I recall watching that Cousteau documentary as a kid, and specifically recall the scenes of the dislodged shaft and damaged hull.
Amundsen, Nansen and others used the FRAM, she was timber, designed for ice and did well on several passages to the arctic and antarctic. She sailed further north and further south than any timber ship, I've been aboard her in a museum in Oslo, her hull is 2 feet thick in some places. Originally steam, she was the first polar exploration vessel to use a diesel engine.
The Calypso, on the other hand, was no FRAM.
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