Gina Campbell watched as her father's Bluebird was restored

Donald Campbell’s daughter, 70, watched as her father’s iconic record breaker Bluebird was restored but is now trapped in a toxic feud with the man who’s keeping it locked up

• Gina Campbell was 17 when her dad died as his boat crashed in the Lake District 
• Bluebird was resurrected at Coniston Water by diver Bill Smith in 2001
• He managed to retrieve the dad’s body so he could receive a proper burial
• Campbell’s unpaid restoration was helped by volunteers and sponsorship
• Coniston’s Ruskin Museum disputed ownership rights as they helped revamp 

Gina Campbell felt like a child again as the jet engine fired into life and Bluebird K7 screeched past at more than 100mph. As she stood on the banks of Scotland’s Loch Fad with tears in her eyes, she could almost picture her legendary father, Donald Campbell, in the cockpit gunning for yet another world water speed record.

Gina was 17 when he died as Bluebird crashed then sank at Coniston Water in the Lake District on January 4, 1967.

‘Bluebird looked fantastic, absolutely beautiful, and it was magical to see her on water again, just as I remembered her as a little girl,’ says Gina, now 70, of that poignant day in August 2018.

‘You felt the thrill of the power of her with all the noise and the spray. My heart was thumping and I couldn’t stop crying. It was spine-chilling.’ Back then, Gina heaped praise on Bill Smith, the amateur diver and engineer who, in 2001, salvaged Bluebird from Coniston’s murky depths and located her father’s body so he could receive a proper burial.

Gina Campbell (pictured) daughter of Donald Campbell, holding Donald’s teddy bear mascot Whoppit with restoration engineer Bill Smith (pictured). In 2001, she managed to locate her father’s body in the partially sunken Bluebird boat

Thrilled at Mr Smith’s painstaking restoration, she excitedly shared his vision to tour the world with Bluebird to inspire future generations. She declared the majestic vessel was ‘not ready to sit in a crusty old museum’.

How she regrets those words now. Today, one of Britain’s most iconic boats sits unseen in Mr Smith’s Tyneside lock-up, at the centre of a toxic legal battle over her future and a dispute over who owns which parts of her.

Last week, on the 53rd anniversary of her father’s death, Gina called for Bluebird’s immediate return to Coniston to go on permanent display to the public. The Campbell family gifted the hydroplane to Coniston’s Ruskin Museum in 2006. It has spent £800,000 on an extension for it.

Last week trustees threatened Mr Smith with legal action unless he gives her back within 90 days. He is arguing that ownership should be shared because of the new sections he added during restoration and wants a contract reflecting that before he agrees.

He told the Mail his lawyers had advised him he was legally entitled to retain every single piece he’d added to Bluebird, right down to the nuts and bolts. ‘About 50 per cent belongs to them,’ he says, ‘and 50 per cent belongs to me.’

Gina was 17 when her father died as Bluebird crashed then sank at Coniston Water in the Lake District on January 4, 1967 (pictured)

He insisted the last thing he wanted was to dismantle Bluebird and return the original wreckage to the museum, though — given the hostilities — that might yet prove to be the only solution.

Vice-chair of the Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum, Jeff Carroll, told the Mail they disputed Mr Smith’s claims to part-ownership. ‘It’s a bit like taking your car into the garage and the mechanic then saying “I now own half of it” after adding a wing mirror,’ he said.

Gina adds: ‘It’s terribly sad to see this situation overshadowing my father’s wonderful legacy. I fully understand why Bill might find it hard to let Bluebird go. He’s nurtured her like a child for 18 years. He’s done a remarkable job, but I don’t believe he’s playing fair.

Amateur diver and engineer Bill Smith resurrected the ship in 2001

‘The museum trustees very generously agreed to let Mr Smith have Bluebird for three months of the year to show on water, but he’s imposing the most ridiculous conditions. So I have to do the right thing and try to bring Bluebird back to her spiritual home.’

Mr Smith dismisses Gina’s claims as ‘rubbish’, saying the museum has failed to address his concerns about security, access and potential damage to the vessel.

