She's an explorer,
an adventurer, a well-worn traveler. Her tales, told through
the eye of a camera, speak of the world's oceans and the marvelous
creatures that live therein. She has made friends in every corner
of the globe, sought the secrets of the great rivers and survived
storms from Antarctica to Canada. Her story is one of the brave
men and women who worked her decks and sailed her to every continent.
She is Calypso, the expedition ship known and loved
by television audiences all over the globe.
When she was launched during World War II in Seattle,
Washington, USA, no one suspected that she would become
one of the most famous ships ever to sail the seas.
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The Myth of
Calypso:
In the ancient Greek poem, the Odyssey, Calypso
was the name of a sea nymph who held the hero Odysseus in thrall
for seven years. Gozo is, by tradition, the island where Calypso
once lived.
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She was built
to serve as a minesweeper for the British, to clear explosives
from ports and harbors. She was christened J-826 and
lowered into the water on March 21, 1942. J-826 was
assigned to the Mediterranean Sea, where, after the war, she
was sold and her name changed to Calypso. She
became a ferry, carrying people and cars between the island
of Malta and the very small island of Gozo.
Cousteau was dreaming about exploring other seas from a ship
especially equipped to document the ocean. Soon he found Calypso.
She looked a bit worn, but she was sturdy and easy to maneuver.
Cousteau began to transform her into an expedition vessel,and
a whole new life opened before her.
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