Tongan castaways

The Tongan castaways were a group of six Tongan teenage boys who shipwrecked on the uninhabited island of ʻAta in 1965 and lived there for 15 months until their rescue. The boys ran away from their boarding school on the island of Tongatapu, stealing a boat in their escape. After a storm wrecked the boat, they drifted to the abandoned, remote island of ʻAta and managed to keep themselves in good order for the duration under the circumstances. Long thought dead, they were discovered and rescued in September 1966 by Australian lobster fisher Peter Warner.

The six boys, aged between 13 and 19, were Luke Veikoso, "Stephen" Tevita Fatai Latu, Sione Fataua, "David" Tevita Siolaʻa, Kolo Fekitoa, and "Mano" Sione Filipe Totau. In June 1965, the boys ran away from St Andrews Anglican boarding school in Nukuʻalofa on Tongatapu. They had stolen a 7.3-metre (24 ft) boat on short notice and with little preparation. After they anchored for the night (approximately 10 kilometres (5 mi) north of Tongatapu), a storm broke their anchor rope. The boat's sail and rudder were destroyed quickly by the wild winds. Over the next eight days, they drifted for almost 320 km (200 mi) generally southwest, bailing water from their disintegrating boat until they sighted ʻAta; at that point, they abandoned their ship and swam to shore over the next 36 hours, using planks salvaged from the wreck.

Mano was the first to reach land; weak from hunger and dehydration, he could not stand but called out that he had safely reached shore, and the rest followed him. After escaping the sea, the boys dug a cave by hand and hunted seabirds for meat, blood, and eggs.