GRAPHIC At Home in the Sea Pioneering a new underwater world for man, French oceanauts live for a month in a submerged colony on a Red Sea reef By CAPT. JACQUES-YV AM FINISHING an enjoyable meal with my wife Simone and a tableful of good companions in a snug lodge in a remote and primitive ] we have bu part of the world. No one has lived in such a place be- fore. In a corner of our bright, pentazo- nal salon there is.a large electronic con- sole that looks like spaceship control center. Four rooms radiate from ours in a design suggesting the name of our fodge—Starfish House. One arm contains the kitchen and lab- oratory, from which the chef is passing us fruit, cheese, and coffee: I light one of my reeking Tuscan cigars and look out the windows at a black, virgin wil- derness where moving phantasms bare- ly sugwest themselves, and where lights that are not lights softly gleam. “Commandant, regardes,” says the S COUSTEAU man at the console. He turns off the inside lights, then flicks on powerful lamps outside. In a magical transforma- tion, our windows turn into treasure chests lined in zenith b blue of the undersea world. Jewel trays drift slowly past ina half-knot current. There are tiny crustaceans, tarval jellyfish, swimming worms, and many-faceted hatchetfish that have migrated from the abyss to dazzle our eves. Beyond i a somber, shifting tapestry of big pelagic fish, the far-tiding predators. ‘They strike: singly into the little ones, snap them up, and speed back to the shadows. A thick school of sardinellas princes into view. We watch, spellbound, as they execute in unison a dance as pre- cise as that of the Rockettes, then van- ish as if the stage had fallen in We are in Continental Shelf Station 465 April, 1964Number Two—Conshelf Two—located Remus une UUM rane Le et face of the Red Sea. The ledge is part of Sha‘ab Rimi, or “Roman Reef,” 25 miles northeast of Port Sudan (map, ee OMS ee Ratha a of my men who are attempting to live PUR ue aioe eT a Lae PTR eS nce Conshelf Two consists of four prefab- Peet aod mie oie UCR CRUE aire comes Oy Pate OMS CR OMG a RT plies the undersea hamlet with com- eee a eae SURE Ct and medical care—in short, with life. Above us also is our research vessel (or rmeset a ce tee ts PMN CCM ee cael Me Qs mest as PTL am DCm aCe Toe CL) ae Oy Conshelf One, a pilot project in the Mediterranean Sea in 1962, two men Un ee eT smaller quarters—a 17-by-8-foot cham- Pe ia eae Uae Cc POEM casero NC mh PEUT a Coe M MULL esac eager COR Tee E tect PORTHOLED DOME houses DS-2, Captain Cousteau's diving saucer, Shadowy pert et eee en ey living Virgularia resembles a kinked rope.