Rutger BregmanVerified account

On the left, Peter Warner, almost 90 years old now, on the right, Mano Totau, 70 years old. They've been the best of friends for 50 years. Where they met? On an uninhabited island. /16

Peter Warner is a fascinating man. His life alone is worth a movie - but this thread is already too long, so let's get on with it. In the winter of 1966, Peter was fishing with his crew near the island 'Ata. /18

Through his binoculars, he suddenly saw a boy. Naked. Hair down to his shoulders. This wild creature leaped from the cliffside and plunged into the water. Suddenly more boys followed, screaming at the top of their lungs. /19

Peter ordered his crew to load their guns, mindful of the Polynesian custom of dumping dangerous criminals on remote islands. Then the first boy came: 'My name is Stephen,' he cried, 'There are six of us and we reckon we've been here for fifteen months.' /19

They boys said they were from a boarding school in Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga. But Peter didn't buy it. He used his two-way radio to call to Nuku'alofa. 'I've got six kids here,' he told the operator. 'Can you telephone the school to find out if they're pupils there?' /20

As Peter told me this part of the story, his eyes became watery. 'A very tearful operator came on the radio, and said: "You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it's them, this is a miracle!"' /21

The real Lord of the Flies, Mano told me, began in June 1965. Mano and his friends - Sione, Stephen, Kolo, David and Luke - were pupils at St Andrew's, a strict catholic boarding school in Nuku'alofa. They hated school and were bored witless. /23

So they decided to go on an adventure. They 'borrowed' a boat from Mr Taniela Uhiela, a fisherman they all disliked. They didn't pack many supplies, and even forgot a compass. David was the only one who knew how to steer a boat. /24

That night, the boys made a grave error. They fell asleep. A few hours later they were awoken by a storm. The sail was torn to shreds, the rudder broke. 'We drifted for eight days,' Mano told me. 'Without food. Without water.'

(Photo's by Alvaro Cerezo, a rugged Spanish adventurer who organises shipwreck expeditions for rich fok with unusual needs. He tried 'Ata, but when a historian/journalist asked him about it later, he said: 'Never. The island is far too tough.' http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2016/11/in-remote-waters.html …) /27

The teenagers had a different experience. Captain Peter Warner gave me his memoir, in which he wrote... /28

'By the time we arrived, the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.' /29

In pretty much every way, the Real Lord of the Flies is the opposite of the fictional Lord of the Flies. The kids worked together in teams of two, got a fire started and never let it go out, and stayed friends this whole time.

Sure, sometimes, there were fights, but then one of them would go to one side of the island, the other to the other side, they would cool their temper, and say sorry. 'That's how we stayed friends,' Mano told me.

There were huge celebrations when the boys came back to Nuku'alofa in Tonga. Captain Peter Warner was proclaimed a national hero, and he got permission from the king to trap lobster in Tongan waters.

Now obviously, this is just one story, not a scientific experiment. But if millions of teenagers around the globe still have to read the fictional Lord of the Flies, then let's also tell about the one time real kids were really shipwrecked on an island.