A journalist in his prime meets many men. He meets the small man, the big man, the blusterer, the bouncer, the humble and the humourist. He meets the dishonest man, the crook, the con man, the honest man and the selfish man.
“He meets the clever man and the not-so-clever man, but once in his life he meets the great man, the giant.
“Such is one Captain Tevita Fifita, Tongan captain of a dozen ships, the giant whose name and the names of his companions in the desperate, almost incredible, saga of South Minerva Reef have echoed around the world.”
Writing in the Fiji Times of October 22, 1962, this was how writer John Carter described Captain Fifita, on whose broad shoulders lay the unenviable task of preserving the lives of 17 men stranded on Minerva Reef, hundreds of miles from the nearest land.
The reef lay 420 miles south-east of Suva.
Getting there was an enormous undertaking.
If there was anyone who could inspire a rescue attempt, it was the captain himself.
However help would not come for three months after the Tuaikaepau hit the reef.
In the meantime they would have to learn to survive making do with whatever resources that were available to them on the reef.
It was obvious to the Tongans that they were in real trouble so they wasted no time in salvaging whatever material they could to help with attempts to alert authorities to their plight.
“At high tide we headed towards the Japanese wreck and tied the bundles of timber pieces of the Tuaikaepau to the wreck (Japanese ship),” recalls the ship engineer Fine Feuiaki in the article titled Heroes of Minerva Reef by Loseli Ma’ukie Hafoka..
“We got to the wreck at about 12:30 p.m and still suffered from the cold. All we had on were shorts and shirts which were wet all night and morning till about 12:30 p.m. We therefore went up quickly to the deck to lie in the hot sun for it was a nice sunny afternoon despite the strong wind.”
“We fell asleep for a while until Tevita woke us up and it was now low tide. He instructed us to return to where we struck the reef and search for any of our Tongan food supply that we had on board and to search for our tool box. There was no sign of the tool box.
“All we found were a few taro and a pair of binoculars. By the time we arrived back at shelter, Tevita Fifita had already drawn up a calendar starting from the day we landed on the reef up to December of 1962. The day Tevita drew up the calendar was Sunday, July 10.”
On exploring their watery prison the men discovered that many ships had also miscalculated the treacherous reef with the evidence all around them in the form of anchors, pig iron and other remains of large ocean going vessels it had claimed.
“One such anchor was enormous and very old with a stand twelve feet or more in length and an obsolete and awkward design,” Olaf Ruhen noted in his book Minerva Reef.
By some incredible stroke of luck the men found a box of matches on the Japanese wreck, which allowed them to build a fire for the still they would build and for cooking purposes.
Food would not be a problem as an initial scouting trip around the reef showed.
“At low tide, I took a few of the crews on a fishing trip. We caught plenty of fish, shellfish and lobsters. Only then did we realize the abundance of seafood on the reef,” recounted Feuiaki.
On that first day, the men caught 70 lobsters.
“On arrival back from our fishing venture, we were so lucky to find a box of matches inside the ship. A fire was started and cooking of our evening meal proceeded.
“The success of our fishing trip, meant that fishing was assigned to be my daily job. I accepted my job with no objection as I did not want to let the Captain down. This job, to me was in my favour due my background. Fishing was a part of my childhood while living in the islands of Ha’apai”.
Critical to the Tongan’s survival on Minerva Reef was the availability of drinkable water and with the tools and resources available on the Japanese hulk, they were able to build a still to convert seawater into freshwater.
To make the still they used a 44 gallon drum they found floating around the reef, an old blanket salvaged from the Japanese wreck and other items.
“The still was a great success, it was installed where the original fire had been,” Ruhen reported.
When matches ran out, the men were forced to keep the fire on the Japanese wreck going on a 24 hourly basis.
“From September onwards, our fire was kept going non-stop and this was due to the fact that we had no matches left,” continued Feuiaki.
“A “roster” was drawn up for everyone to take turn in looking after the fire. We were so lucky that the Japanese left a big boiler in the wreck. It was used for cooking as well as steaming (condensing) the sea water for our drinking water.”
Now the men had fire, water, and an abundance of food, but this did not blind them to the fact that they were trapped in an extremely remote section of the vast Pacific Ocean.
Nonetheless there was a routine to their existence on the reef with the day starting off with a prayer, and throughout the day there would be two meetings, one in the captain’s cabin and the other in the compartment where the others slept. “Soakai used to take his ration of water, put it on a bottle that once held medicine and capped it with a small rubber nipple off some engine part.
“He had pierced the nipple with a hole so small that when he put it to his mouth, he had to suck hard to get the tiniest quantity into his mouth, and from time to time, he would refresh himself this way.”
On 28th July, Finau Laione stole the bottle from him and drank its contents.
Soakai reported the matter to captain Fifita and once again their imposing but fair leader brought them together and called a halt to stealing.
He meted out no punishment but he threatened plenty.
He said those who disobeyed rules would go short on rations both of food and water.
He had plaited a whip by this time from rope ends and he now produced it.
It was an effective looking instrument and he promised to use it.
On July 29 the men saw a column of smoke in the distance from what was a vessel and built a fire trying to attract attention from those on board but this was in vain.
On that night there was some respite from their predicament when a light shower fell on the reef.
“The captain yelled that no one was to go near the canvas they had spread to catch the water that was ship water, and they should all go elsewhere, find some small part of the ship, enlarge some natural catchment on the wreck and help themselves.”
