Around this time, some 60 years ago, the local vessel Kadavulevu was chartered for a trip to Waitoga Village in Nairai. It was a trip organised to take a party of 28, including some children.
The festivities fell on the Easter weekend of 1964. It was a solevu (large gathering) to raise funds for a new church, and the trip brimmed with excitement and revelry.
Kadavulevu was a wooden hulled schooner built in 1920 with the registration number 191605. She was 45 feet in length, 15 feet wide and had only been surveyed three months prior to her ill-fated trip.
She was fit to sail but unbeknown to her passengers and crew who departed Suva on the evening of March 26, it was going to be her final journey to her watery grave.
Her skipper was a qualified and seasoned seaman with 35 years of sailing experience. With that level of know-how everyone seemed to be in good hands.
But on the day of her departure, although the boat was licensed to carry 22 passengers and a crew of seven, she took more than she should have.
This would eventually lead to her untimely drowning, described as one of Fiji’s worst sea disasters.
An enquiry carried out after the mishap found that due to “gross overloading” the Kadavulevu drowned in Lomaiviti waters and took with her 89 lives.
On the day she departed Suva, the vessel had enough life rafts and lifejackets for 29.
Boat departs Suva
On the afternoon of March 26, passengers began to arrive at the wharf to board. There was a feeling of enthusiasm and adventure in the air. Aside from passengers, the cargo also included bales of cloth, mats and tapa, poultry and drums of kerosene.
There was also food and money that had been collected for the village church. The boat left Suva at 10.40pm. Half an hour before, it was given a final inspection.
It carried far more than what it was mandated to carry. The Fiji Times reported that before the boat departed Suva an argument between the owner and the Captain broke out over “overloading the ship”.
Many people were on top of the deck while the boat was yawing from side to side. Some were in the hold while others were in the rigging, on the deck, on top of the cabin and on the hatch.
Despite this, the weather was pleasant for sea passage from Suva to Nairai, where the Kadavulevu anchored off Waitoga on Good Friday, March 27. Everyone got off by boats with their cargo.
The next day, the contingent from Suva pigged out on a huge feast, took part in dancing, drank heaps of grog and had great fun.
Gathering on Nairai
There was an elaborate display of items during the solevu. Items collected formed a mound a few feet high.
“This comprised 250 Nairai thick mats, three tons of yams, four tons of dalo, 800 coconuts, three sacks of tapioca, eight bundles of bananas, six bundles of voivoi, 150 bottles of coconut oil, eight live pigs, and four live chickens,” an account of what happened on the day on fijianlyrics.wordpress.com noted.
“Magiti (feasting), dancing, and drinking went on until midnight and, for some men, throughout the night. On Easter Sunday all but three of the original passengers boarded along…All the goods were stowed along with personal gifts.””
The ship sailed at 3.30pm for Suva. At 7pm, after the boat sailed past the island of Gau, the sea started to get rough and the boat started to toss and roll on tumultuous seas.
There was a debate over whether the boat should seek shelter in Gau. Instead, the decision was made to ignore the weather and continue the trip to Suva.
That decision would prove fatal. Waves were breaking over the stern and water was running across the deck.
Fear and panic developed among passengers who asked the skipper to detour to the nearest island but he reassured them all was going to be alight saying, “Don’t be afraid, this is nothing.”
Boat capsized in Koro
Sea At about 11pm the Kadavulevu capsized within sight of shimmering lights from Viti Levu’s coastline. Tragedy struck. The Fiji Times reported there were 89 deaths.
Only three survived to share their harrowing story to the world. News of the sea disaster reached Suva on Wednesday, April 1, through 43- year-old Seini Wakesa from Burebasaga Village in Rewa.
On the day, it was feared she was the only survivor. According to The Fiji Times, Wakesa was washed up on the shores of Nasoata Island at the mouth of Rewa River after a two and a half day ordeal at sea.
Barely conscious, she only managed to give a sketchy report to maritime officer Ovini Baleinamau from her Wainibokasi Hospital bed. She said high seas on Sunday afternoon got worse until it overturned the ship around midnight.
Some crew and passengers clung to the side of the capsized ship but within minutes an explosion was heard, forcing everyone to abandon the ship.
Seini and three others quickly built a makeshift raft from available materials they could find and used it as floaters. On Monday (March 30) morning, two men and three women held on to the raft but in the afternoon, due to exhaustion and the strong action of the waves, two of them were swept away.
By Wednesday morning, two women were on the raft. One was later swept away by waves as well. Seini swam for her life after the raft hit the reef near Nasilai and broke up into pieces.
Many hours later she was washed up on Nasoata Island where boys from Nakorovou Village were cutting copra. They found her lying on the beach, semi-conscious.
She was taken by punt to the Rewa Provincial Council office at Nabalili, Lomanikoro in Rewa from where she was rushed to the hospital.
As the search for more survivors continued, parts of the Kadavulevu was spotted nine miles Southwest of Beqa by an RNZAF flying boat floating but authorities thought it was a floating house that had been washed down the Rewa River by heavy rains and floods affecting Viti Levu during that weekend.
Some cargo, including mats, blankets and pillows were washed up on the beach near the villages of Taunovo and Lomanikaya on Vatulele, 12 miles south of Viti Levu.
A total of 12 ships and a few smaller boats were involved in the search for the Kadavulevu, its passengers and crew.
Governor of Fiji, Sir Derek Jakeway said in a media report to the nation: “I have heard with the greatest regret of this tragedy and the heavy loss of life which is feared.” “I join with all the peoples of Fiji in extending sympathy to the bereaved.”
Qelo and Nina rescued
On Thursday, April 2, as the people of Fiji waited for more search and rescue news with bated breath, two more survivors were found.
They were 14-year-old Viliame Qelo of Lami and 49-year-old Nina Rareba, of Vatuwaqa, who were rescued clinging to a flimsy raft one and a half miles off Nasoata Island where Seini was found the previous day.
The survivors were picked up by the pilot launch, Seniceva, at about 2.30pm, after being in cold and rough seas for three and a half days, without food and water.
Viliame seemed cheerful when he and Nina got off from the RNZAF patrol boat which carried them from Nukulau Island, from where they were transferred to Suva through the Seniceva.
When asked by The Fiji Times, Qelo managed to string a few words saying “I’m quite well. I was very tired. There were a lot of crying people all around.”
He was in the ship’s hold with his mother when the boat capsized. He later found himself in the water and managed to climb onto a raft full of people, including Nina.
His father, Isikeli Qelo, a carpenter at Government House and his mother lost their lives in the tragedy, forcing Viliame to live with his cousin and her husband who worked as a prison officer at the Suva Prison. Nina, who was too weak to talk, kept moaning while officers carried her around on a stretcher.
Captain Filimone and his son Erami also died during the sea tragedy. While the Kadavulevu story will go down in the annals of Fiji’s maritime history as one of the country’s worst sea disasters, it is also a story of survival.
It is an inspiring tale of how two women and a young boy, in the face of adversity, endured and subdued death. Their story is an astonishing one that depicts the strength and resilience of the human will to stay alive.
This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of the Kadavulevu tragedy. The Sunday Times team is currently in Levuka, Ovalau to cover 74-year-old Viliame Qelo’s family reunion at Levuka Vakaviti to commemorate the 1964 tragedy. More on Qelo’s recollection of the sea disaster six decades ago in next week’s issue.