42 days and 1,500 miles

in a drifting canoe

For the second time this year the people of French Polynesia have had proof that a boat is not necessarily lost if it disappears for a period in the vast, empty surrounding waters. And the Gil bertese people have just learned, with joy, that one of their number has survived 42 days at sea in a canoe which drifted 1,520 miles.

The marathon drifter was Robati Teinamati, 50, married with one daughter, chief councillor of Onotoa Island, Southern Gilberts. He was blown off course while fishing in an 8 ft canoe on April 23, and 42 days later was blown to Tanga Islands off New Ireland, New Guinea. From there he went to Rabaul, where his story was told to Gilbertese students at Chanel College, Kokopo.

He said he survived by catching Bsh, and drinking fish blood. When he first ran out of the water he had brought, he plucked the eyeballs of a sword fish he had caught, “drinking ihem ravenously”, and then “fell asleep, satisfied and grateful for my hck”.

“After a few days in the ocean,” ae said, “I was unable to tell the lays of the week. Nevertheless I vas counting the number of days )n a piece of string. Since the first )f the storm in which I was carried iway, there had not been a drop )f rain. I started fishing again and :aught a medium sized shark. I tabbed it with the knife and luenched my thirst with its blood.

“My main problem was to sleep n the night when it was fine, but if t was not, I had to keep awake to tiake sure everything went well with ny canoe. . . .”

He had some bizarre adventures. )ne evening he nearly capsized /hen a killer shark came up under be boat. Although very weak he it down a line and the shark took 1 and towed the canoe until its death, lobati then drank its blood and ate be flesh. Another time the boat ctually capsized after hitting a large sh and he nearly lost the craft, uckily he hung onto the sail which ad attached itself to the canoe and e was able to save both.

Some time after that an 18 ft 'hale actually leapt over the canoe, fe found it was not playing games ut wanted a small fish near the oaL He gave it some shark meat nd it went away apparently satisfied.

Later: “I watched the moon by ight and observed that I must have

been at sea a month or more. Dur ing one night I observed the light of a ship but very far away. I saw ships passing about four times but once again they were on the edge of the horizon. . . .

“During the night my canoe was hit by a big fish. I noticed the craft was sinking slowly. Luckily I felt the damage with my feet. One plank had moved a little bit from its place.

So I put some of the shark’s flesh between them and pushed them back into place. The sinking stopped.

“A few days later I sighted land.

I hoisted a hopeful sail using my paddle as a mast. Floating closer to land I saw two men fishing. They were a different people from my people. They were black and I thought they were cannibals. But it was a different story. I asked them if they were kristos; they said yes. A Catholic missionary came and I was taken to hospital.”

Robati spent 10 days in hospital on Tanga before being sent to Rabaul, and was expected back home —to a great welcome—in late July.

Earlier this year in French Poly nesia, 17 people who had left Takaroa Atoll on February 21 in two whale boats to sail the short distance to Manihi were found in March to have safely drifted to Apataki Atoll, while aircraft vainly scoured the seas for them.

And on June 22 the Greek passenger liner Ellinis deposited four men on Papeete after they had drifted 10 days in a fishing boat, Rai manatai. They had been picked up 200 miles south of Maiao, from where they had set off to go to Moorea, about 40 miles to the east.

An air search for them had been abandoned on June 21. Governor of French Polynesia, Mr. Pierre Angeli, said the rescue proved that one should not give up hope of finding castaways alive even after 10 days, and in future, searches would con tinue until all hope was lost. The men are Philippe Cowan, Etienne Adams, Lucien Ratinassamy and Etera Teahui.