Given up for dead after 50 days adrift at sea, 3 teens rescued in South Pacific

November 25, 2010

By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Thu, 25 Nov 1:43 PM EST

...WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Three teens who have been missing in the South

Pacific for 50 days — and were already eulogized in a memorial service — have

been found alive by a New Zealand fishing boat.

The boys — two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-old — disappeared while attempting to

row between two islands in the New Zealand territory of Tokelau in early October

and were given up for dead after an extensive search involving New Zealand's air

force.

Their craft had drifted 800 miles (1,300 kilometres) to a desolate part of the

Pacific northeast of Fiji, when the crew of a tuna boat saw them frantically

waving for help on Wednesday afternoon.

" All they could say was 'thank you very much for stopping,' " Tai Fredricsen,

first mate of the San Nikuna, said.

" In a physical sense, they look very physically depleted, but mentally ... very

high, " told New Zealand's National Radio on Thursday.

The boys, Pelesa and Filo Filo, both 15, and Nasau, 14, will be

taken to a hospital in the Fiji capital of Suva on Friday.

The rescue came not a moment too soon: Fredricsen said they had begun to drink

sea water because it hadn't rained in the past few nights.

He said that the boys survived by catching fish and eating a seagull that had

landed on their boat.

Fredricsen said the boys were dehydrated, sunburned and very thin, but otherwise

seemed OK. The tuna boat's crew gave them small portions of fruit and fluids.

He said the boat's crew didn't normally travel through that part of the region,

but was using the isolated sea route to shorten its return to New Zealand.

The boys come from the atoll of Atafu, one of three that comprises the tiny

Tokelau island group where 1,500 people live.

Tanu Filo, the father of one boy, said the news was broken by one of the teens'

grandmother after she had a phone call from the fishing boat.

" It's a miracle, it's a miracle. The whole village, the whole village, there

were so excited and cried and they sang songs and hugging each other, yeah, on

the road. Everybody was yelling and shouting the good news, " he told Radio New

Zealand International.

Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo, picture-perfect South Pacific islets, lie 500

kilometres (300 miles) north of Samoa, surrounded by 128 mostly uninhabited

coconut palm-covered islets. The territory has a total land area of just 4.7

square miles (12.2 square kilometres).

....

Recommended Posts