By Tupou Vaiplulu Jr
Mano Totau (76), one of six Tongan boys who were stranded for 15 months on the uninhabited 'Ata in 1965-66, returned to the island this month for the first time, for the filming of a new documentary about their famous story of survival. Although he did not want to return, Mano told Matangi Tonga he did so because their story is important.
At 76-years, Mano said going back to ‘Ata was not something he wanted to do. “I already know everything I need to about ‘Ata and I'm old so I don’t want to go back,” he told Matangi Tonga on Saturday. “But I did because I know this story is important to a lot of people.”
Mano arrived in Tonga from Australia in early May with a film crew from Munich, Germany, to film a documentary at ‘Ata, where he revisited old memories of surviving on the remote island with his friends.
Along with the documentary, a Hollywood film is being developed by New Regency Productions, an American British entertainment company, after it bought the film rights to their story in 2020. Mano said he did not know why the film had not been released yet, as it should have been out now.
Revisiting memories
In an interview by Matangi Tonga on 24 May, Mano revisited old memories, sharing details about his experience as a one of six teenage castaways on the uninhabited island of ‘Ata, including caring for an injured friends for two months.
A teary-eyed Mano recalled the events of 1965, when he and his friends from Saint Andrews’ Anglican School, in Nuku'alofa, stole a fishing boat and set sail on an adventure from Tongatapu, heading for Fiji.
Their bold plan was about to turn into a fight for survival.
"The boat we stole belonged to a fisherman named Taniela 'Uhila and it was Fatai's idea to take his boat," Mano said. "This also wasn't some secret plan that we came up with out of spite, according to many stories about us — that we left because we were upset with the school, that's not true, we just wanted to see how big Fiji was."
"Some stories stated that we attended a Catholic boarding school, that's wrong, we went to Saint Andrews and it wasn't a boarding school, it's also not Catholic but an Anglican school."
He also believed the youngest boy was only 13 years old at the time. He siad the boys: Sione Fataua (19), Fatai Latu (19), Kolo Fekitoa (18), Luke Veikoso (18), Mano Totau (16), and Tevita Siola'a (13), packed three sacks of bananas, a can of drinking water, and a few other supplies and left their lives behind in Tongatapu to set sail for Fiji.
Storm hits
Mano was in charge of helming the boat the morning that a storm hit. He said that growing up in Ha’apai, he was familiar with helming boats because his uncle owned one. "We used to take my uncle's boat all the time to Tongatapu for school," so that made Mano confident he could navigate their way out of the storm.
He soon found out he was wrong, when a rogue wave suddenly hit the boat, snapping the helm in half and throwing him off the boat along with it. “The others quickly realized what happened and dropped the anchor – they also tied things to the boat including our bananas - dropped it into ocean to slow down the boat,” he said.
Fighting for his life, Mano stayed afloat for hours, before finally making it back on board when the storm died down around 3:00 pm that day. Although they survived the storm, it was only the beginning of their fight to survive.
Drifted for days
With no food or water, a broken helm and a torn sail, Mano and the boys drifted on the ocean for eight days, deeply regretting their decision to leave home and praying to be saved. "The first thing we did after the storm was pray and hoped to be rescued. Looking back, I think that God was watching over us because it was never too sunny, it was always cool and shady during the day."
"Spending eight days drifting in the ocean without water obviously made us very thirsty, we were dehydrated," he said, so the boys decided to experiment on collecting safe drinking water. "We boiled sea water in a pot on a small kereosene stove and collected the steam to drink," he said.
"It wasn't a lot but it kept us alive for a few more days."
Severe burn
But then an accident happened. While trying to collect water, one of the eldest boys, Sione, spilled boiling seawater onto his left leg and burned the skin, from his thigh down to his knee. “Sione couldn’t move his leg anymore” Mano said, “When he tried to, the flesh began tearing and blood oozed out, it was very painful [to watch]”.
"If you ever run into Sione, ask him and he'll show you, the scars on his leg are still very visible."
Arrival on ‘Ata
After drifting in the open ocean for eight days, the boys finally reached land. Mano was the first to swim ashore. As night began to fall, their first instinct was to find food and water. “When we got there, it was already getting dark,” Mano said. “We heard bird cries from a distance, and we knew that’s where we were going to get food.”
Because Sione was still badly injured, they left him resting on the beach while the others searched for food. “We caught sea birds, broke their necks and drank their blood—it didn’t taste good but that’s how thirsty we were.....We also collected their eggs and ate them raw, these were the things we had to do to survive.”
That first night, three of the boys—Fatai, Luke and Tevita—disappeared into the island, leaving behind Mano and Kolo to care for Sione. Despite the unexpected split, the two boys stayed with their injured friend and for two months, they made it their duty to look after him.
“It was a really hard two months,” Mano said. “I had to climb up and down every day looking for food and bringing it down for Sione to eat.
“The climb up to where we later settled down was steep and in Sione’s condition, we just couldn’t take him up until he recovered so we took care of him every day for two months.”
After two months of recovery, Sione was finally strong enough to walk. The three boys made the climb to the top of the island where they reunited with the others. From that point, they began to build a more organized life together.
Maintaining the peace
They built shelters, planted a garden, and kept the birds and chickens they managed to catch. To pass by the time, they played badminton, ventured the island, composed songs and fished.
The boys agreed on strict ground rules to maintain peace. One of their most important rules was to ban any use of violence during disagreements. “If there was ever any disagreement—which we had a lot of—we would take lone walks on the beach until we cool off and then go back.”
“People often wonder how we survived that long without, you know, hurting each other,” he added. “What they don’t know is that it wasn’t always all good times—we’ve had disagreements and fights. But luckily, the older boys [Sione and Fatai] were always there to help to keep the peace.”
Rescued
After more than a year on the island, their rescue finally came—Fatai, who was on look-out duty, spotted a ship approaching the island. It was captained by Peter Warner. Without wasting time, Fatai swam out to the ship to ask for help.
"Fatai was on look-out that day, we heard him screaming but didn't know why. Then we saw him jump into the ocean swim towards a boat and we followed."
Mano said that Peter was at first suspicious when he first saw Fatai and the rest of the boys. "We were dirty, with long hair, and we were naked—Peter thought we were cannibals!" As Fatai tried to explain in English who they were Peter noticed five more boys swimming towards the ship from the island. A radio call to the capital confirmed they were the boys who were thought to be lost at sea.
Thanks to that chance sighting, the rest is history.
Sixty years later, only three of the six castaways are alive, Mano Totau, Sione Fataua and Tevita Siola'a.
Mano, maintained a lifelong friendship with Captain Peter Warner. He also became a sea captain, married and settled in Brisbane, Australia, where he and his wife had seven children. He is now a widower. He said he visits Tonga often with his family.
Mano returned to Australia on Monday.
Pacific Sunrise Fishing in Nuku'alofa provided a vessel for the filming expedition to 'Ata from 16-21 May. 'Ata island is in the far south of Tonga.
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See also:
May 15, 2020 - Kolo Fekitoa, one of six castaways on Ata Island remembered
May 26, 2020 - Ata Island castaways secure Hollywood movie deal
April 29, 2021 - Ata boys pay last respects to late Peter Warner
