Six Boys Endure 15-Month Isolation on Abandoned Island in 1965

In 1965, a group of six boys found themselves abandoned on the isolated and uninhabited Tongan island of ‘Ata, and, against all expectations, collaborated to endure for 15 months. The Tongan castaways, as they are now referred to, succeeded in producing fire, cultivating a garden, and creating improvised instruments until they were saved by an Australian sea captain in 1966 and returned home. While the Tongan castaways successfully worked together and survived, numerous people have described their tale as a true-life version of William Golding’s 1954 novel *The Lord of the Flies.*