersea archaeology[8] and was chairman of thearchaeologycommittee of theConfédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS or World Underwater Activities Federation).
Frédéric Dumas died on 26 July 1991 in Toulon at the age of 78.
Opened in 1994, the Frédéric Dumas Diving Museum is in a 13th-century Roman tower made available by the municipality ofSanary-sur-Mer where Cousteau had a Villa and that bills itself as an historical city of diving.[9]
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