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Treasure Hunter: Yacht owner Tara Getty on his epic round-the-world adventure

Superyacht owner Tara Getty found riches if not gold, says Stewart Campbell, on the ultimate adventure on board his classic yacht Blue Bird

Captain William Thompson’s orders were straightforward: get the gold out of Lima and transport it to Mexico, away from the rebels threatening the Peruvian capital. It was 1820, and Spain’s grip on Central and South America was weakening. Three hundred years of ferocious colonialism had enriched the motherland but left local populations bubbling with anti-imperial sentiment. When this exploded into rebellion in Peru, the viceroy hatched a plan to smuggle three centuries of loot out of the country in the hull of a ship – Thompson’s.

You turn pirate pretty quick when all that’s ahead of you is ocean and down below is a king’s ransom in plundered treasure. The ship never made it to Mexico. Instead, Thompson killed the guards and set course for remote Cocos Island, a fecund speck 340 miles out into the Pacific off the Central American coast. There, he buried the treasure, thought to include a pair of life-size, solid gold statues. No one knows exactly what constitutes the hoard because it’s never been found.

One of the greatest treasures ever buried remains underground, somewhere on Cocos Island. At least that’s what hundreds of adventurers down the years have believed, one of them Britain’s godfather of speed, Sir Malcolm Campbell. He was obsessed with the treasure and built a boat specifically to find it: Blue Bird , designed by GL Watson , launched in 1938 and now one of the best classic yachts . It was appalling timing – a year later war broke out, the yacht was requisitioned and not handed back to Campbell until 1947. Soon after the land and water speed record holder died, and with him the dream of digging up the Treasure of Lima.

But the story doesn’t end there. Sixty-seven years later, his boat, the 32 metre Goole-built beauty, finally made it to Cocos, and with a tribe of treasure hunters on board – Tara Getty, his wife Jessica and their three children. “We did it – we finished the journey Campbell started,” Getty says. “Cocos has amazing marine life and obviously that was part of it, but the real reason we went there was for the Lima treasure.” Alas, no solid gold statues returned with Blue Bird as ballast (at least, none that were declared). “When you get there you realise why it hasn’t been found,” the grandson of US oil baron Jean Paul Getty says. “The jungle is impenetrable and it’s very lush, with massive waterfalls and mountains.”

Four solid days’ steaming got them to Cocos and then it was a further four to the Galápagos, the westernmost point in the Gettys’ three-month, 15,000-mile journey aboard the yacht they bought in 2004 and meticulously restored. They kicked off the cruise in Antigua in March 2015 and ended it three months later in Fort Lauderdale. In between they visited Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, then it was back through the Panama Canal for a passage up the eastern coast of North America, taking in New York and Nova Scotia. The final leg took Blue Bird back down to Fort Lauderdale, and a transport home to the Med. “The vision for the trip was my children,” Getty says. “My eldest son finished school in South Africa in December 2014 and was starting in England the following September. So we had that December to September period. It was the most amazing opportunity to do something with the children.”

That something started with a five-country tour of Africa, where the Gettys have their home. The option was there to spend the entire period on the boat but “the idea of being stuck on a boat for such a long time didn’t excite Jessica that much”. But there was no negotiation on Cocos. “And once you’re there, you might as well go to the Galápagos. With that in mind, the rest of the trip sort of fell into place,” he says.

The family didn’t spend the whole three months on the boat, instead flying in and out where necessary and sometimes spending weeks on land in the countries they visited. “We’d fly into the Venezuelan jungle and get in cars and do some amazing road trips, and went off in Peru for two and a half weeks while the boat was relocating.”

One of the big questions facing the family was whether to go up the east or west coast of the US. Friends from Boston convinced them to choose the former, and the Gettys didn’t regret it. “The whole New England thing I hadn’t done before, and it was wonderful.” Waking up on board in the middle of New York City wasn’t bad either. The family had been staying in a hotel while in the city, but quickly transferred to the boat after seeing where she was moored. “I’ve got some amazing photos of Blue Bird in this little marina right under the new Freedom Tower. As soon as I saw it I thought, ‘why are we staying in a hotel?’”

