Tonight we have a story of solidarity, hope and ultimately survival in the face of adversity. It took place over 50 years ago, but when it was rediscovered last year, it caused a sensation. It is a story of a group of schoolboys stranded on a remote and deserted island for more than 15 months. It may remind you of the famous novel – Lord of the Flies, by William Golding – but as you will see, the outcome of this real story couldn’t have been more different.
The story begins in 1965. Mano Totau and five of his friends attended a boarding school in Tonga, an island nation in the Pacific. Bored, rebellious and longing for adventure – they stole a traditional whaling boat – and with reckless abandon they left for Fiji.
Holly Williams: Did it have a motorcycle?
Mano Totau: No, no motor.
Holly Williams: But Mano, isn’t Fiji about 800 kilometers from Tonga?
Mano Totau: A little less.
Holly Williams: Did you have a map or a compass?
Mano Totau: No. (LAUGH)
The teens may have been brought up at sea, but they soon found out that they had made a terrible mistake. On the first night, a violent storm tore the sails off the mast and tore the boat’s rudder.
For more than a week their crippled boat drifted aimlessly. 17-year-old Sione Fataua, the oldest of the group, told us they were convinced they were going to die.
Sione Fataua: No food, no water. We were just drifting in the wind. And after eight days we saw the island.
It was a volcanic island jutting out of the sea. As the boat approached, a wave hit him against the rocky shoreline, leaving him in pieces. The exhausted teens struggled ashore.
Mano Totau: All we do is grab each other and say a prayer, “thank you, God.”
The schoolboys later discovered that they had drifted a hundred kilometers from their departure and landed on the island of ‘Ata – nothing more than a desert dot on maps.
It was a story so remarkable that later an Australian television crew returned the teens to ‘Ata to reenact their experience. In the film, Sione, Mano and their friends show how they survived.
“The Castaways” Movie: They were able to save a belt and a piece of wire, and with this they set out to find what they hoped would be their first meal in 8 days.
They show how they ate the fish they caught raw and quenched their thirst by raiding seabirds’ nests – drinking their blood and their raw eggs.
Holly Williams: All Food, Anything to Drink.
Mano Totau: Any Food. As awful as it is and as dirty as it is, it is very nice to have it at that time.
When they regained enough strength, Mano and Sione told us, they climbed to the forested plateau of the island where they found a clay pot, a machete and chickens, all left behind by a small Tongan community living on ‘Ata before leaving their land were torn. house by slave traders a century earlier.
But they told us everything changed when they finally made a fire – and started cooking hot meals.
Holly Williams: How did you keep it from going out?
Sione Fataua: I tell the boys that everyone has a job for the fire. You have to take care of the fire and you have to pray for that evening and get up in the morning, it still goes on.
The runaway teens showed remarkable ingenuity: they built a hut of palm leaves, planted a garden with bananas and beans, and made a grid to watch the passing ships. They even built a badminton court and makeshift gym. They usually lived in harmony, they told us.
Holly Williams: But come on, Mano. You were teenage boys. You must have had arguments.
Mano Totau: We did, and we disagreed.
They cooled off by walking to other sides of the island, Mano says, although things got out of hand at times.
Holly Williams: So if there was a fight, how did you stop it?
Mano Totau: You slap him or something, and say to him, “Shut up and cool off, sit down, listen.”
Holly Williams: There must have been times when you were depressed, when you thought you would never see your family again.
Sione Fataua: It was difficult. And I was … pray God and … and I promise him, “If you could get me back, I’ll serve you for the rest of my life.”
For over 50 years, the true-to-life story of Sione, Mano and their friends outside Tonga was little known … until The Dutch historian and bestselling author Rutger Bregman came across it on the internet. He flew around the world to meet Mano and made the story the cornerstone of his new book Humankind: A Hopeful History.
Rutger Bregman: And I just couldn’t understand how this hadn’t become, you know, one of the most famous stories of the 20th century. I just couldn’t understand because it’s just extraordinary, six kids on an island for 15 months. And they survived, how?
Like millions of others, Bregman had it fictional story of stranded schoolboys, Lord of the Flies, taught in high schools around the world for generations.
