The Incredible Story Of How Terry Jo Duperrault Survived After Being Stranded At Sea

Unlike most stories of those stranded at sea, this one has a twist no one saw coming. The horrific tale unfolds with a tanker spotting a man in a dinghy claiming to be the captain of a boat, tugging a life raft with a young girl’s body in it.

Arthur Duperrault was an ophthalmologist who had put aside enough money by 1961 to take his entire family on a well-deserved vacation. As a sailor, he was fond of the sea and decided to take them on a cruise to someplace warm, like the Bahamas, on a chartered boat.

Seven enthusiastic vacationers finally set sail on 8th November 1961 aboard Bluebelle. This trip was a trial run in preparation for a much-longer cruise around the world that Arthur wanted to take with his dear family.

At night, Terry Jo headed downstairs to the cabin she shared with her little sister Rene while the rest were upstairs enjoying the last leg of the trip. She later woke up to her brother’s screams seeking help from their father.

Shocked at the horrifying scene, Terry walked further along on the deck until she saw Harvey approaching her. Even as she asked him what happened, she noticed nothing amiss with the mast or the rigs on the boat. The waters were calm, unlike the man who shoved her back into the cabin.

Realizing she’d drown if she stayed on the bed with the water still rising, Terry went upstairs, hoping she’d not find floating bodies in the dirty water. From the deck, she saw Harvey and asked him if the ship was really sinking. Confirming her doubts, he threw her a dinghy line but she missed.

Harvey was an accomplished jet pilot, but some flights were suspiciously accident-prone. His history with women was even more horrendous. The captain had more than five wives until he married Mary Dene Smith, some of whom had passed away under dubious circumstances.

When the Gulf Lion tanker found Harvey, he had a detailed story to convince the coast guards and the captain of his innocence. After identifying himself as the captain of Bluebelle, he identified the little girl on the raft as Terry Jo Duperrault, someone he tried unsuccessfully to save.

Besides being awfully inconsistent with his details, his narration had major loopholes that did not convince anyone of his innocence. For one, broken masts tip over rather than plunge straight downwards. He also foolishly claimed that Arthur, a Navy veteran, kept steering in the same direction when the fire broke out instead of into the wind.

Three days of questioning Harvey revealed more discrepancies in his story. For instance, the coast guards were curious to know why he hadn’t looked for flares in the dinghy’s emergency kit. Before he could come up with another lie, someone barged into the room, exclaiming they found a survivor.

Harvey knew he was trapped with the return of the only person who knew the truth about his massacre aboard Bluebelle. He left the room, puzzling everyone, and headed to his hotel. Fearing imprisonment and life-long ridicule, he committed suicide in his room at Sandman Motel in Miami.

In the ocean, with the risk of drowning along with Bluebelle, Terry finally found a tiny cork and rope float to hold onto for dear life. She was adrift for three and a half days before a Greek freighter picked her up.

Once she emerged from the coma, Terry started recounting the horrific events that night. The details revealed dramatically differed from those given by Harvey, who was now d$$d. She told the investigators about nothing wrong with the boat, the mast, and the waters; there hadn’t been any flames either.

Terry Jo remembered when a line snagged, and her float took her underwater momentarily before it resurfaced. She still huddled low, trying to avoid being seen by Harvey in the darkness. With no food or water, she had only her pink pants and thin white shirt protecting her from a chilly night.

The morning came, and with it, the scorching heat that burned her skin, but Terry was determined to survive despite the danger. Her throat was parched, and her mouth got drier with each passing hour. Yet, she was neither thirsty nor hungry.

At times, Terry saw ghost-like apparitions floating towards her from 30 yards away but soon realized they were porpoises. The sea animals stayed around her for hours before disappearing from view. That night, miles away from the calm waters of Green Bay and her home in Wisconsin, she dreamed of her dad talking to her.

All her senses dulled by the fourth day; she no longer felt the heat because she was barely conscious. Terry wondered if anyone would ever come to get her. Just then, with half-closed eyes, she squinted at some hands waving and felt hoisted up a few minutes later before passing out.

Less than a month after she was found adrift on a raft in the middle of a vast ocean, Terry and her ordeal made it to the cover of Life Magazine. Picture of her in her disintegrated raft surrounded by the blue waters became a central point of discussion for people worldwide.

Investigators slowly concluded about his possible motive for the mass mu$$er. They believed he was after his wife’s insurance money, and Arthur caught him. Unfortunately, that must have led to the demise of the others.

Losing her entire family at sea in hours is terrifying, and people worldwide empathized with her plight. To return her to a semblance of normalcy, her extended family of uncles, aunts, and cousins moved her back to Wisconsin to live with them.

For several years after the horrific incident that made her an orphan overnight, Terry Jo still believed her father was alive. She had not seen his body and often talked about heading to the Florida coast to wait for him.

In 2010, nearly fifty years after the horrific incident that changed everything for her, Terry co-authored a tell-all book, Alone: Orphaned on the ocean, with Richard Logan, her University professor. To give an authentic account through the book, he suggested she take Sodium Amytal to help clarify some of her memories.

It took fifty years of healing to finally share her story. In her initial interview, she wondered why she was the lone survivor of the tragedy and what it meant. Her experience as an 11-year-old taught her to be strong.

Terry Jo, the young orphaned girl from the ‘60s, has grown into a strong woman, Tere Duperrault Fassbender. From the ashes of her experience, she emerged as a shining beacon of light to other survivors with horrifying tales of their own.

When Julian Harvey mercilessly left her behind on that sinking sailboat so the ocean would swallow her whole, Terry Jo survived the ordeal and emerged from it, forming a deep bond with the sea.

Terry was stranded on a flimsy, fast-disintegrating cork float for four days before anyone spotted her. A few larger vessels and planes had passed her by without noticing. She remained invisible for a reason.

When Terry Jo returned to Wisconsin nearly a month after the tragic incident, she couldn’t speak about it with anyone other than the cops. Since her friends were advised to stay away from the topic, they barely asked her anything about her experience. It remained that way for years.

Terry Jo was inherently a trusting person, and even after the horrifying incident that should have shaken her core, she remained true to her nature. She trusted those who took her in, nurtured her back to health, and helped her heal.

After 27 years after that day when Captain Theo of the Greek Freighter rescued Terry Jo, Oprah brought the two together on her show in 1988. The reunion led to some happy tears. He was the one who spotted her floating in the waters on the fourth day and stopped the engine.

There was a time when she could have worked at the hospital as the X-ray technician but decided against it. Terry is happily choosing to work with water-related organizations and is at a place where she is at peace with herself.