Alone

by Richard D. Logan PhD

  ALONE

  Orphaned on the Ocean

  ALONE

  Orphaned on the Ocean

  Richard Logan PhD

  Tere Duperrault Fassbender

  TitleTown Publishing

  Green Bay, Wisconsin

  ALONE

  Orphaned on the Ocean

  Copyright 2010 Richard Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender.

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, except for passages excerpted for the purposes of review, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, or to order additional copies, please contact:

  TitleTown Publishing, LLC

  P.O. Box 12093 Green Bay, WI 54307-12093

  920.737.8051 | titletownpublishing.com

  Cover design by Mike Stromberg

  Interior layout and design by Erika L. Block

  Edited by Julie Rogers

  PUBLISHER’S CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

  Logan, Richard D., 1942–

  Alone : Orphaned on the Ocean / Richard Logan, Tere Duperrault Fassbender

  Green Bay, Wisc. : TitleTown Pub., c2010.

  p. ; cm.

  ISBN: 978-0-9820009-7-7

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  1. Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc. – Personal narratives.

  2. Victims of violent crimes – United States – Psychology.

  3. Survival skills. I. Fassbender, Tere Duperrault. II. Title.

  G530 .L64 2010 2010926099

  910.4/52--dc22 1005

  Printed in the USA by Thomson-Shore

  first edition printed on recycled paper

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Never Forgotten:

  Mom, Dad, Brian, and René; Gammie; Mo and Unk

  For the Future:

  Brooke, Blaire, and Brian; Alison, Wesley, and Arthur

  –Tere

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  Preface

  Sailing Dreams

  The Adventurer

  A Brief Time in Paradise

  A Captain’s Tale

  The Sea Waif

  A Warrior’s End

  The Dark of Night

  Eternal Father

  Recovering

  Terry Jo’s Truth

  The Mask of the Hero

  All the Women Are Strong

  Afterword

  Epilogue

  Bibliography

  Index

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  by Tere Fassbender

  As I sit on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, I listen to the whitecaps tumbling and crashing on the beach. I scan the horizon and think about the captain and crew of the ship, Captain Theo. I want to thank them for saving me from the ocean.

  I thank Dr. Franklyn Verdon for being at my side when I awakened from a coma and for nursing me back to health.

  Jenny Duperrault, my grandmother, I thank you for being everything to me in those first years as my gentle and loving soul mate.

  Thank you Mo and Unk (Aunt Dot and Uncle Ralph Scheer) for taking me into your family and loving me as your daughter. Greg, Jeff, and Dan, I appreciate you for accepting me as a part of your family.

  As my journey through life continued, I’d like to thank the Brebner family and, especially, Pam for giving me friendship in those vulnerable years.

  I am so grateful to my Aunt Lois and Uncle Fritz Duperrault and cousins David, Cheri, Alan, and Jean who have always loved me and have shown interest in me throughout my life.

  I would like to thank my Nebraska family for all of their love and for allowing me to be who I am.

  Thank you Aunt Janet and Uncle Bob Scheer for our special times, and Victoria for always being my best friend.

  I don’t believe I would have made it the last thirty-five years without my children Brooke, Blaire, and Brian. The love I have for them is unexplainable and different from the love many parents feel for their children as they are truly all I have. And now that the next generation has arrived, I am so fortunate to be a part of the lives of my grandchildren Alison, Wesley, and Arthur.

  Thank you, my Ronald, for all of your love and support. You have been so good for me. You are my best friend, my safe harbor, my confidante.

  I appreciate Richard Logan for all of his time and effort in working with me and writing this book. Thank you, Dick, for helping me through difficult times.

  There are so many people and pets that have helped me along my rugged path. I give you a special thanks and I believe you know who you are. I am truly blessed and thankful for all who have come into my life and have helped me in some way. It is now my hope to help others by telling my story.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  by Richard Logan PhD

  The first person I need to thank is the subject of this story, co-author of this book, and – most important – subject of a remarkable life. With characteristic courage, Tere Duperrault Fassbender was determined that her story not only be told, but that it be told honestly, warts and all. I am deeply honored that my friend entrusted her story to me, but also grateful for the example of courage, honesty and decent humanity with which she has lived her life.

  Equally determined to see this remarkable story told was Tracy Ertl of TitleTown Publishing, Green Bay, Wisconsin. She shepherded, cajoled, encouraged, and capably coordinated every detail of the production of this book. All-in-all, Tracy was the gentlest of bulldozers. TitleTown’s Assistant Publisher Christine Ertl, who helped her mom multi-task, knows the truth of that image better than most. Profound thanks also go to the rest of Tracy’s magnificent team: TitleTown Publishing’s talented Editor Julie Rogers, who understood how to improve the writing without losing the authors’ voices, and how to gently make suggestions that enriched the story; Counsel Ellen Kozak, an accomplished, award-winning author in her own right, who was fierce in ensuring thoroughness and accuracy and stepped in to help with editing, thus significantly improving the book (It is great to see a publishing company with editors who actually edit!); Erika Block, who designed and formatted the interior of the book and has given it just the right look; interns Katie Stilp and Jessica Engman, who checked facts, diligently pursued missing details, formatted pictures, and supported the effort in many other ways. Everyone put in long hours. We all vowed that once the book was done, we would go on a retreat.

