Peter Warner | Captain who saved the six castaways boys in 1966

The real Lord of the Flies Rescue

From the story of the six Tongan boys stranded on a desert island in 1965. You can read it here. http://paradise.docastaway.com/six-to...

In 1966 an Australian fishing boat, the Just David, was looking for new crayfish grounds. They put down some traps without much success off the island of Ata in Tonga. To the crew surprise six naked boys screeming for attention swam straight to the boat and they told the story: This is what the Australian captain Peter Warner from Brisbane wrote in his memories:


"After recovering our empty cray pots, we decided to have a closer look and investigate the burned out patches on this stark “steep to” island. We approached first the eastern face and then rounded the northern corner to investigate the western lee side.

Everywhere thick clouds of screaming seabirds of all types swirled around the cliffs and over our small vessel. From the crows nest, our look out cried “I can hear a human voice yelling”. “Nonsense “ said I “it’s only screaming seabirds,” .

But we spotted a brown body hurtling down a cliff path and diving into the surf. He looked wild and screamed loud bloodcurdling noises. With no clothes at all, and hair grown into a huge black top-heavy “gollywog” bush, the healthy youngster swam towards us using the style of the Australian crawl.

I ordered the crew to load the rifles below and stand by to repel boarders because now a few more brown figures were seen swimming towards us. My first thoughts were, that this place must be some be some sort of prison island for desperate Tongan thugs and outcasts. Exile was a common practice in Polynesia, sometimes in a leaky canoe.

After his Olympic winning swim from the shore, a big pearly white smile from the kid alongside with the exploded hair do, calmed my nerves. We lowered the boarding ladder and the 18-year-old heaved himself aboard, stark naked, and announced in perfect aristocratic English “My name is Steven.

There are 6 of us and we estimate we have been here between one and two years”. Good story thought I but I don’t believe it. By this time the others had boarded and introduced themselves we continued to drift and I continued to think. Even if they were all young jailbirds, we did not wish to scare them. Their explanation continued.

They alleged that 5 of them came from the Haapai group of islands in Tonga, where fish is a staple daily diet, but had all been sent as boarders at St Andrews Anglican high School in Nuku’alofa the capital of Tonga. The food at the school was so horrible, that they had “borrowed’ a long boat one evening and sailed out to catch some fish.

This was the official story that they all stuck to for the time being. Details of this 8 day survival trip were explained to us during the first night they slept on ‘Just David”. But first we had to consider what to do with 6 dripping and very healthy boys in the after cockpit. We figured that if their story was indeed true, they had spent about 18 months on the island. Still suspicious, I wrote down the names of the 6 with spelling help from them. Then I raised Nuku’alofa Radio on short wave and after sorting out a working frequency, asked the shore operator to contact St Andrews college by phone and ask the staff if they had the 6 named boys as students 18 months ago.


The Tongan operator asked me to stand-by whilst he investigated. Meanwhile our cook had prepared our daily meal, which the boys shared with us and immediately vomited up, not being used to European style food for so long. A very emotional and tearful Nuku’alofa Radio operator came back on the air and announced That St Andrew’s College confirmed that 5 of the 6 named boys were students at the school but they all had been given up as dead long ago when, the open boat, missing from its anchorage, never returned.

One father had spent months looking for them on uninhabited islands but finally resigned himself to their disappearance. Funeral services for all 6 boys had been held, but miraculously we had found them alive and very healthy. We all relaxed, unloaded the firearms, and gave some clothes to our new friends. A temporary anchorage was found and we resolved that next day, we would sail to Nuku’alofa.

But first we were to be given a guided tour of the Island tomorrow and tonight listen to the story of the 8 day drift. the board, and many more to come. Explained Peter Warner in his memories... Peter is a good friend of Mano Totau and they both live in Brisbane, Australia. You can find out more of the real Lord of the Flies story here http://paradise.docastaway.com/six-to...

Thanks Cheyenne Morrison for letting us know years ago about this remarkable story!