Bluebelle (ship)
Bluebelle was a twin-masted sailing ketch based out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The ship was scuttled following an act of mass murder by the ship's captain, Julian Harvey, on November 12, 1961. Harvey died by suicide on November 17 within hours of receiving news that 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault had survived the scuttling. She had been rescued at sea three and a half days after the incident, having drifted upon a small cork dinghy without food, water or shelter for approximately 82 hours.
Terry Jo's survival led to her becoming known within international media as the "Sea Waif" and the "Sea Orphan."
Background
The final complement of the Bluebelle consisted of 40-year-old Arthur Duperrault, his wife Jean and their three children: Brian, Terry Jo and René. Arthur Duperrault was a successful contact lens optometrist. The Duperrault family resided in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Arthur had long dreamed of taking his wife and children on a week-long family cruise from the Florida Keys to the Bahamas, which he had sailed during his World War II service, as opposed to the family facing another cold Wisconsin winter.The Duperraults spent several years saving money for this opulent experience, and had saved enough by the summer of 1961. The family planned to spend a week living at sea aboard a chartered yacht in a warm climate, docking at several chosen locations and possibly extending the sabbatical if all enjoyed themselves. They arrived in Fort Lauderdale in early November, where they chartered the ketch Bluebelle, stationed at the Bahia Mar Marina, for $515.
Arthur hired a well-known local yachtsman, 44-year-old Julian Harvey, to skipper the vessel for $100 per day. Harvey's sixth wife, 34-year-old former stewardess and aspiring writer Mary Dene Harvey, was also appointed to serve as a cook on the ketch.
Final voyage
The Duperrault family boarded Bluebelle at around midday on Wednesday, November 8, 1961. The vessel was last seen leaving port early that afternoon.Over the following four days, the family traveled to locations such as Bimini and Sandy Point, where they purchased souvenirs and engaged in activities such as snorkeling. On November 12, at their final port of call prior to returning to Florida, Arthur and Captain Harvey visited the office of British district commissioner Roderick Pinder, to whom Arthur stated: "This has been a once-in-a-lifetime vacation", adding, "We'll be back before Christmas." That evening, all aboard Bluebelle ate a meal of chicken cacciatore and salad. Shortly thereafter, 11-year-old Terry Jo walked below deck to her sleeping cabin as the rest of her family and the Harveys remained on deck.
Initial rescue
At approximately 12:35 p.m. on Monday, November 13, a crew member aboard the oil tanker Gulf Lion observed a man waving frantically from a dinghy drifting in their direction and shouting, "Help! I have a dead baby on board!" Pulling the man aboard, crew members observed the deceased body of a red-haired prepubescent girl wearing a life jacket inside the dinghy.The man identified himself as Julian Harvey, skipper of the ketch Bluebelle. Harvey explained that at approximately 8:30 the previous evening, his small vessel was hit by a sudden, strong squall that caused Bluebelle to rapidly keel over and the main mast to snap at a location between the Abaco Islands and Great Stirrup Cay, slightly injuring his wife and Arthur and piercing the ship's hull. According to Harvey, he was completely separated from all others on board the ketch by this falling mast and the resultant loose rigging, which pulled down the mizzen mast. He attempted to retrieve a wire cutter from the cabin to clear the deck space, but a sudden fire broke out on board the small vessel, and he was not able to rescue his wife or any of his passengers.
Forced to abandon the ketch alone on a dinghy, the body of seven-year-old René had soon floated by, and he had retrieved her body and attempted to revive the child. Unsuccessful in this medical effort, he had kept her body alongside him in the raft out of respect.
