ON Tuesday November 2, 1976, The Fiji Times reported how passengers on a vessel facing trouble at sea worked together to get themselves safely ashore.
It told of how 12 men struggled out in the sea near Taveuni, desperately trying to tow a launch that carried 16 women and a child back to the island.
The Fiji Times’ Taveuni correspondent Vasu Kodaiya described the ordeal to this newspaper relaying the heroic move made by the passengers who spent a few days out at sea.
The 30ft launch had taken 15 men, 16 women and a five-year-old child from Taveuni, 50 miles to Yacata for a Methodist Church meeting.
The correspondent said the launch had broken down on the way home when they were about 15 miles away from their destination.
According to the report, wind and the strong current drove the launch South-West, parallel to the Taveuni coast — and there was unfavourable weather too.
Passengers shared the small amount of food they had with them but they did not have fresh water.
The crew flashed torches towards Taveuni.
As the sea got rougher, three men took planks and spent the whole night keeping the launch’s bow headed into the waves.
At dawn there was another attempt to make a makeshift sail.
This one was more effective and the launch began moving towards the south of Taveuni.
By 9.35am it was about three miles from the coast but progress halted.
Three young men, Joseva Kuli of Qeleni, Manasa Rokuro of Welagi and Matavesi of Vuna volunteered to don life vests and swim ashore for help.
Five minutes after going overboard they were lost from the launch’s sight, the article reported.
At 10am people in the launch saw an Air Pacific Trislander and waved and flashed mirrors at it.
The correspondent said as the launch drifted it became obvious it would move out into the Koro Sea unless something was done.
Taking the anchor rope as a towline, all the remaining men went overboard to try to tow the launch to Taveuni.
At about 12.30pm the men who had volunteered to swim to Taveuni reached the black cliffs at Qaratabu but could not find a landing place.
They began swimming along the coast and two hours later stumbled ashore at Vuna Village.
By then the broken down launch was in the tow of rescue launches.
The Fiji Times reported the men swimming with the towline had been battling strong current for 45 minutes when a launch owned by Byron Fisher came upon them from the East, and another owned by Adrian Tarte spotted them from the West.
The trislander seen earlier had in fact seen and identified the launch and notified the district officer on Taveuni.
