Reportage photographique des établissements Arbel réalisé dans le cadre de la fabrication de la soucoupe plongeante du commandant Cousteau

Collection of documents formed of 33 original contemporary silver halide print photographs, a reproduction of a press clipping from La Voix du Nord and three mimeographed technical plans, united in a black binder with a label with the inscription «Production Report «press» – press-forming of the ½ spheres of Ct Cousteau's diving saucer – February 1964.» Handwritten title page.
Signed, handwritten presentation: «Avec les amitiés du reporter photographe Wallemme Raoul» «With love from the photojournalist Wallemme Raoul.»
Very beautiful and unique collection, testifying to the genius of the making of the Deep Star 4000, a diving saucer invented by Commander Cousteau.
The reproduction of the press clipping glued at the beginning of our collection explains: «The French Office for Underwater Research in Marseille will build, on behalf of an American firm, a diving saucer, the ‘S.P. 4000,' which can descend to a depth of 4000 metres. This machine, whose full-scale model has just been produced, must be completed in May 1964. It will be able to carry out its first trials the following month, before leaving for the United States where
it take the name ‘Deep Star.'»
In 1964, the French Office for Underwater Research, led by Commander Cousteau, entrusted the company Arbel de Douai with the work of forming the hemispheres in Vasco Jet 90 steel intended for the manufacture of the diving saucer «S.P. 4000.» The 33 photographs collected in this album of internal archives recount all the stages of this conception. We see the metalworkers at work, dressed in suits worthy of science-fiction; the last shot immortalised the team posing proudly in front of photojournalist Raoul Wallemme's camera.
It is the American company Westinghouse Corp who, under Cousteau's leadership and the French Office for Underwater Research, will manufacture the submersible. For certification purposes, the Vasco sphere manufactured by the Douai workshops will not be used by the American firm, who will prefer another model used by the US Navy. It will finally be used on another machine, the S.P. 3000 or Cyana. «In September 1971, a trial dive, luckily without crew, went wrong. Cyana, hanging on a cable and weighted with a heavy weight, is submersed off Sicily to a depth of 3 200m. A shackle opens, releasing the cable. The saucer remains unable to move, a few metres from the bottom. The sinking point is immediately marked by an ultrasonic beacon that can only beep for one month. A race against the clock begins: it is necessary to rearm the Archimède and urgently equip it with shears inspired by a charcutier's ham slicer! Fourteen days after the sinking, while the beacon still emits weakly, the Archimède finds the Cyana and cuts the cable that holds it prisoner. It was the deepest ever successful rescue!» (Ifremer website).
The Cyana carried out more than 1 300 dives from Ifremer's different oceanographic vessels (Jean Charcot, Le Suroît, Le Noroît, Nadir, L'Atalante) and opportunity vessels (Castor, Ravello).
Superb and unique testimony of French metalworking know-how at the service of Commander Cousteau and the pioneers of oceanography.