 In 1948 , Malley 's war service was recognised by the United States with the award of the Legion of Merit . By 1949 , he had procured a yacht , the Royal Flight , which was used as a setting in the film The Blue Lagoon . The following year , the family bought a coconut plantation on Vanua Balavu , Fiji . In September 1951 , Malley and his wife toured the world , visiting Algiers , Guadaloupe , Curaçao , Martinique , and Tahiti . They subsequently returned to live on their Fijian plantation , and rode out the 1953 Suva earthquake and tidal wave . 