The novel – later made into a film – is a nightmarish account of a group of British boys stranded on a desert island. They divide into two competing tribes and descend into violence – culminating in chaos and murder.
Rutger Bregman: This is really an old theory in Western culture, that our civilization is just a thin layer, just a thin layer. And when something bad happens – say there is a natural disaster or you are shipwrecked on an island and you have the freedom to create your own society – that people reveal who they really are. You know, people deep down are just selfish.
Holly Williams: And you say the basic idea underlying the novel, Lord of the Flies, is wrong? Are you saying that would never happen?
Rutger Bregman: Well, if tens of millions of children around the world have to read Lord of the Flies at school today, I think they also deserve to know about this one time in all of world history when real children were shipwrecked on a real island, because that is a completely different story.
A story of cooperation, hope and ultimately salvation. In September 1966 Australian lobster fisherman Peter Warner was sailing near ‘Ata after 15 long months when he saw a burnt spot. As he approached, he was shocked to see a human figure.
Peter Warner: And this first figure swam towards us on the Australian crawl, as I call it. And then five more bodies jumped off the cliff into the water and followed him.
They climbed aboard and told the crew how they had run away from boarding school and were shipwrecked. Peter sent the radio to Nuku’alofa, Tonga’s capital, to read their story.
Peter Warner: And the operator said very tearfully, “It’s true. These guys were students at this college. They’ve been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. And now you’ve found them.” So that was a very emotional moment for all of us.
Holly Williams: So you knew you were going home.
Mano Totau: Yes
Holly Williams: How did that feel?
Mano Totau: Like walking through the door to heaven.
But heaven would have to wait – when they got back to port, they were immediately arrested.
Holly Williams: So Peter Warner saved you and brought you back to Nuku’alofa where everyone thought you were dead. And then you were arrested?
Sione Fataua: Yes. We are being arrested for stealing the boat. (LAUGH)
Peter Warner told us he paid off the owner of the stolen boat – and eventually brought the runaway schoolboys back to their home island, accompanied by the Australian television crew flown in to film their story. They documented the reuniting of the teenagers with their families.
The Castaways Movie: Our Boys Have Returned …
Sione Fataua: My mom, she was swimming before I got off the boat. I am the first to go to the beach and give me a hug.
“The Castaways” movie: never has there been so much joy …
Peter Warner: The entire population of this small island sat on the beach and hugged the boys. Parents were crying. Then the party started. Six days of partying.
The story has never been forgotten in these islands, but when a British newspaper published a chapter from Rutger Bregman’s book last May, the story of the Tongan teens went viral – 7 million people read it within days. Hollywood studios got into a bidding war for movie rights.
Holly Williams: Why were so many people around the world surprised and fascinated by your story?
Rutger Bregman: Maybe we should hear it? Maybe especially now, in the midst of a pandemic? Is that people were looking for a story that gave them hope in a different way of living together, that a different society is possible. That it’s not just violence, selfishness, and greed in human nature, but that we can build on something else. Maybe that’s why.
It has been 55 years since the shipwrecked were rescued. They never questioned how or why they survived.
Sione Fataua: I think the culture where we come from. We’re close. Really close family. We share everything. We are poor, but we love each other.
The teens had no interest in going back to class, initially working for Peter Warner, who set up a fishing company in Tonga. Sione, as promised, later became a minister – he is now the head of the Church of Tonga in America. Mano trained as a chef and moved to Australia. For half a century, he and Peter Warner have been best friends – sailing whenever they can – forever withdrawn to the Pacific, where their friendship began.
Holly Williams: Why do you get along so well all these years after the rescue?
Mano Totau: I think we have a strong sense that we can help each other.
Peter Warner: Yes, and also …
Mano Totau: Teach each other about it.
Peter Warner: And also, we have common beliefs that got you through that ordeal on the island, you know, love, compassion and …
Mano Totau: Yes.
Peter Warner: Justice, unity.
Mano Totau: We both believe in the same thing.
The teenagers composed a song when they saw nothing every day on the island of ‘Ata – Siosionoa. It takes Mano back to a time when they longed for home, and before they could ever imagine their story may have lessons for all of us.
Produced by Michael H. Gavshon. Associate producer, Nadim Roberts. Broadcaster, Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Daniel J. Glucksman.