The date was November 12th, 1963. A crew member aboard the Gulf Lion, a tanker, spotted a small boat in the distance. In it was a man, waving frantically. The ship changed course and headed to the tiny boat and saw its single live occupant, a middle-aged man. Also in the dinghy was a seven year old girl – not alive, sadly.
The man told his rescuers that his name was Julian Harvey. He had been the captain of a sixty foot sailboat, the Bluebelle.
He explained that the boat had been chartered for a vacation trip by an optometrist from Wisconsin called Arthur Duperrault. He had had rented the craft and its crew from Bahia Mar in Fort Lauderdale intending to go on a week long cruise to the Bahamas with his wife, son and two daughters. The other crew member, in addition to the captain Harvey, was his wife Mary.