Ever wonder why many life rafts, floats and other buoyant apparatus around the world are colored international orange?
There’s a Fort Lauderdale connection.
In 1960, the five-member vacationing Duperrault family left Bahia Mar on a 60-foot charter boat, the Bluebelle, captained by Julian Harvey. A few days later, Harvey was picked up on a life raft with the body of young girl, a member of the family. He told the U.S. Coast Guard that all the Duperraults had perished in an accident on the boat.
While Harvey was telling his story to the Coast Guard, word came there was a survivor. Eleven-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault had floated on a small white cork device for three days before being picked up in the Bahamas by the Greek ship, Captain Theo. Other ships may have mistaken the float for a white cap and sailed past the girl.
Hours after hearing news of the rescue, Harvey killed himself in a motel room. The subsequent investigation and interview with Terry Jo revealed the family was murdered by Harvey.
It also seems Harvey had a cloudy past. A former pilot in the Air Force, Harvey was reportedly also a survival expert. He had been involved in two other ship sinkings and an air crash. He collected insurance proceeds on two vessels, according to news accounts in 1961. The same account indicates his second wife and her mother were killed in a car he was driving that went off a bridge in 1949. Harvey survived.
In closing the investigation in 1962, the Coast Guard recommended “that the body of buoyant apparatus, life rafts and life boats … be painted or otherwise colored international orange.” This regulation was adopted and implemented by the Coast Guard.
Afterward, the practice was embraced world wide; orange is used today as a life raft safety precaution aboard many boats and ships across the globe. Thus, one girl's three-day ordeal at sea served as catalyst for the adoption of a new, international marine safety standard.
Afterward, the practice was embraced world wide; orange is used today as a life raft safety precaution aboard many boats and ships across the globe. Thus, one girl's three-day ordeal at sea served as catalyst for the adoption of a new, international marine safety standard.
Sources:
US Coast Guard
Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 22, 1961
Tags: Marine safety standards, international orange, Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale history, lifeboats
