CALYPSO, The

France (1941- )

Last updated: January 18, 2020 at 18:29 pm

Royal Navy BYMS-1 Class Motor Minesweeper: laid down 12 August 1941 as BYMS-26 by the Ballard Marine Railway Co., Inc., Seattle, WA; completed and transfered to Great Britain in August 1942 as J-826; converted to a car ferry and named Calypso in 1947; acquired by Loël Guinness in 1950 and offered to Jacques-Yves Cousteau who transformed it into an oceanographic vessel; struck by a barge and sunk at Singapore (1996); salvaged and towed to Marseille, France; tied up in Larochelle in an advanced stage of decay for a decade; towed to Piriou shipyard in Concarneau for complete refit in 2007 but work not completed; shipyard seeks legal order to sell the historic ship in March 2015; failed talks held with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in March 2015 to repair and permanently exhibit Calypso at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, where Jacques-Yves Cousteau served as the director for more than three decades; moved to the Aykin Shipyard in Turkey in 2016 for a full refit, including new engines; damaged by fire during refit in September 2017 (only newly built structural elements are destroyed); work on Calypso‘s new wooden hull is completed in June 2018¹ followed by a work stoppage pending the insurance claim settlement²; wooden rib taken from Calypso is donated to Heritage Malta in 2019 for exhibit at the Malta Maritime Museum in 2021³.

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EDITOR’S NOTE
A fire broke out on Calypso while undergoing refit at the Turkish shipyard on September 12, 2017. Only new construction on the ship was damaged by the fire and all of Calypso‘s historical components were reportedly spared. On June 11, 2018, Équipe Cousteau announced¹ that Calypso’s new wooden hull had been completed. The announcement included photos of Calypso‘s new hull. As of June 12, 2019, the Cousteau Society was awaiting the insurance claim settlement to resume the refit².

SHIP’S COMPANY (1950-1996)

(Provisional list)

¹ Anniversaire Cousteau: La nouvelle coque de Calypso est fermée! L’héritage de Cousteau vit encore…
² Cousteau: Calypso subit un sinistre, mis à jour.
³ Exposition Calypso, Cousteau signe un accord avec le gouvernement Maltais.
Dessemond, Maurice, Claude Wesly (1997). Les hommes de Cousteau. Paris: Éditions Le Pré aux clercs.

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