On Being Stranded on a Desert Island

And building a boat to escape...

It was 1965 and the six Tonganese teenagers were bored and feeling a little restless. In search of adventure the boys stole a nearby engineless whaling boat and, without charts or compass, set sail for Fiji, some 500 miles away.

It was early the first night at sea when they realized they’d made a terrible mistake, as a violent storm ravaged the boat—ripping away the sail and tearing the rudder from the boat. For more than a week the storm-wrecked boat drifted aimlessly on the tropical wind and current. With no food or water, the boys became convinced they would perish.

It was the eighth day at sea when they spotted a tiny, uninhabited volcanic island (‘Ata). Using planks from their foundering boat, the boys and swam toward the island for the next 36 hours—with everyone eventually struggling ashore.

Using a salvaged oar and some wire they were able to catch fish which they ate raw, and they raided the nests of seabirds for eggs and blood to drink. When they’d regained some strength, the boys trekked to the top of the island where they discovered a clay pot, a machete and some feral chickens—all left behind from a small Tongan community that had resided there a century earlier.

Everything changed, the boys said, when they were able to make fire (from two sticks) and warm meals. Rotating in the role of firekeeper, the teenagers kept the fire burning continously for more than a year.

“I tell the guys, everybody have a duty for the fire,” said castaway, Sione Fataua. “You have to take care of the fire and you have to say prayer for that night, and get up in the morning, it's still going.”

The boys managed to build a hut from palm fronds and to establish garden with bananas and beans. They even built their own badminton court and a makeshift gym.