# EARLY JACQUES COUSTEAU FILM TEST DIVE FROM SUBMARINE "RUBIS" 61804

This silent film UNE PLONGEE DU "RUBIS" was one of a series of shorts made by a young Jacques Cousteau immediately after WWII. The film shows dive tests which Cousteau performed aboard the venerable French submarine Rubis.The goal was to show how men could use an airlock aboard the submarine to emerge underwater, both for research and potentially as a means of escape. Not really mentioned in the film is the fact that, in order to shoot it, Cousteau developed a series of camera housings that allowed underwater filming. The Rubis is shown at 1:00 cruising at sea. At 1:30 its crew, including a pipe smoking captain, surveys the horizon and at 1:54 prepares to dive. At 3:15 the boat is seen underwater. At 4;14 what initially appears to be ballast is dropped by the submarine, in reality deadly underwater mines, (This footage shot by Cousteau, is likely some of the very first to show a submerged submarine. Shots of a torpedo fired underwater at 6:20 are also apparently the first ever to show this activity). At 7:10 the dive team prepares to leave the submarine, putting on swim fins and scuba tanks. At 7:40 the first man enters the submarine's trunk. When all is in readiness water is allowed into the trunk at 8:30 . Once pressure is equalized the divers emerge at 9:20 . At 9:54 impressive underwater shots of the boat breaking the surface are shown as the film comes to a close. The French submarine Rubis (H4, 202, P15) was a Saphir-class minelaying submarine which first served in…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/61804ADiveToRuby8mmMos)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/61804ADiveToRuby8mmMos?play=1)