Marooned by Request
pp. 83-84 · Read in the full issue
Request
By W. H. Percival
IN the early Pacific war years the late Robert Dean Frisbie spent some months on lonely Suwarrow atoll with his brood of youngsters. While they were there, the whole area was battered by a tremendous hurricane.
Out of their adventures came an other Frisbie book, which the author planned to call “Marooned By Request” but which his pub lishers, in their wisdom, called “Island Of Desire.”
Much more recently, another ad venturer was marooned by request on Suwarrow. This is his story: MR. TOM NEALE arrived back at Rarotonga aboard the Rannah in early July after a stay of 21 months on lonely Suwarrow atoll. He had fulfilled a boyhood ambition —one held by thousands of city folk—to “get away from it all” and live in peace on a lonely desert island.
He lived alone with his three cats, except for the brief visit of a party of shell divers, and the in frequent appearance of visiting yachts. Supplies of flour, rice, bully beef, tea and tobacco were obtained when the Mahurangi put in, and he had gone well equipped with poultry so that it was not necessary to live on seabirds’ eggs.
Fish and crayfish were abundant and were caught easily with rod and line, handline or spear. The small reef sharks were not difficult to scare away. Most of the palms on Anchorage island were planted after the 1942 hurricane and it was possible to reach the nuts with a long stick.
Soon after his arrival, Tom started work on a garden, making use of soil taken there by previous settlers. Pigs were running wild over the island and it was neces sary to erect a fence around the plot.
The pigs had destroyed the banana plants and paw paw trees that had previously been grown there, and from his former experi ences of pigs in Tahiti, Tom knew his garden would not be safe, even fenced, until he had killed on the pigs. He made a spear by fitting a French bush knife of good steel into a shaft, then he studied their move ments and laid in wait for them m the lower branches of trees.
He used cut coconuts as bait and at night laid our dried palm fronds to serve as warning of their
approach. . .
The porkers were too cunning to be caught by such an booby trap, for one night he saw them approach, sniff about suspici ously, then carefully step around the “kikau.” Shortly before he left.
there was only one pig left and its fate was not known. The garden flourished and produced kumera, paw-paws, bananas, shallots, to matoes, rock and water melons.
At the time of Tom’s arrival there were a large number of small native rats on anchorage island, but his cats went to work with enthusiasm and when he left no more rats were visible. There was no time to get bored on Suwarrow with the bush to be cleared, the buildings repaired, and the small flat-bottomed dinghy to be kept in good order. The hut had two rooms, four home-made easy chairs and two slat-type beds. Rainwater was caught from the roof in three tanks that held a total of more than a thousand gallons, but in spite of that, there was a drought period when the shell divers were there, and the depth of the tank water dropped to two inches. It became necessary to bathe in the lagoon and rinse down with the minimum amount of fresh water afterwards.
During this time several rain squalls blotted out Motu Tou, an islet six miles away, and Turtle island only three miles away—but no rain fell on Anchorage.
In December, 1952, only a few months after his arrival, Tom ex perienced winds of almost hurricane force. The barometer fell to 29.70, but the roof of the hut was securely held by double wires which passed over it and were secured to three anchors buried in the ground. The palm fronds were being bent double
and snapped off by the force of the wind. As it was dangerous to re main outside, Tom nailed down the shutters and stayed indoors, listen ing to the wind which made “the devil of a noise” through the trees.
On a dinghy trip to Turtle Island it was found that termites had done great damage to the trees. Palms approaching the bearing stage had rotted and fallen over and very few of the others bore nuts. Throughout his stay on Suwarrow, Tom Neale enjoyed good health except for occasional bouts of filarial fever to which he is subject, and on his re turn to Rarotonga he looked fit and well.
Miss Janice Jackson, 21, of Syd ney, left for Honiara in mid-August to work with the Secretariat of the British Solomon Islands Protec torate. She was chosen from among 60 applicants. When she was 17 she went to Tasmania and two years later sailed for England, where she knew nobody; she landed with only £l7. She returned home in December, 1953, but the travel urge made her apply for the job on Guadalcanal. (Note: Things must have changed in perennially short staffed BSIP when any job merits 60 applicants).