40-Mile Endurance Test By Canoe

/'iNE of the roughest inter-island crossings in the South Pacific is that yj between Upolu, the main island of Western Samoa, and Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa.

The distance from the eastern tip of Upolu to the western tip of Tutuila is about 40 miles. From Apia to Pago Pago is somewhat further.

Passengers, even in the largest ships operating between those two points, frequently have cause to remember the crossing with distaste.

It is not surprising, therefore, that when a Western Samoan man, Peau Siau, paddled into Leone, on Tutuila, on November 1 in a 9 ft paopao (outrigger canoe), he was looked on as an object of consider able curiosity.

Siau had been fishing off Upolu overnight on October 31-November 1, and when day dawned he was able to see the mountains of Tutuila in the eastern sky. On the spur of the moment, he decided to paddle to that island to visit a brother he had not seen for some time.

He paddled thoughout the day on November 1 and reached Se’etaga, near Leone, at 8 a.m. on the 2nd, having battled through waves and swells from nine to 15 ft high. During the night he just kept heading for the lights that were barely visible along the Tutuila coast. People who befriended him helped him to find his brother.

Siau’s feat, a real endurance test, was the first of its kind for about 20 years. The last person to match it was a Western Samoan called Sivanu who paddled from the western end of Tutuila to Siau’s village of Lalomanu •