Table Of Content46 Days Adrift
Barry Donnelly
Published by JoJo Publishing
First published 2013
‘Yarra’s Edge’
2203/80 Lorimer Street
Docklands VIC 3008
Australia
Email: [email protected] or visit www.jojopublishing.com
© Barry Donnelly
All rights reserved. No part of this printed or video publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright
owner.
JoJo Publishing
Editor: Ormé Harris
Designer / typesetter: Chameleon Print Design
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Donnelly, Barry.
Title: 46 Days Adrift: A True Story / Barry Donnelly.
ISBN: 9780987358554 (ePub.)
Subjects: Tooki, Ben. Survival at sea—Kiribati. Immigrants—Australia—
Biography.
Dewey Number: 910.924
C o n t e n t s
Dedication
About The Author Ben Tooki
Foreword
Acknowledgements Map
1: Somewhere off Kiribus 2: The Lost Boy 3: Taoati’s Story 4:The Half-and-
Half-Man 5: Taoati in Tennant Creek 6: Faraway Places 7: The Man from
Armidale 8: The New Culture 9: Taoati’s Flight Home 10: In Kiribas 11:
Homecoming 12: Storm Warning 13: Rub-a-Dub 14: Lost in Space 15: One
More Tomorrow 16: The War with Heaven 17: Bad News Day 18: All in the
Mind 19: Taoati’s Dilemma 20: The Shark 21: Death and Other Stuff 22: The
Wave
23: Wanted, a Miracle 24: The Wave (continued) 25: Second Thoughts 26: The
San Nanumea 27: The Call
28: Re-entry
29: Reunion
30: The Island 31: Neville and the News 32: Land of the Living
D e d i c a t i o n
For Ben, Taoati and Neville
A b o u t t h e A u t h o r
Barry Donnelly’s development as a writer owes much to his extensive career as
an actor and director. Augmenting a wide experience in Australian theatre,
television and films, he worked in London, appearing on the BBC, at the Royal
Court Theatre and at the Edinburgh Festival. He also directed the BBC television
series, Z Cars. He has written for a number of television series including Patrol
Boat and his theatre play Home Brew was also televised.
His novel Boys by the Sea evoking a remarkable portrait of Australian
adolescence was published by William Collins in their Imprint series.
B E N T O O K I
As a young bloke growing up in Armidale, my step-dad told me the story about
“The Little Boy Lost” in the bush around Armidale in the nineteen sixties. A
massive search was carried out, and miraculously, the little boy was found alive.
Little did I know the same thing would one day happen to me. I would be
“lost”, not in the Australian bush, but in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific,
off the island of Kiribati. With my uncle, Koraubara and friend, Taea, we drifted
for forty-six days in a four-metre aluminium “tinnie” , facing the daily threat of
death in the perilous waters.
This is the story of those days at sea, and of friends and family who never
gave up hope that I, like the “little boy lost”, would be found alive.
I’m about to take you on a trip through my life. Sometimes you may feel like
hanging onto the sides, cursing and yelling, or maybe you won’t know whether
to laugh or cry. My advice is to climb aboard, and be willing to take the rough
with the smooth.
—Ben Tooki
F o r e w o r d
In this story of desperate survival, comedy, hope and salvation shine through like
salutary lessons for tomorrow. This is the kind of story to which you react with
laughter or tears.
In writing about Ben’s forty-six days lost in a tinnie in the Pacific Ocean and
life in Kiribati and Australia, I realised I was often dealing with comedy, and
that the survivors were three very amusing humans. Somewhere buried in
comedy, I suspect, lies hope.
Ben’s story is not just about his struggle with the sea, but chronicles a major
cultural clash, as a boy from Kiribati tackles the confusing demands of a new life
in Australia.
What might inevitably be written on Ben Tooki’s epitaph are the words:
“Never give up!”
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s
I am indebted to Neville Yates for his determination that Ben’s story should be
told, and for his continuing steady hand on the tiller, and to Neville’s wife,
Robyn, and to Taoati Tooki, Ben’s mum, who provided invaluable detail with
her remarkable story-telling talent. Thanks to Bruce Dawson, and Sean
McDonald in L. A. who bounced the first ball. My gratitude also is extended to
Karen Donnelly and Bill Robbins for their encouragement and support along the
writing road, and finally, to my wife, Wendy – who kept reminding me I could
do it.
I reserve a special hurrah for Ben and his fellow survivors, who proved that,
if you hang on long enough, help, more often than not, arrives.
Description:Imagine yourself...adrift in a four-metre tinnie in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific Ocean—lost and seemingly forgotten—shark bait!Ben Tooki, his uncle and a friend were caught in a storm off the island of Kiribati and swept out to sea. For forty six days they were adrift with little foo