‘I couldn’t be happier for Bluebird to go on display, as agreed, once my concerns have been addressed,’ he says. ‘From the very start it was agreed that the restoration by my Bluebird Project would be as a living, working boat. For 18 years I have put my heart and soul into that.’

Until last year, Gina agreed with his vision for a more dynamic memorial to her father. Now, she explains for the first time why she has changed her view.

Clutching her late father’s lucky bear mascot, Mr Whoppit, Gina recounts vivid childhood memories of swimming at Coniston Water as her father worked on his revolutionary design, taking her for runs up and down the lake.

‘Bluebird looked like this great big blue lobster and back then I was too young to really appreciate her beauty,’ says three-times married Gina, whose Southport home is decorated with so many images of her father and Bluebird it almost resembles a shrine.

‘I had no idea my father was a national hero, so I’m ashamed to say I barely looked up at the roar of the jet engine and just carried on swimming.’

If anything, Gina admits, she almost resented the time, love and attention her dad lavished on Bluebird K7, instead of her. She was his only child from the first of three marriages.

The two-tonne steel rival for her father’s affections often felt like his real baby. Growing up, she was shunted from one boarding school to another while he travelled the world pursuing his dream.

Stripped-down: Restorers at work on the Bluebird. While the family’s hope for securing a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its restoration was rejected, Mr Smith’s unpaid restoration of Bluebird was helped by volunteers and sponsorship

The son of motor racing legend Sir Malcolm Campbell, his ambition was to better his father’s own record-breaking land and water speed attempts. He succeeded, despite one near-fatal car crash which left him suffering crippling panic attacks and depression. Between 1955 and 1967, Campbell broke seven world water speed records in Bluebird; his Boy’s Own heroics capturing the imagination of post-war Britain.

Gina treasures the memories of posing with her father next to Bluebird, for in private he was a remote, unaffectionate, old-fashioned man with little time for her.

It was only after his death that Gina discovered he’d raided her £20,000 trust fund — set up by her grandfather — to finance his headline-grabbing derring-do.

Campbell was famously going for his eighth record when Bluebird’s nose fatally lifted before she flipped, crashed and sank as he tried to smash the 300mph barrier. Gina, for all her father’s failings, was devastated when he was killed aged 46. To this day, she cannot bear to watch the footage of the dramatic moment her father lost control of Bluebird, nor listen to those haunting last words to his radio operator: ‘I have gone.’

Bluebird fires up on Loch Fad in 2018. Gina said: ‘You felt the thrill of the power of her with all the noise and the spray. My heart was thumping and I couldn’t stop crying. It was spine-chilling.’ Her father would have sat in the cockpit gunning for a world water speed record

For 34 years boat and skipper lay in their watery grave until Bill Smith discovered Bluebird’s wreckage after four years of searching and — he says at Gina’s request — resurrected her in 2001.

Mr Smith, 53, further agreed to locate Donald Campbell’s remains so Gina could give him a proper burial. She wept when Mr Smith returned to her the engraved gold St Christopher her father was wearing when he died.

But it’s been a rollercoaster of emotion ever since. ‘After Bluebird was raised we had offers from museums to display the wreckage,’ says Gina, herself a former holder of the women’s world water speed record. ‘But my father had died in this boat and I found the whole idea abhorrent.’

The family decided to gift Bluebird to the Ruskin Museum in the hope of securing a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its restoration. It was rejected, however, and Mr Smith’s unpaid restoration of Bluebird relied on volunteers and sponsorship.

The Campbell family gifted the hydroplane to Coniston’s Ruskin Museum (pictured) in 2006. It has spent £800,000 on an extension for it

Under the original terms of the deed of gift, Mr Smith was permitted to run the boat once on the water at Coniston, before it went on permanent display. He claims the deed of gift was updated in 2013. Mr Carroll told the Mail: ‘Mr Smith drew up a new deed of gift, stating he would give the museum his new parts of Bluebird, if he could have the vessel for three months of the year, but this was not signed by the board.’

In a statement, the museum said its obligations were ‘to preserve, protect and defend one of the most iconic boats in British history for the benefit of the public’.

