Shipwrecked Teenage Castaways of ‘Ata Island

Considered by many to be the real-life adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, in June of 1965, six restless friends from Tonga’s St. Andrew’s Anglican boarding school stole a boat, thinking they could sail to New Zealand for “a better life.”

Shipwrecked on ‘Ata Island

A storm their first night at sea derailed their pipe dream, setting them adrift for eight days until they made landfall on the deserted South Pacific Island of ‘Ata. Unlike Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which is the story of boys on a deserted island turning against one another, the six teenagers—aged 13 to 18—made a pact on their first day ashore to live on the island just as they had been raised across their small family islands of Tonga.

At first the island wasn’t kind to the boys, who were cut and bruised on the rocks when they came ashore. After eight days of starvation at sea, they caught sea birds and drank their blood for hydration. Three months into their ordeal, they discovered some old knives on the island, which they used to open coconuts to drink their milk, giving them the strength and encouragement to construct a thriving life on ‘Ata.

Six Months of Survival

After many failed attempts at lighting a fire, they finally found success, which allowed the boys to cook their wild-caught fish and game rather than eating the animals raw. Using knowledge passed down from their fathers, they soon tapped into a variety of trees that stored water in their trunks, which now gave the boys a reliable supply of water.

Next, they made a house out of tree branches and palm fronds, and after six months of survival, the island was beginning to feel like home. At one point, while climbing a cliff face on a hunt for sea birds, one of the boys slipped and fell forty feet, breaking his leg in the process. After his leg healed, the boys built a raft for an attempted getaway, which was summarily destroyed on rocks as they set out for open ocean.

Back at home, the boy’s families held funerals on each of their Tongan islands. After 15 months of posting round-the-clock lookouts for passing ships, the appointed watchman yelled out “boat coming, boat coming,” which turned out to be a small trawler owned by Peter Warner of Sidney Australia, whose crew heard the boys yelling from a clifftop.

Within minutes, the castaways swam to the boat for an odds-off, miraculous rescue. The boys were returned to Tonga, where they were briefly arrested for the theft of a boat, but later released to their relieved and tearful families. For the next three days and night, islanders celebrated the castaways and their rescuers, bringing to a close one of the most amazing chapters in the annals of human survival.