The adventure of the “Mousquemers”
While a few names imediately spring to mind when one thinks of the first strokes of the flippers below the surface of the sea, there are dozens more that are unknown.
In France, as early as the 30s, men like Jean PAINLEVE and Yves LE PRIEUR, then in the 40s, Louis De CORLIEU and Georges COMMEINHES, were the first to popularisers of underwater incursions.
It was from 1943 …
…that Jacques-Yves COUSTEAU, Philippe TAILLIEZ et Frédéric DUMAS brought scuba diving into the modern era. They became « Les Mousquemers » a term created by Philippe TAILLIEZ in 1975.
Before they were divers, the vast majority of diving pioneers were underwater hunters.
Armed with a simple harpoon or a rudimentary crossbow, the hunter went underwater with a naked body, without fins, wearing simple bionic glasses. at that time, in Nice, Anitbes, Marseille and Sanary, inventors, hunters and the simply curious were trying to discover underwater world. One of the most famous was FREDERIC DUMAS in Sanary. He then took part after in the tests of the autonomous diving suit developed by The Captain COUSTEAU and the engineer GAGNAN.
The Frédéric Dumas museum
The Frédéric DUMAS Museum was created in Sanary to show as many people as possible what the beginnings of scuba diving were and to pay tribute to this famous Sanary native, who was one of the most brilliant pioneers of hunting and diving.
The treasures that the Dumas Museum conceals are diplayed just a few strokes away from the historic sites that have made Sanary the « historic city of the scuba diving underwater »