It added: ‘What Bill Smith and his team of volunteers have achieved is remarkable. Our duty as an accredited museum is to ensure that Bluebird can be shown off to all who want to see her and learn about her exceptional story.’

Gina says: ‘Bill never wanted or asked for any payment or contract of work. It was an understanding based on trust. But the restoration was taking an awfully long time and alarm bells started ringing in 2013 when the family was approached before the 50th anniversary of my father breaking both the land and water speed records in the same year.

‘A museum wanted to put the boat and car together for an exhibition, so I spoke to Bill but it all became a bit heated when, in a nutshell, he said, “It’s not your boat and I shall do what I want”.

‘We didn’t have any further communication for a long time. The next time I saw him was in London on the BBC’s The One Show in 2018 when he suddenly announced the boat was going to be ready to run on Loch Fad that August.

‘It came as a complete surprise to me, so I went up to see the boat and I have to say I was absolutely mesmerised, and decided to give Bill my full support. But my understanding was that she then had to be returned to the owners.’

The museum issued its first legal letter requesting Bluebird’s return in March 2019.

‘Repairs and restoration were still ongoing, so I invited them to come and meet me, talk about it over fish and chips, but they said they were too busy,’ says Mr Smith. ‘They couldn’t even be bothered to see the boat.’

Aware of growing tension between the two sides, Gina stepped in to act as a mediator. ‘We had a big meeting in July, about 25 of us, all the museum trustees, Bill and his cohorts — my family and I really thought we’d agreed on the best of both worlds,’ says Gina. ‘Everyone agreed Bluebird would go on display for nine months at the museum and Bill would have the boat for three months to do what he wanted, within limitations.

‘They started to draw up a contract, but it seemed to me Bill wanted totally impossible, insurmountable conditions placed on Bluebird’s return and presented one hurdle after another.

‘I completely understand his passion for Bluebird and the museum tried to accommodate him, but it’s got to the point where we’ve realised that, irrespective of what we do, he’ll find another reason as to why she can’t come back.’

Mr Smith, who admits he and his team would like to keep working on Bluebird until 2021, insists all the issues he has raised are valid.

Concerned that the floor of the Ruskin Museum’s new wing is not strong enough for Bluebird’s weight, he claims the museum has dismissed his research into risk assessment. He has also voiced worries over potential damage to the vessel from over-enthusiastic, selfie-obsessed visitors.

And he has warned that plans for architectural outdoor artwork in Coniston will block access to the museum for the 22-tonne wagon needed to transport it there.

Gina says: ‘Before Christmas I had a meeting with Bill and asked, “Where do you see this heading, Bill? What do you want to happen? What’s the end game?”

‘He kept going round in circles and I got quite heated with him. We parted on good terms, but I warned, “Bill, if you continue in this way, you won’t have a boat”.’

She adds: ‘That night he sent me a text saying, “It’s good that we can have a spirited conversation and still be mates. We’ll get this cr*p sorted, I’ll see to it.”

‘I wrote back and said, “Bill, that’s fantastic, you are going to give me the best Christmas present I could wish for.”

‘Two days later I texted, “Bill, we just need to jot something down in writing, so you are protected and the museum is protected” and his whole attitude changed again and we were back to square one.

‘In the end I sent him an email, saying, “Bill, I can’t fight your corner any more. I haven’t the energy. I’ve tried all I can. You must do what you must do and so must the museum.” Effectively, what I think he’s been saying all along is, “You lot don’t deserve Bluebird”.’

Last night, Mr Smith claimed Gina had ‘stormed off in a huff’ and agreed ‘they don’t deserve Bluebird, but the public deserves to see her on the water, as was always the agreed intention.

‘I’m very sad that Gina chose the 53rd anniversary of her father’s death, to which she told me I was no longer welcome, to tell the world she’d changed her mind.’

It’s an unseemly codicil to a legend, but where will it end?

‘I don’t own Bluebird. I could just walk away and leave this whole mess to them to sort out,’ says Gina. ‘But I feel so strongly because this was my father’s boat and I saw her being built from conception to manifestation.

‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m determined she will be displayed properly where the whole world can finally see her.’

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