By August the experience on the reef was beginning to take its toll on some of the Tongans as the writer described below. “Fatai’s craziness is now well advanced. He refused to eat with the others, in fact he spent all his time in his own little hide-a-way on the wreck.”
One of the rules Fifita instilled was that if any men needed more to eat, it would have to come from part of their rations, which was fair to everyone.
The men also discovered a bag of rice on the Japanese vessel which Captain Fifita used like flour to make a fish stew called “Kiki”, normal fare in Tonga which reminded the men of their homeland.
However, this meal was only given to the men only when water was plenty and they had worked hard.
“July went by, so did August and still there was no sign of any search by the Government of Tonga. Depressed and confused, Tevita then decided that we had to face reality — the government of Tonga does not have the facilities to send out any search party — and do something to get us back home,” Feuiaki stated.
Captain Fifita ordered that a small boat be built with the idea of sailing to Fiji and seek help.
“Fiji was now our aim for the rescue mission. Originally the crew for this rescue mission was the Captain, the Mate and myself. Any hope of survival would depend very much on us, the crew for the rescue mission,” continued Feuiaki.
The news was received enthusiastically and all the men helped in building the boat that was destined to bring help.
The ship carpenter Tevita Uaisele, was assigned the leader of boat construction with the crude vessel built mainly from timbers obtained from the deck of the Japanese hulk.
“It was during September, we were well on the way in building the boat,” Feuiaki noted.
Excitement turned to horror when one of the men died on the reef which had a major effect on the others,
“It was during this month that we experienced the reality of what would happen to all of us. Fatai Efiafi passed away making him the first one to leave us,” Feuiaki related.
“A traditional burial ceremony in honour of Fatai was carried out on the reef. This was a terrible loss and had a devastating impact on everyone’s morale. Before Fatai died , all of us were still optimistic about getting back home alive.
“This affected everyone and self-doubt started to creep in. Now, most of us wondered whether we would ever get back home.”
Sadly, before rescue, three others, Sione Lousi, Sione Sikimeti, Fetaiaki Pulu would also perish.
Feuiaki said the men built the boat using very crude objects with only one chisel found in the wreck the only real tool.
“The timbers were often too long and to get the desired length, they had to be cut . To do this, timbers had to be burned until desired lengths were obtained,” ‘related the former seaman.
“My major job in building the boat was to patch the boat up with putty found in the wreck. I still think that the putty found in the wreck was a major factor in making the building of the boat possible. A raft however, would have been an alternative if there had been no putty.”
On July 13th Ruhen mentions the discovery of a bible on what remained of the Tuaikaepai, which was an very important moment.
“One of the men discovered at the site of the Tuaikapai what was to become in after days, their greatest treasure, a Tongan Bible.
“It had lost its cover and every page had edges tattered and some were missing altogether. The glue was gone from the binding and most of the threads were broken … and it looked like a loose pack of sodden leaves and no use to anyone,” wrote Ruhen.
“But they treasured it and took it to the Japanese wreck and a few at a time, they dried the pages until they could turn them easily.
“From this time on there were bible readings as well as their loved hymns and addresses from one or others of the senior members of the group.”
Equal rationing of water was vital but ensuring everyone got a fair share was never easy as Ruhen wrote.
“The distribution of water portions was not without its moment of tension. The men watched each measure with a jealous eye and complained bitterly if they thought that one got a fraction more than the others.”
Some could not resist the urge to steal water as the case with Saia Peni who later admitted after rescue that “I could not argue with my throat.”
On another occasion as Ruhen wrote, one of the men tried to bribe another with roasted crayfish just for half a glass of water.
However the captain was unwavering in his distribution of rations and led by example and as Ruhen continued “When they were short on food rations Captain was the one that go without.”
Finally the boat was completed and Tevita Fifita, Uaisele and Sateki Pulu were the three that sailed the “raft”, which they named Maloelelei, to Fiji.
They left Minerva Reef on October 7 and fitted with enough food and water to carry them through, the three sailed for 7 days before passing Kadavu’s reefs.
The men had made it against all odds but death still followed them.
Just after passing the Kadavu reef a huge wave capsized the Maloelelei, which led to the drowning death of the captain’s son, Sateki, sadly just within sight of land.
Captain Fifita later told the Fiji Times he said a prayer with his 22-year-old son in the sea off Kadavu before the young man’s death.
When the puny boat made landfall at Nacomoto on the south-east side of Kadavu, it marked the end of an epic journey of survival at sea, one that covered 350 miles and stretched for 7 days.
Back on Minerva Reef Fetaiaki Pulu died one day before a RNZF Sunderland flying boat from Laucala Bay in Suva dropped supplies to them.
After arriving on Kadavu, Captain Fifita and Uaisele spent the night being nursed by the people of the island before being transported to Suva the next day.
The next day on October 17 Fiji Times carried the headline “Castaways Fly to Suva — Tragic Drama of Lost Ship is Disclosed”.
The men were in good spirits after being rescued from Minerva Reef by a Sunderland flying boat.
“Veeutu was by far the fittest and at the CWM he walked about the ward talking to visitors,” the Fiji Times reported.
The people of Fiji warmed to this amazing story of survival with the CWM packed with well-wishers, although the Tongans were well received by their fellow countrymen who lived in Fiji.
Captain Fifita took on a new hero status and a legend was instantly born.
Most of the men were weakened from malnourishment and lack of water but essentially they were alive.
The Minerva Reef survivors would go on to receive a hero’s welcome on the streets of Nukualofa, marking one of the greatest stories of survival in modern times.