Harvey's questioning
Taken to Nassau, Harvey was questioned by authorities. Although his calm demeanor and the fact his dinghy had been filled with various survival supplies caused some to initially express serious doubts as to his claims, his story could not be disproven, and he was allowed to return to Miami on November 15 to face further questioning by the United States Coast Guard.Second rescue
Three days later, on November 16, a child was rescued in the Northwest Providence Channel by the Greek freighter Captain Theo. Second officer Nicolaos Spachidakis observed her floating aboard a cork float approximately from the freighter. Spachidakis immediately summoned Captain Stylianos Coutsodontis to the bridge, and the two gradually realized Spachidakis' sighting was not a fishing vessel, but a small, oblong white raft carrying a young blonde-haired child dressed in a white cotton blouse and pink corduroy slacks, leaning backward and waving feebly. The captain ordered the freighter's engines stopped and a life raft lowered. Noting sharks circling close to the cork float, crew members shouted at the child not to jump into the water while one crew member, Evangelos Kantzilas, lifted her aboard the raft. She was then hoisted aboard Captain Theo and placed in a spare cabin.Aboard the freighter, the crew discovered the child was incoherent and barely able to speak. She was given water and orange juice as salt was sponged from her body with wet towels and Vaseline applied to her lips. She hoarsely identified herself as 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault; informing the crew that she had been floating aboard the cork float for several days after the sinking of her vessel. Her ability to speak rapidly waned, and the child soon responded to questions by weakly gesticulating, before lapsing into a semi-comatose state.
The crew of Captain Theo did not retrieve the cork float upon which Terry Jo had drifted for almost four days. However, a member of the Coast Guard did locate and retrieve the raft from the ocean several days later.
Recuperation
Coutsodontis immediately informed the Coast Guard of their discovery and Terry Jo's medical predicament, and a rescue helicopter was soon summoned. Terry Jo—suffering from severe sunburn, dehydration and exposure—was airlifted to a Miami hospital in a critical condition. There, the child began to slowly recuperate, although for over two days she was unable to divulge to police or the Coast Guard the circumstances surrounding her rescue and the truth of what had actually happened to her family and Mary Dene Harvey.Terry Jo's statement
By November 20, Terry Jo had regained sufficient strength to reveal to investigators the truth about the loss of Bluebelle and its passengers.Late on November 12, Bluebelle began its return journey to Fort Lauderdale. At around 9 p.m., Terry Jo had entered the lower cabin to sleep, leaving her parents, siblings, Harvey and his wife on deck. Later that evening, she was awakened by the sounds of her brother screaming and calling for their father, and heavy footfalls, which she decided to investigate. Above deck, she observed the dead bodies of her brother and mother in the main cabin, not far from the galley.
Walking further onto the deck, Terry Jo then observed Harvey carrying a bucket. He had simply struck her, then shoved her below deck, shouting, "Get back down there!" The terrified child returned to her cabin only to observe oil and water beginning to gush onto the floor of her cabin approximately fifteen minutes later. Harvey then entered her cabin with what appeared to be a rifle in his right hand. The two made eye contact, but Harvey did not shoot her; he simply returned above deck. Terry Jo then heard hammering sounds.
Shortly thereafter, Terry Jo was forced to abandon her rapidly flooding cabin. She returned to the deck, only to observe Harvey standing on the deck and the vessel's dinghy floating on the port side. He then asked her, "Is the dinghy loose?", to which she replied she did not know. Harvey then ordered her to hold a rope attached to the dinghy while he retrieved something. By the time Harvey returned to the child, the rope had slipped through her fingers. In response, Harvey dove overboard and swam toward the dinghy, abandoning Terry Jo on the sinking vessel.
Recollecting the small oblong cork float lashed to the deck, Terry Jo untied this float as the boat deck began to sink beneath the ocean. She then threw the float overboard and swam toward the life raft, pushing the float further into the open water before climbing onto it. She had then drifted upon the sea for almost three and a half days without food, water or shelter. Her life raft had been so small Terry Jo had to sit upright for the entire ordeal, during which she had repeatedly prayed for rescue.
Terry Jo was adamant that the mast of Bluebelle was intact, that there had been no fire aboard the vessel and that the sea was calm throughout the entirety of the events prior to the sinking. Shortly thereafter, she was informed that Harvey had been picked up alive three days prior to herself in a life raft, alongside her sister's dead body, and that the bodies of her parents, her brother and Harvey's wife had all been lost at sea.