Editing Jacques Cousteau (section)

===Late 1940s: GERS and ''Élie Monnier''===
In 1946, Cousteau and Tailliez showed the film ''Épaves'' ("Shipwrecks") to Admiral Lemonnier, who gave them the responsibility of setting up the GRS (''Groupement de Recherches Sous-marines'', Underwater Research Group) of the [[French Navy]] in [[Toulon]]. A little later it became the GERS (''Groupe d'Études et de Recherches Sous-Marines'', Underwater Studies and Research Group), then the COMISMER (''Commandement des Interventions Sous la Mer'', Undersea Interventions Command), and finally the CEPHISMER (''Centre Expert Plongée Humaine et Intervention Sous la Mer'', Expert Centre for Human Diving and Undersea Intervention). In 1947, [[Chief Petty Officer]] [[Maurice Fargues]] became the first diver to die using an [[Aqua-Lung]], while attempting a new depth record to 120&nbsp;m with the GERS near Toulon.<ref name="Ecott">{{cite book |first=Tim |last=Ecott |title=Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World |publisher=[[Atlantic Monthly Press]] |location=New York City |year=2001 |isbn=0-87113-794-1 |lccn=2001018840 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/neutralbuoyancy00time_0 }}</ref>

[[File:Jacques-Yves Cousteau Les Mousquemers 1948.jpg|thumb|150px|Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1948]]
In 1948, between missions of mine clearance, underwater exploration and technological and physiological tests, Cousteau undertook a first campaign in the Mediterranean on board the [[sloop]] ''Élie Monnier'',<ref name="sevellec">{{cite web|author=Sevellec, E.J.|url=http://www.philippe.tailliez.net/article30.html|title=Naissance du GERS et des premiers plongeurs démineurs|date=1 December 2006|access-date=18 February 2010|language=fr|publisher=Philippe.tailliez.net|archive-date=16 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816121909/http://www.philippe.tailliez.net/article30.html|url-status=live}} According to Sevellec, the ''Élie Monnier'' was an old German tugboat originally called ''Albatros'' and handed over to France as a war reparation, and then re-baptised in honor of the maritime engineer Élie Monnier who had disappeared while diving at [[Mers-el-Kébir]] on the wreck of the battleship ''[[French battleship Bretagne|Bretagne]]''</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Riffaud, C.|url=http://users.skynet.be/pascalc/news/plg1940.html|title="La règne du scaphandre à casque", in ''La grande aventure des hommes sous la mer''|year=1988|isbn=2-226-03502-8|publisher=Users.skynet.be|access-date=10 November 2012|archive-date=22 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022064532/http://users.skynet.be/pascalc/news/plg1940.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> with Philippe Tailliez, Frédéric Dumas, Jean Alinat and the scenario writer Marcel Ichac. The small team also undertook the exploration of the Roman wreck of [[Mahdia shipwreck|Mahdia]] (Tunisia). It was the first underwater archaeology operation using autonomous diving, opening the way for scientific underwater archaeology. Cousteau and Marcel Ichac brought back from there the Carnets diving film (presented and preceded with the [[Cannes Film Festival]] 1951).

Cousteau and the ''Élie Monnier'' then took part in the rescue of Professor [[Jacques Piccard]]'s [[bathyscaphe]], the [[FNRS-2]], during the 1949 expedition to Dakar. Thanks to this rescue, the French Navy was able to reuse the sphere of the bathyscaphe to construct the [[FNRS-3]].

The adventures of this period are told in the two books ''[[The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure|The Silent World]]'' (1953, by Cousteau and Dumas) and ''Plongées sans câble'' (1954, by [[Philippe Tailliez]]).