I
explored the underground river of Port Miou in 1960. I was 23 years old. I conducted this exploration with a friend of my age, Jean-Claude Mitteau. We did this dive not long after the death of Conrad Limbaugh, who at that time was in a way the "American Cousteau," and was based on the west coast of the United States. He was 35 years old.
We did a kind of raid, up to 450 meters from the entrance. To do this I unspooled a ball of hemp rope, attached to a broomstick hung around my neck. We had on our backs two 2 cubic meter single tanks, equipped with Crystal regulators, made by our friend Yves Girault, also the creator of beautiful lamps, built around Cibié reversing lights, and providing excellent illumination. We had everything in duplicate: equipment, lamps, knives.
I preferred to let you discover this underground river through the film "Le Fleuve de la Nuit" made by my old friend Paul de Roubaix.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xanurx_le-fleuve-de-la-nuit_tech
The son of Paul de Roubaix was François de Roubaix, the composer. We had met at the Lycée Carnot in Paris. The de Roubaix had a property in Corsica. There was first the tragedy of the drowning of a certain Josso, who was like me a student at Supaéro. He drowned there by syncope, trying to pull a grouper out of its hole.
As if that were not enough, the de Roubaix lost their own son, who drowned while getting lost in caves on Tenerife in 1975. He had not used a thread of Ariadne.
I remember the huge living room on Rue de Courcelles in Paris, where François created his music. He liked to bring back musical instruments from all over the world where he traveled, which coexisted with one of the first musical synthesizers, how primitive it was. François had a multi-track recorder and it happened that he would create his film music alone, playing successively all the instruments, at least all those he knew how to use, which were many, and mixing everything himself. He was one of the first to add "synthetic" sounds. In fact, he made music with... anything. I don't know if you remember the first notes of the music from the film La Soumoune. I had asked François how he had produced those strange sounds. Inspired by ancient guimbards, he had made one himself, with a few notes, by wedging nail files of different lengths into the lid of his piano, which served as a soundboard. You can hear these few notes, rather poorly, in the middle of this version of the piece. There are recordings where it is heard more clearly.
http://www.qobuz.com/info/MAGAZINE-ACTUALITES/VIDEO-DU-JOUR/Saint-Francois20326
I think that if he had been shipwrecked on some deserted island, he would have found a way to make music in a short time.
See also:
http://www.qobuz.com/info/MAGAZINE-ACTUALITES/VIDEO-DU-JOUR/Saint-Francois20326
I found this regarding the circumstances of Conrad Limbaugh's death.
Conrad Limbaugh 1924 - 1960
On March 13, 1960, Limbaugh was driven to Marseille [France] by Frédéric Dumas, along with Philippe Tailliez and François Clouzot. Later he made dives outside the harbor there and along the coast.
Limbaugh’s death occurred on March 20, 1960, when he lost his way in the labyrinth that was the underground river at Port Miou, near Cassis, 20 miles from Marseille, France. Friends who had heard his talk on “cleaner fish” and shrimps had told him of the river underground where salt-water fish rid themselves of parasites by briefly swimming up across the interface into fresh water, quivering there a moment, then dropping back to their Mediterranean water.
He would not have missed that sight. Yves Girault loaned him dive gear, François Clouzot drove the boat and remained outside the cave. Michel Poudevigne was [Limbaugh’s] dive partner and guide.
Entering the water from the boat outside the cave, the two first swam the 150 feet to where a chimney, open to the land surface, had sent eroding rocks to form a cone on the river’s floor below.
Limbaugh had a 16mm movie camera with him and wanted a shot up the chimney. To help him, Poudevigne put his flashlight on the cone of rocks below and returned to give him a boost. Photography achieved,
Poudevigne signaled or said he would pick up his flashlight on the cone of rocks below and be right back. But Limbaugh was gone when he returned.
Details of that day, and the search for him that lasted one week, can be read in letters from Dr. Wheeler North of Scripps, and Poudevigne, himself, to Mrs. Limbaugh.
One week later, the body of Conrad Limbaugh was found by professional cave divers some 350
feet from the entrance of the cave. Limbaugh was buried in a small cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean at Cassis, France. He was 35 years old. The scientific and recreational diving
communities reacted with shock.
Thorough investigations into the cause of Limbaugh’s death were undertaken, and the cause was deemed accidental. In retrospect, contributing factors may have included Limbaugh’s recent lengthy illness, his lack of familiarity with both the borrowed equipment he was using and the cave in which he was diving, and the language barrier involved as Limbaugh
On March 13, 1960, Frédéric Dumas, Philippe Taillez and François Clouzot took Conrad Limbaugh to Marseille, after he had participated in a diving festival in Spain. He made dives outside the harbor and along the coast.
He died on March 20, 1960, when he got lost in the underwater labyrinth of the Port-Miou resurgence, located near Cassis, about ten miles from Marseille. Friends, who had listened to his lecture on "cleaner fish" and shrimp, had told him about the caves where saltwater fish entered to rid themselves of parasites by briefly swimming into fresh water, quivering there for a moment, then dropping back into their Mediterranean water.
Limbaugh, a marine biologist, did not want to miss this spectacle.
Yves Girault lent him diving gear. François Clouzot drove the boat with another diver, Michel Poudevigne, at the entrance of the cave. Entering the cave, the two divers found a chimney, about thirty meters from the entrance (the "aven"). This chimney allowed access to a free water chamber. As the "aven" formed, the rocks collapsed, forming a kind of debris cone directly below.
Limbaugh had brought with him a 16 mm camera and wanted to film this magical place, shooting "underwater." For this he needed the help of his companion. Poudevigne therefore placed his flashlight on the rocks below and set out to help him (to help him keep his camera above water).
When Limbaugh had finished filming, Poudevigne signaled that he would retrieve his flashlight and be back. But when he returned, Limbaugh had disappeared. Details of that day can be read in the correspondence between Dr. Wheeler and Poudevigne himself, addressed to Mrs. Limbaugh.
A week later, professional divers (from the company Sogetram, using devices called "narghiles") found Limbaugh's body 350 meters from the cave entrance. He was buried in a cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean near Cassis. He was 35 years old. The scientific and recreational diving communities were shocked.
The investigation concluded that the death was accidental. It was...