  Although information for this book was gleaned from many sources over many years, I am especially indebted to the late Ben Funk for his research into the life and military career of Julian Harvey in 1961 and 1962. Funk, who died in 1982, also wrote some of the early Associated Press wire service stories on the Bluebelle.

  At some point, Ben entrusted his files on the Bluebelle and Julian Harvey to his good friend, the late Gene Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald writer. He evidently hoped that Mr. Miller might one day write a book. Miller gave me Funk’s research notes in 1992. He had followed Tere’s story and had deep affection for her, and she for him. I believe it was his hearing of my personal friendship with Tere that led him to give me these notes. Mr. Miller also showed me his own writings on the Bluebelle, and he helped me gain access to Miami Herald archives. I am deeply indebted to him. He died on June 17, 2005.

  I also need to thank Hope Mercier, former secretary in the Human Development Department at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, for cheerfully and skillfully typing the drafts of this manuscript more than fifteen years ago that ultimately became part of this book.

  I owe a large thanks to Sidney Vineburg, former rabbi of temple Congregation Cnesses Israel in Green Bay, for his intelligent conversation about the Bluebelle
, and for his own research efforts into the case. Yes, the rabbi is also a private investigator!

  There has been no greater believer in this story than Mike Blecha, retired reporter and editor for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. He continued to keep the story before the public and has always been a strong supporter of Tere. Along the way he was also a mentor of our publisher Tracy Ertl. Mike reiterated recently that Tere Duperrault was the bravest person he ever met.

  Finally, I owe much to the student who more than twenty years ago told me “there is someone I think you should meet.” I regret very much that I do not remember his name, but he helped enrich my life. Perhaps he will read this book and contact me again so I can thank him properly for introducing me to Tere Duperrault Fassbender.

  I want to thank a lot of people who have been supportive, encouraging, and understanding. First, my wife, Carol, who has been dealt a bad hand herself in recent years but still plays her cards bravely and with skill, determination, and love. Our two sons, David and Jon, accomplished professionals and talented writers, both of whom have given their parents the greatest gift parents can ever receive: they have grown up to be good people. They are outshone only by our two bright and beautiful granddaughters, Beatrice and Rowan. The inspiring memory of my extraordinary mother, Edith Simmons Logan, and her example of living life with verve and humor despite chronic illness and pain, is always with me. She died far too young, but inspired many with her uncomplaining endurance and her defiant laughter in the face of adversity over many years. I need also to thank my remarkable father, Rev. Wesley Logan, also a man who loves words and uses them well. He lost the love of his life nearly thirty years ago, but he remains whole, positive, and sharp at ninety-three, and is loved and respected by many, especially his great-granddaughters. There are many other relatives and friends (such as the gang at Caribou Coffee), but they know who they are, and Acknowledgments are not supposed to be as long as the book.

  I need to offer one additional thank you: to my friend Les Stroud, Discovery Channel’s Survivorman to thousands. I am grateful to him for taking the time while in the field doing his survival thing to read this book and write the Foreword for it. I admire Les for doing with such dedication what I, an academic, have mostly only written about. But then, those who can, do.

  Finally, I am blessed to have met and been profoundly inspired by some extraordinary people through studying those who have survived the impossible, Tere Duperrault Fassbender first and foremost. I am indebted to her and to many former POWs, pilots, sailors, soldiers, mountain climbers, adventurers, political prisoners – but mostly to the legions of ordinary people thrown by fate into Hell who found the hero within themselves in order to survive. Take my word: They came out better people than the rest of us, and there is much they have to teach us.

  FOREWORD

  by Les Stroud

  I was first introduced to Richard Logan during my days of intensely studying wilderness survival. I was a relative newcomer to these skills and although there were already a few books dealing with the psychology of survival, it was Logan’s first book, also titled Alone (Stackpole, 1993), that got to the heart of the matter, in a manner far superior to anything I had read. Eventually I would take the concept of solo survival, along with the lessons I had learned from Alone, to their very literal end. I would place myself twenty-three times in forced solitude, in far remote areas, for the sake of producing my television series: Survivorman. Among the stories in Logan’s first book, the most gripping was a brief account of Terry Jo Duperrault.