Despite the hop-on, hop-off nature of the adventure, there was no escaping the passage out into the Pacific – but nor was there ever an intention to. Getty wanted the complete experience. “Cocos is impossible to get to anyway,” he says. “There’s no landing strip and it’s too far for a helicopter. A seaplane really isn’t an option as out there in the Pacific the swell is 15 metres high, but it’s about 300 metres between crests so you don’t really notice it in a boat.” The family all took turns on watch during the passage, sharing the four-hour shifts. They even strung up a hammock in the wheelhouse to make it a bit more comfortable. “The weather was wonderful,” says Getty. “We had a bit of a funny time at one point but the boat, I thought, handled it extremely well. We fitted zero-speed stabilisers, which were a godsend.” Tradition was maintained when Blue Bird passed over the Equator, with anyone who hadn’t yet crossed it dunked in slops from the kitchen. “My daughter was not happy,” Getty laughs.

Getting permission to land on Cocos wasn’t easy, but nothing would stop Getty from completing Campbell’s voyage – and retracing his steps. The speed legend had actually been to Cocos before building Blue Bird – in 1920, aboard the 37 metre former pilot vessel Adventuress . It was owned by a fellow racing driver and friend, Kenelm Lee Guinness, who Campbell convinced to sail halfway around the world to go digging for long lost treasure. They made landfall on Cocos but Guinness and his friends were soon back on board, driven off by the heat, crocodiles, mosquito swarms and thick, punishing jungle. Campbell stayed on land, accompanied by two crew, and endured for several more days, hacking through the undergrowth following a treasure map, his acquisition of which is a story lost to time. He was, obviously, unsuccessful and soon returned to Adventuress empty-handed for the long trip home. He vowed then that “one of these days, I shall return to Cocos”.

The boat he built for the task was a beauty: high topsides, raked stem and demure funnel just behind the teak pilothouse. He had her built at a commercial yard, the Goole Shipbuilding and Repairing Company in Yorkshire, northern England. It had never built a yacht but it had crafted many tough trawlers, barges and military vessels. Campbell commissioned Blue Bird to have ocean-spanning range and go-anywhere naval architecture, characteristics that attracted the Admiralty at the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The war years almost broke her but she played her part, helping in the evacuation of Dunkirk and later serving in the Irish Sea as a mine spotter and inspection vessel.

After the war, she passed through a series of owners, even Renault kingpin Jean-Louis Renault in the middle of the 20th century. There were stops in California, the UK and finally Holland, where she was found by Getty in the small town of Elburg. She was described as “dilapidated”, but he saw potential. After three years at Astilleros de Mallorca, she emerged gleaming, with a new Bannenberg & Rowell interior. Beyond the aesthetics, she was kept true to Campbell’s vision. “I designed the boat originally for the Indian Ocean,” Getty says. “I wanted two of everything: watermakers, washing machines, dryers, so if something breaks we can continue. At one point our hydraulic pack broke but we had enough redundancies to carry on.”

The island that greeted the Gettys after four days at sea seemed a little more welcoming than the one explored by Campbell. “To me it was the most marvellous place and I was a bit worried about it because Campbell had called it a ‘mosquito-infested pit’, or something like that. And actually it was just charming.” Apart from some rangers and a specialist guide, the five-mile-long island is uninhabited. “You really feel when you’re there that you’ve got somewhere that people weren’t going to,” he says.

Despite not finding the Treasure of Lima, Getty did make one discovery. It has became tradition over the years for visitors to carve the names of their yachts into the island’s rocks, and Getty found Nahlin’s , the 91 metre clipper-bowed classic built in the UK and launched in 1930. She visited the island in 1931, the evidence of which is her name immortalised in stone. Getty found the carving while looking for the one for Adventuress . “He had quite a big ego, old Campbell, and I was sure he would have tapped his name in the rock somewhere, but I couldn’t find him.”

Future fortune-seekers and visitors to Cocos will know his boat, Blue Bird , did eventually make it to the island – Getty made sure of that. “You’re not allowed to do it any more,” he whispers, “but I walked up to a beautiful look-out point, found a little spot and tapped ‘Blue Bird’ into the rock.”

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The Classic Talitha Yacht

The Talitha is a classic superyacht built by Krupp Germaniawerft, Germany, in 1930. Despite several restorations and refits, she has retained much of her Art Deco charm and boasts open fireplaces, Lalique glass doors, exquisite examples of marquetry and a wealth of period art and furnishings. The Talitha is currently owned by the Getty family and is available year-round for Mediterranean charters.

