Futility Closet

In 1961, Wisconsin optometrist Arthur Duperrault chartered a yacht to take his family on a sailing holiday in the Bahamas. After two days in the islands, the ship failed to return to the mainland, and the unfolding story of its final voyage made headlines around the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll recount the fate of the Bluebelle and its seven passengers and crew. We'll also sympathize with some digital misfits and puzzle over some incendiary cigarettes. Intro: John Brunner's novel The Squares of the City encodes an 1892 chess game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. Around 1730 Ben Franklin laid out 11 "necessary hints to those that would be rich." Sources for our feature on the Bluebelle: Richard D. Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender, Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean, 2011. "The Sea: The Bluebelle's Last Voyage," Time, Dec. 1, 1961. Herbert Brean, "The 'Bluebelle' Mystery," Life, Dec. 1, 1961. Erle Stanley Gardner, "The Case of the Bluebelle's Last Voyage," Sa