On the evening of November 26, 1962, the Kava Tonga group went to the royal palace in Nuku’alofa and sang a new song for Her Majesty Queen Sālote.
A few days before Her Majesty had met the survivors of the wreck of the Tuaikaepau, who had survived for three months stranded on a reef in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
On November 26 she gave the words of a new song about the Minerva shipwreck to the musicians Ve’ehala and Malukava who set them to music. It was named after the Tuaikaepau (Slow But Sure.)
That evening she heard the song for the first time. The song begins:
Look in the days of the calendar
Fourth of the seventh, sixty-two
The voyagers pulled up anchor
At the harbour of Nuku’alofa
The compass set the direction
Fishing lines cast at Maka-o-‘Oa
The destination was chartered
Heading straight for Aotearoa
Ah, but the ways of the world
How unknown is our journey . . . .
On Friday radio stations in Tonga played the song again to mark the 58th anniversary of the wreck of the Tuaikaepau on the Minerva Reef on July 7, 1962.
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Listeners in Tonga said the song showed off the Queen’s musical and poetic talent. They said it had great depth and cultural distinction.
In early July 1962 the Tuaikaepau left Tonga on its way to New Zealand.
Launched in 1903, she was a 20 tonne sailing ship captained by David Fifita.
Other crew included carpenter Tevita Uaisēlē, engineer Fine Feuiaki, mate Ve’etūtū Pāhulu, deckhand Sione Lousī and the captain’s two sons, Sāteki Fifita and Talo Fifita, both deckhands.
The ship’s passengers were widower Fatai Efiafi, copra planter Vaiangina Unga, carpenter Viliame Fa’onuku, taxi driver Teiapa’a Bloomfield, boxer/coach Soakai Pulu and boxers Fetaiaki Pulu, Sione Sikimeti, Sipa Fine Sēkona, Finau Laione Sēkona and Saia Peni.
According to Australian author Olaf Ruhen’s book Minerva Reef, they found they did not have the correct chart, but the captain decided they could make it anyway.
The Tuaikaepau stopped briefly at ‘ Ata, south of Tongatapu, before heading for New Zealand.
On July 7 the ship hit the southern Minerva Reef.
The passengers and crew survived by clinging to the hull and when the next day dawned they spotted the hull of a Japanese fishing vessel, the Nishemi Maru.
This proved to be the key to their survival.
By great good fortune they found a dry box of matches in the Japanese ship and were able to build a still to make fresh water.
There was abundant seafood so they were well fed on fish, shellfish and lobsters.
However, by the end of August they decided the only chance of rescue was to build a small boat and head for Fiji. They made an outrigger canoe from the wreck of Tuaikaepau using tools found in the hull of the Japanese boat.
Leaving the other survivors behind, the canoe – carrying the captain and two other survivors – reached Kadavu, the fourth largest of the Fijian islands, after a week at sea. The canoe overturned just as they reached Kadavu and the captain’s son drowned.
Finally, in mid-October an RNZAF Sunderland flying boat from Laucala Bay dropped supplies to them. On October 16 the same Sunderland landed in the lagoon and rescued the 10 survivors and one body.
The Tongans were taken to Suva’s Colonial War Memorial Hospital, where one was found to be suffering from tuberculosis.
Captain Fifita’s surviving son Talo Fifita died in 2013.
Film
Now a Utah-based film maker, Semisi Taumoepeau, has tracked down some of the last survivors, engineer Fine Feuiaki and boxer Sipa Fine Sekona, to make a film about the shipwreck.
According to a report from Tagata Pasifika, Taumoepeau said the film, Slow but Sure: The Story of the Tuaikaepau, would be released when film festivals were re-opened.
He said the film was meant to honour the men aboard the Tuaikaepau and serve as a lasting tribute to their ordeal.
American yacht
The Tongan patrol boat Neiafu is on station at the Minerva reef where an American is expected to arrive tomorrow.
The yacht, Sailing Zatara, has already been denied entry to Tongan waters because of the border closures brought about by the Covid-1p pandemic.
The Minerva reef, known as Teleki Tonga and Teleki Tokelau, is regarded as Tongan territory.
It is understood the yacht sailed from Florida to New Zealand in February.
Tuaikaepau: Kava Tonga I
(This English translation of the song appears on Songs & Poems of Queen Sālote)
Look in the days of the calendar
Fourth of the seventh, sixty-two
The voyagers pulled up anchor
At the harbour of Nuku’alofa
The compass set the direction
Fishing lines cast at Maka-o-’Oa
The destination was chartered
Heading straight for Aotearoa
Ah, but the ways of the world
How unknown is our journey
Minerva Reef, do reveal
Your detaining of the moon’s rays
Deceiving the festive voyagers
Stripping off their flower girdles
While you feigned loyalty
To the sun’s fishing boat
Pillowing her in your arm
Then covering her with the slashing waves
But little does the newcomer know, little the
stranger
The mountain in the Tongan heart
Let the difficulties go
No description will suffice
The suffering, the troubles
Hope strewn with doubt
Three months of watching the horizon
Not a glimpse of a spark
One match maintained
To apprehend the light
The applause echoes to the world
It was a victor unsurpassed
The wind roared, the tempest fell
Like Noah, they built a boat
Using only faith, our treasure
Cross erected, the boat moved against the current
Running aground at the island of Kadavu
My deference to Suva, and oh, dear Vuna Wharf
The S.O.S. of the poor men
Laucala Bay, when will I forget
Your salvaging fleet so heart-rending
Returning the lost
Chorus:
Son of Tonga, so pursue your goal
Head for the shining star
Son of Tonga, hold fast your heart
Fix your mind on the swift prow
Son of Tonga, raise high your Flag
Steer true to the motto of the land