The yacht measures 262 feet in length and features six elegant staterooms (including a full-width master cabin), a cinema, deck Jacuzzi, exercise equipment, wi-fi, a couple of tenders and a plethora of water toys. The yacht is crewed by a team of 18, including 2 chefs and an IT / AV engineer.

Pre-war History

The Talitha – initially named Reveler – was commissioned by Russell Alger Junior, Vice President of the Packard Motor Car Company . Unfortunately Alger Junior died in 1930 and never got to experience life on board his yacht. A year later, Charles McCann (son-in-law of business magnate F.W. Woolworth) purchased the boat and renamed her Chalena . The yacht changed hands again in 1940 when she was bought by Leon Mandel, part of the family that owned the Mandel Brothers department store in Chicago.

Following the outbreak of WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Talitha was requisitioned by the US Maritime Commission and in June 1942 entered service as a gunboat with armory, depth charges and a crew of 110. She survived the war without incident and in 1946 was decommissioned and returned to private ownership.

The Robert Stigwood Years

Robert Stigwood – the Australian impresario and producer of Saturday Night Fever – bought the yacht in 1983 from Greek businessman Marias Embiricos. Embiricos had owned the yacht since 1957, but during that time it had been neglected and fallen into disrepair. Stigwood renamed the yacht Jezebel and promptly spent millions transforming her into a work of art.

The restoration was done in Malta and kicked off with a re-design of the yacht's distinctive clipper bow. Two spruce masts replaced a metal one and teak decks were added. Next came new engine room equipment, a satellite communications system and air conditioning. The interiors were then refurbished to evoke the elegance and charisma of the 1930s. Furnishings included fabrics from London, antiques from France, marble from Italy, oriental rugs and a mahogany grand piano. Stigwood boasted that she was the most luxurious classic motor yacht afloat, and in 1985 the New York Times described her as a "floating fantasy".

It evokes another age of shipbuilding when the clippers reigned. It's like the Parthenon, showing off lovely, immutable laws of esthetics.

Christopher Williams, Captain of the Jezebel

But the magic wasn't to last. In 1988 the Jezebel eased into Lisbon with crankshaft failure and soon after was laid up on the River Fal in southwest England. It was at this point that she came to the attention of her next owner, John Paul Getty II.

The Getty Family

After purchasing the yacht, John Getty commissioned another round of extensive restorations, this time under the guidance of world-renowned designer Jon Bannenberg . The project was carried out at Devonport in Plymouth and is considered one of the standouts of Bannenberg's career. Major structural alterations were introduced, twin 1400hp Caterpillar engines were installed, and interiors were re-styled with Art Deco and Art Nouveau highlights, original 1920s skylights and a collection of art supplied by Christopher Gibbs .

The work was completed in 1993, at which time the yacht was re-christened after Getty's late wife, Talitha . But not everyone agreed with the re-design. Design purists and staff who'd sailed aboard Robert Stigwood's Jezebel opposed much of Bannenberg's work. In particular, criticism was directed at Bannenberg's decision to replace the original funnel with a pair of stumps and to extend the wheelhouse (which previously had stood alone in front of the funnel) along much of the deck. Critics felt these changes destroyed the yacht's integrity and compromised her graceful appearance.

The Talitha For Charter

The Getty family have been operating the Talitha as a charter yacht for many years and she has proven to be one of the most successful vessels of her kind. She is often fully booked (sometimes for several months in advance) and her guest list includes Hollywood celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise and Francis Ford Coppola.

The yacht's appeal is easy to understand. With her spacious interiors, luxurious guest rooms, period features and open fireplaces, she's the ideal choice for relaxing or entertaining friends and family. She comes complete with a modern stabilization system, wi-fi, air conditioning and a deck Jacuzzi to relax in and soak up the views after a long day at sea. The Talitha is also wheelchair-friendly, and her designers have paid close attention to accessibility.

Pinnacle Marine New Zealand

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Barnicoat, David (2017), Impressive Super Yacht Talitha Sails in to Pendennis Shipyard for Repairs , Southern Daily Echo

Dowd, Maureen (1985), Jezebel Stands out in New York's Parade of Boats , New York Times

Ross, Bobby (2018), Jon Bannenberg, the Godfather of Modern Yacht Design , Vanity Fair

Williams, Greg H. (2013), World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands , McFarland & Company , pp. 103-104

Wrathall, Claire (2018), Expert Advice: How to Build the Ultimate Charter Yacht , Boat International

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