Posted on 07/14/2004 8:55:02 AM PDT by presidio9
Three Australian children survived for six days after their dinghy capsized off the country's north coast, swimming in shark-infested waters between tiny islands in search of food and water.
The children, aged 15, 12 and 10, were urged by their mother and father to swim to a distant rocky outcrop, as their parents desperately clung to their three-year-old son and the overturned boat off Australia's Cape York Peninsula on July 6.
"It was the last time we saw them," Stephen Nona, 12, told the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday. The three children were rescued on Monday.
With no water on the outcrop, the children had to brave the sea to reach another island.
"We have to swim or we'll die," Stephen told his sisters Ellis, 15, and Noritta, 10, as they stood on the barren outcrop.
"We swam all day. We started in the morning and we got to the big island in the afternoon. I found a coconut and skinned (the husk) with my teeth," Stephen was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The Torres Strait Islander family had set out from their home on Badu Island in the Torres Strait to travel 40 miles to Thursday Island to attend a birthday party -- a routine journey for people who live on scattered islands between Australia's tropical north and Papua New Guinea.
But after 15 miles the dinghy's motor broke down. The children's father Naseli, an experienced seaman, repaired it but the anchor rope became entangled in the motor and the boat capsized.
In the choppy waters, Naseli and his wife Dosena supported their three-year-old son, Clarence, who was wearing a lifejacket, and yelled at their other children to try and swim to the safety of a rocky outcrop about a half-mile away.
As the children swam through the wind-swept sea they kept looking back, seeing their parents and little brother drifting off into the distance, with only one life jacket between them.
Stephen, Ellis and Noritta eventually made it to the island where, wet and frightened, they huddled together and scanned the sea for their parents. "We prayed to God to bring them, but they did not come," said Stephen.
OYSTERS AND COCONUTS
The children stayed on the rocky outcrop for three days without fresh water. They drank small amounts of seawater and ate the few oysters they could break open with stones. Last Friday, Stephen decided they must swim to another island to survive.
"When they got tired, I swam behind, pushing them along," he said. "The tide was slow. The wind blew waves against the tide, into our faces."
After swimming all day they reached Matu Island, an atoll about the size of a football field with one coconut tree. The children had swum a total of about 2 1/2 miles through open sea from where their boat had capsized.
For the next three days and nights the children survived on five coconuts, eating coconut flesh and drinking coconut milk, and a few oysters, until they were rescued.
Torres Strait Islanders are a seafaring people and boat journeys between islands can often take days as weather and sea conditions change. The alarm was not raised for a week when the family had not returned to Badu Island.
On Monday, the children's uncle, knowing the tides and currents, located the castaways within a few hours.
"They were very good swimmers, but we are glad they had Stephen with them because the two sisters would probably have given up or panicked," said their aunt, Wendy Phineasa.
"We teach all our children survival skills on the islands. It's like teaching city kids to cross the road," Phineasa told Reuters by telephone from Badu Island on Wednesday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Wednesday it had called off the search for the children's parents, but relatives and friends refused to give up hope and said they would continue searching in eight small boats.
"Some of them are really sad but the majority are feeling there's still hope they're out there somewhere," said Phineasa.
"There are many small islands and the men are landing on them and going by foot, yelling their names, looking for signs of survivors," she said.
Sad ping! To bad about the parents and three year old. Am guessing from the story they had no radio or survival kit.
Semper Fi
Sad, yet also a uplifting story of the human spirit.
I presume the three children had life preservers.
Wow. Totally amazing story. I felt like I was there just reading it.
What a choice. Having to swim miles through the sea, leaving behind your parents.
I still don't get why the parents couldn't also swim toward the rocky atoll along with the kids.
Yep, a sad story, but the kids who lived were brave & resourceful, and look how well the oldest boy took charge & kept his little family together. He will be a good man in a couple years--he's already got a heck of a good start!
The father was an experienced seaman and major idiot. A life jacket for each person aboard isn't rocket science. My heart goes out to the orphaned kids and the missing 3 year old boy. Thank God they all didn't perish.
Poor kids. Glad they made it.
What a story. I felt like I was watching a movie, reading this.
We teach all our children survival skills on the islands.
Too bad those skills don't include life preservers. I wouldn't dream of putting my family on a boat without at least one for each passenger.(But then, my Dad was in the Navy and a total safety zealot.)
"Poor folk have poor ways."
The parents had a 3-yr-old and evidently couldn't swim with the child, I would assume. Either that, or Dad didn't want to leave the boat,thinking he could save it...Who knows?
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