How six teenagers survived 15 months shipwrecked on uninhabited island and miraculously escaped

A group of six teenagers ended up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and not only managed to survive for more than a year, but even escaped their horrendous ordeal.

In June 1965, a group of boys aged between 13 and 19 ran away from their boarding school in Tongatapu, an island in Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean, after stealing a traditional whaling boat.

They had set sail for Fiji, less than 500 miles away from Tonga. However, disaster struck when they anchored for the night some five miles away from home and a storm broke their anchor rope.

Stormy weather cast their boat further afloat for eight agonizing days until they washed up on the deserted volcanic 'Ata island.

Sione Filipe Totau, better known as Mano, later recalled the incident in a VICE podcast.

The boys even made their own musical instruments (John Carnemolla)

Mano said the boys arrived on the island late at night and he volunteered to leave the boat to see what was there.

"I jumped off the boat and swam through the waves. When I got to the shore, I saw the whole island was twisting around," he explained.

"But it wasn’t the island; it was me. Everything was spinning after eight days without food or water. Finally, after catching my breath, I called out to the boys, 'Hey, hey, I’m here!'"

Mano said he managed to get his first drink of water after eight days after coming across a piece of wood that was soaking wet.

And rather than let the dire situation get to them, Mano said the boys 'felt so alive'.

"We’d stepped on dry land, and that gave us far more hope than when we were drifting out at sea," he added.

They were able to survive by fishing and raiding the nests of seabirds, drinking their blood and eating raw eggs, though it took some trial and error to master their hunting techniques and build a fire, which took them around three months.

After recovering some strength, the group were also able to climb onto the island's main plateau, which changed their situation.

They kept themselves occupied while stranded for over a year (John Carnemolla)

Here, they found an old clay pot, a machete and some chickens which had been left behind by a small Tongan community before they were kidnapped and trafficked into slavery.

Yet, rather than slipping into a dystopian Lord of the Flies-type nightmare, the teens worked together to survive.

They built a sheltered hut out of coconut fronds, a small gym and even instruments and carvings to keep themselves occupied, as well as a lookout spot for passing ships.

Mano added: "[W]e started organising everything in a roster: how to keep the fire, how to say our prayers, along with taking care of the banana palms. We all worked together as though we’d live on the island for a long time."

After 15 months of being stranded, they were miraculously rescued by an Australian adventurer by the name of Peter Warner.

Sydney-based photographer, John Carnemolla, then went back to the island with the boys to see how they'd been surviving.

Their story of cooperation and survival was then retold by the Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, who wrote a book placing this real world example of survival against the fictional story of Lord of the Flies, arguing that it shows human nature is cooperative than self-interested.