William Golding’s 1954 book The Lord of the Flies follows a group of young boys who wind up stranded on a remote island. Spoiler alert—things devolve into pure chaos, and the darkest crevices of human nature emerge.

Yet just eleven years after the book’s publication, six teenage boys really did find themselves stranded on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. They were there for fifteen months before being rescued, but unlike the characters in Lord of the Flies, all of them survived the ordeal—and what happened on the island couldn’t have been more different from what Golding dreamed up.

How a Group of Teens Wound Up Stranded on an Island

In 1965, six teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 years old ran away from their Catholic boarding school in the Polynesian island nation of Tonga and went off in search of adventure. They brought along some coconuts, bananas, and a gas burner and were intending to sail to Fiji or New Zealand.

But after losing their way one night, they found themselves drifting for eight days, growing thirstier and thirstier all the while. At last, they spotted an island in the distance and made their way to the shore. The island, a remote locale called ‘Ata, would be their home for over a year.

What Happened to the Tongan Castaways

On their first night, the boys cried and prayed, then went to explore on the following day. Desperately in need of water and food, they promised each other that they would work together to face their challenging odds. 

They went on to set up a kind of miniature society. They began and ended their days with songs and prayers, established a chore roster for kitchen, garden, and guard duties, and gave each other time-outs during arguments. They built houses out of coconut fronds, discovered chickens that had been breeding since the island’s previous inhabitants—indigenous people who were kidnapped into slavery—had gone, and eventually began to cook food on an open fire. They even constructed makeshift instruments and gym equipment.

Of course, the boys also initially attempt to set up a system of control and order in Lord of the Flies, but things fall apart after they devolve into paranoia. Yet this wasn’t the case at all for the Tongan boys. They looked out for each other through intense thirst and homesickness, and even when one boy broke a leg, the others set it using sticks and cared for him as he recovered.

Part of this may have been thanks to the boys’ upbringing. “We all come from close and poor families where, whatever you get, you share,” one of the boys, named Sione ‘Ulufonua Fataua, told People in 2020. “If anybody had something they didn’t like, they talked about it and we say ‘sorry’ and then pray and everything’s okay. If someone got really mad—like, if I planned something and they didn’t do it—you disappear for a few hours, look at the ocean and clear it out of your mind.”

How the Boys Were Rescued

The Tongan castaways were finally found in 1966 when an Australian named Peter Warner sailed by in his fishing boat and noticed some evidence of fire on the island’s coast. Then he was spotted by some of the boys, who quickly ran towards him, long-haired and screaming.

Warner contacted a radio operator who indeed confirmed the boys had been missing and presumed dead. “You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held,” the operator said. “If it’s them, this is a miracle!”

Immediately upon arrival back on Tonga, the boys were arrested for stealing the fishing boat they’d left on. But Warner had managed to sell the rights to the boys’ stories to an Australian TV station, and used the funds to bail them out.

For the Tongan boys, their experience being stranded was a glimpse into the best of human nature, not the worst. “When I think back to our time on the island, I realize we really learned a lot,” castaway Mano Totau wrote of the experience. “And when I compare it to what I gained at school, I think I learned more on the island…I learned how to trust myself. I realize now that it doesn’t matter who you are; it doesn’t matter what color you are, what race, or anything like that. Because if you’re in a real problem, you will eventually see what you need to do to survive.”

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