28 survive ordeal at sea
AN article published by The Fiji Times on November 2, 1976, outlined the events of a launch lost at sea with 28 people from Taveuni onboard.
It said 12 men struggled in the sea near Taveuni, desperately trying to tow a launch carrying 16 women and a child back to the island.
A few miles away, three of their companions exhausted themselves as they battled currents in a bid to reach Taveuni to get help for the broken down launch.
Details of the drama were reported by The Fiji Times’ Taveuni correspondent Vasu Kodaiya.
The 30 feet launch had taken 15 men, 16 women and a five-year-old child from Taveuni, 50 miles to Yacata for a Methodist church meeting.
It broke down on the way home at 8.50am on the Thursday when Taveuni was still 15 miles distant.
Wind and current drove the launch to the south-west parallel to the Taveuni coast.
The weather worsened at 6pm.
The survivors shared the small amount of food they had with them, but had no fresh water.
The crew flashed torches towards Taveuni.
As the sea got rougher, three men took planks and spent the whole night keeping the launch bow headed into the waves.
At dawn on Friday, there was another attempt to make a makeshift sail.
This one was more effective and the launch began moving towards the south of Taveuni.
By 9.35am, it was about three miles from the coast, but progress halted.
Three young men Joseva Kuli, of Qeleni, Manasa Rokuro of Welagi, and Matavesi of Vuna volunteered to don life vests and swam ashore for help.
Five minutes after going overboard they were lost from the launch’s site.
At 10am people in the launch saw an Air Pacific Trislander and waved and flashed their mirror at it.
As the launch drifted it became obvious it would move out into the Koro Sea unless something was done.
Taking the anchor rope as a towline, all the remaining men went overboard to try to tow the launch to Taveuni.
At about 12.30pm the men who had volunteered to swim to Taveuni reached the black cliffs Qaratabu, but could not find a landing place.
They began swimming along the coast and two hours later stumble ashore at Vuna Village.
By then the broken down launch was in the tow of rescue launches.
The men swimming with the towline had been battling the seas for 45 minutes when a launch, owned by Byron Fisher, came on them from the east, and another owned by Adrian Tarte, spotted them from the West.
The Trislander seen earlier had in fact seen and identified the launch and notified the district officer.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Write to us at letters@fijitimes.com.fj
to share your views on this topic
The survivors shared the small amount of food they had with them but had no fresh water. The crew flashed torches towards Taveuni. As the sea got rougher, three men took planks and spent the whole night keeping the launch bow headed into the waves
– The Fiji Times