That Man

And His

Island

Av. Tom Neale, of Rarotonga,

ad in January that you just

Idn’t get away from it all.

From J. P. Shortall, in Auckland •M made the headlines because he happened to be lonehanding it on Suwarrow atoll, Northern ts, since the mother-of-pearl [ diving team was withdrawn November. wording to the world Press on, Tom—no surname was i “because he wished to remain lymous”—was found wandering : naked round “Stravenof id”, 600 miles east of Samoa by licopter pilot from USS Glacier, S. Navy icebreaker which was d for the Antarctic last No )er. e helicopter flew back to the and took aboard Captain D. W. ter, commanding officer of ier, and the ship’s surgeon, to nd check up on the castaway.

An Old Hand

ere is no reason to suppose Mr. Neale told the unexpected irs what appeared in the news rs, because if anyone knows ,rrow’s recent history it is Tom ;, and the newspaper versions hopelessly inaccurate, one account Tom had been on .sland for 21 years and only yachts had dropped in up to irrival of the Glacier visitors, had -first gone to the island ipervise guano mining opera tor the Government, this story fact, Mr. Neale was on Anchor islet, Suwarrow, from October, to June, 1954, and for part of Lime a team of shell divers was stationed there, was again there as Govern overseer with another team over a two-months period >6. was not there again until April r ear when he landed irom the Tahiti. He preceded another r , team on this occasion by days. i divers were withdrawn on nber 6, so he could not have without company for more three weeks at the time of the pter visit. had been considered unwise le diving team to remain on iow-lying atoll through the

hurricane season, but evidently Mr.

Neale obtained permission to re main on his own.

Glad To Have Him The Administration is probably glad to have a reliable person stationed there to discourage shell poaching by stray vessels that may drop in from time to time.

Tom and his cats received a good deal of publicity following a visit in 1956 to the atoll by the American yacht Mandalay, skippered by James Rockefeller, who wrote illustrated articles and included a great deal about Tom in a subsequent book, Man On His Island.

Tom is certainly something of a

sun worshipper. He was caught with more than his pants down when the helicopter dropped in, so the Glacier pilot could be excused for presum ing him to be a castaway from some shipwreck.

He apparently has a good garden with plenty of foodstuff and also poultry and eggs—and all he wants is to be left alone and in peace.

But just to prove that even the most isolated island is not off the track these days, an American yacht was lying in Suwarrow lagoon several years ago, en route from Tahiti to Samoa, when in blew a similar U.S. Navy helicopter from a ship somewhere below the horizon.

Those helicopters certainly get around!