Fifty-five years ago, in June 1965, six Tongan teenagers ran away from their strict boarding school, procured a boat and set sail for what they thought would be a little adventure. A storm damaged the boat, and they ended up shipwrecked on a remote island for 15 months.
Unlike Lord of the Flies, they survived by working together. An Australian sailor spotted the teenagers and rescued them.
Sione Fataua is one of the six survivors. Photo: Fairfax Media Archives/via Getty Images
A new book that tells their remarkable story has renewed interest in their epic experience.
One of the six survivors, Sione Fataua, told Jessie Mulligan they ran into trouble the first night, when high winds broke the mast and damaged the boat “in the middle of nowhere”.
The decision to abandon ship and swim towards the island had been a tough one, but had been necessary. When on the island they were exhausted and didn't know where they had landed.
“We hoped that a boat would come by with some people looking for us. The only thing we could do was pray and hope somebody would find us. There was no way we could do anything. We didn’t have a compass, we didn’t have anything.”
The Californian resident said fate had saved their lives, as where the boat had dumped them turned out to be the only hospitable part of the island.
“Without food and water for eight days we thought we were going to die,” he said.
“But God gave us that place and saved us, otherwise we would have died in the ocean.
“We got some eggs and seabirds and ate them raw. Anything we could catch.”
Eventually they gained their strength and were then able to climb the heights of the island to explore and seek out other resources, which were to last them through their 15-month stay.
The island had once been populated, but islanders in the 18th century were captured and sent away as slaves to Tonga. They left behind food staples, such as taro and chickens, to the great relief of the boys.
“We were so happy, we were able to eat bananas, eggs, there were chickens everywhere. We were able to eat whatever we wanted. We had a lot of food and we went hunting every day.”
Friendship and faith kept the boys falling into despair and Fataua even made a promise to God that if he was spared he’d work for Him for the rest of his life. He stayed true to the promise.
“There were six of us, we were young boys and we were friends coming from the same school. We prayed every day and night and asked God for help and keep us alive. We had hope one day we’d be back.”
Disputes on the island were settled by talking, with Fataua often acting as mediator and a type of spiritual counsellor.
“That’s how we stayed alive and did not fight. We trusted God.”
One of the boys Stephen fell off a cliff and broke his leg while on the island. He was administered to by the boys, who treated him with traditional Tongan medicine and sea water while he rested.
“After two or three months he was healed, but he had a big scare on his leg.”
The families had held funerals after they disappeared. The reunion with their families was an emotional moment.
“Everybody had a funeral except myself. My dad believed I hadn’t died” he says.
The boys were eventually rescued by Peter Warner, an Australian adventurer who was sailing around Tonga in 1966.
When they returned to Tonga, the boys were jailed after the owner of the boat they had taken pressed charges. Warner helped to secure their release after discovering they had been locked up when, after returning them to Nuku‘alofa, they had not shown up on his boat for a party he was throwing in their honour.