  Now Richard Logan has, with her help, written her full story. Part perfect Hollywood script, part hard-core story of survival and part in-depth character study Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean is a gripping read. Terry Jo, a young, seemingly fragile and gentle fair-skinned girl, is the embodiment of the phrase “will to live.” Much has been written about the forces that enable survival: survival knowledge, luck, fitness level, and survival kits. However the single most important factor that I always land on is the “will to live.” When you have no knowledge, when your luck has turned bad, when you have nothing to aid you and when your body and mind have been ravaged, the only thing left is your will. Terry Jo’s will was cast in iron. The brilliance with which the team of Richard Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender tell the story of Terry Jo’s survival – not just over days of peril but over a lifetime – immediately puts this tale in the league of the greatest survival stories of all time.

  Les Stroud

  Creator and host of the Discovery Channel television series Survivorman and Vanishing World, author of Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere – Alive.

  PREFACE

  The information for this story comes from a variety of sources:

  (I) A lot of it is collected from hundreds of accounts of the Bluebelle case in newspapers and magazines, mostly written in the immediate aftermath of the event and researched by this author between fifteen and twenty years ago, followed up more recently via Google, the Internet, and through genealogy and records sites. Some of these accounts were in collections in the Local History section of the Brown County Library in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which has an extensive set of clippings and microfiche because of the strong local interest in the story. Some accounts were also found at the Miami-Dade Public Library in 1992, where there was also strong local interest. With the notable exception of stories written by veteran reporter Mike Blecha of the Green Bay Press-Gazette in 1994 and 1999, none of these sources ever had the advantage of talking extensively with Tere herself, however, and none of them went into the past life of Julian Harvey in any depth. Most of these public accounts recounted Coast Guard hearing testimony, interviewed acquaintances of Julian Harvey or witnesses in the Bahamas, or interviewed police or Coast Guard investigators.

  (II) Parts of the story come from two sets of documents:

  • Transcripts and records of Coast Guard inquiries, testimony, and interviews regarding the Bluebelle case. I was able to read the entire Coast Guard report in Miami in 1992, and the entire set of testimony transcripts and investigative reports. I also was given a copy of the summary of the report; and

  • Records of extensive research and interviews by the late Ben Funk, distinguished Associated Press reporter and staff writer based in Miami. He was the one investigative journalist who dug extensively into the past life, relationships, and military career of Julian Harvey and who sought out people who had known him, including his past wives. Most of his research was done in late 1961 and early 1962. He, along with some other journalists, interviewed a number of people who either witnessed the Bluebelle and its passengers in the Bahamas, or who interacted with Julian Harvey before or shortly after the events described in this book. Funk passed away in 1982, and this author is fortunate to have been given his files in 1992 by his good friend, the late Gene Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and reporter for the Miami Herald. Gene Miller himself was also a source of some information, as he followed the Bluebelle story closely and was the lead writer in a series of ten-year “Where are they now” follow-ups on the Bluebelle story. Incidentally, Gene Miller’s obituary pointedly mentioned the Bluebelle story as one of the most memorable stories of his distinguished career. Miller was both a consummate professional and an old-fashioned gentleman who was deeply moved by the story of the young Terry Jo and showed her both concern and kindness. I know Tere counted him as a friend.

  (III) Recollections either written down or obtained by extensive interviews with Tere Fassbender, née Terry Jo Duperrault, conducted periodically over many years. Tere also supplied copies of journals she had written occasionally beginning in the 1980s. Tere was also the source of a great many news clippings about the Bluebelle story, as members of her family had collected many of them in the months after the Bluebelle tragedy.

  (IV) Notes from a sodium amytal interview of Tere Fassbender conducted in 1999 by Dr. Edward Orman, highly respected psychiatrist then practicing in Green Bay. Sodium amytal is
a so-called “truth serum” used to aid recall of past life events, especially traumatic ones that might have been repressed.

  (V) Examination of National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration weather records for information on winds and currents for the Bahamas for the middle of November 1961, as well as weather records kept at the Seventh District U.S. Coast Guard Office in Miami.

  (VI) Discussions with several doctors and physiologists about the progressive effects of dehydration and exposure over a period of days. I particularly want to credit my late friend and colleague Dr. Joseph Mannino, a first-rate human physiologist in the Human Biology program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

  (VII) Conversations with members of the Miami police force in 1992, particularly in the Records Division, their names regrettably lost some years ago.

  (VIII) Interviews with retired Coast Guard officers Robert Barber and Ernest Murdock, principal investigators on the Bluebelle case. Barber was interviewed in Miami in 1992; Murdock, in San Francisco in 1999, where he was actively engaged as a volunteer on a San Francisco fireboat, continuing to serve.

  Editor’s note: The name Duperrault is pronounced –awlt. The name Tere is pronounced exactly the same as the name Terry. The reason for the name change is explained in the text.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Sailing Dreams

  November 13, 1961, Monday

  In the middle of the broad and deep Northwest Providence Channel in the Bahamas, the lookout on the Puerto Rico-bound oil tanker Gulf Lion spots a strange sight: a small, wooden dinghy, its sails furled, with a life raft tied to it. The ship draws nearer, and those on board can see that there is a man in the dinghy, and something else, something they can’t quite make out, in the life raft.