A Story Of Bravery And Pathos

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29956, 18 October 1962, Page 16

A Story Of Bravery And Pathos

Though all the facts are not known yet, the story of the Tongan survivors of the yacht Tuaikaepau as already revealed is one of bravery, endurance, resource, and pathos. The first object of these men, castaways on an inhospitable Pacific reef, was survival while waiting rescue. Food supplies were meagre, and there was no drinking water. They maintained a precarious hold on life by distilling drinking water from the sea. After two months of endurance had shown that prospects of discovery and rescue were slim, the party turned their resourcefulness to building a craft that would reach an inhabited part of Fiji. From a Japanese wreck they obtained materials to build a craft of sorts—part raft and part boat. On this contraption three men, with hardly any food and little water, set out on a voyage to seek help for their shipmates. Nearing their intended destination after nine days on the open sea, they found that wind and

current, till then favourable, prevented their cumbersome craft from passing through the reef. The three men, who had had scarcely any food for eight days, and no water for four, tried to swim the two miles to shore. By a miracle, two reached it; the third, the captain’s son, died only a hundred yards from safety. The sea has stories of every condition and mood; but it is difficult to think of any more pathetic than Tevita Fifita’s farewell in the ocean to his son. The reader of this moving story can but hope that the captain found solace in the thought that he was responsible for the discovery and rescue of the castaways on Minerva reef. New Zealand is happy indeed that one of its flyingboats and crew went to the rescue of the 10 survivors and later carried Tevita Fifita and his surviving companion of the raft-boat voyage to Suva from the Kadavu coast Everyone will wish them a complete and speedy restoration to health.