This month in 1966, an extraordinary rescue: a group of students who had gotten stranded on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean and managed to live there successfully for over a year.
The story starts in 1965, with six teens at a boarding school on the Pacific island country of Tonga.
Someone got the idea that it would be fun if they, um, “borrowed” a whaling boat and took it to Fiji.
It’s important to note that Fiji is quite a ways away from Tonga.
The boat they’d taken wasn’t motorized, they didn’t have a map or a compass, and, while they were on the ocean, a storm blew through and wrecked the sails and the rudder.
They drifted for eight days before landing on a small island known as ‘Ata, where they had to figure out a way to gather food and supplies and work together to stay alive until they could be rescued.
Now if you’re my age or a little older, this may remind you of the William Golding novel Lord of the Flies.
But unlike in the novel, these teens did not turn on each other as the rules and social conventions of civilization were stripped away.
They actually worked pretty well together!
At first they just ate whatever they could find; they would raid seabird nests for eggs, for example.
But, in time, they salvaged pieces of their ship so that they could catch fish.
Later, they built a hut, started a garden for beans and bananas, and set up schedules so they could take turns to tend to their fire pit and to watch for passing ships.
They did argue sometimes, but instead of giving in to violence, the arguing parties would walk to opposite sides of the island to cool off.
And, in time, all of this hard work paid off, when a lobster boat spotted the teens and radioed their story back to Tonga.
They had been gone fifteen months! Their families thought they’d all been lost at sea.
They all sailed back to Tonga, where the teens were met by their very relieved families, a TV crew that filmed a documentary about their unbelievable story, and the authorities, who briefly arrested them for stealing the whaling boat.
At least until they ended up compensating the boat’s owner.
Starting this Saturday on Easdale Island in Scotland, it’s the World Stone Skimming Championships!
Participants get three throws; their stones have to hit the water at least three times, and after that whoever’s stone travels the farthest wins.
A real life Lord of the Flies: The 50-year-old story of a group of teens stranded on an island (CBS News)
The World Stone Skimming Championships
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Photo by Andrew via Flickr/Creative Commons
