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Minerva Reef
Minerva Reef is a great true story of men against the sea. It is also a profoundly moving document of human faith and endurance.
On the night of 7 July 1962 the twenty ton cutter Tuaikaepau, sailing from Tonga to Auckland, ran hard upon the outer edge of Minerva Reef, 380 miles south of Suva in Fiji. Heavy seas and the sharp teeth of the coral quickly broke the cutter to pieces, and her complement of seventeen Tongans found themselves without even a small boat on a reef that was totally submerged except during the few hours of low tide each day.
On the night of 7 July 1962 the twenty ton cutter Tuaikaepau, sailing from Tonga to Auckland, ran hard upon the outer edge of Minerva Reef, 380 miles south of Suva in Fiji. Heavy seas and the sharp teeth of the coral quickly broke the cutter to pieces, and her complement of seventeen Tongans found themselves without even a small boat on a reef that was totally submerged except during the few hours of low tide each day.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
First published January 1, 1963
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About the author
Olaf Ruhen
45 books2 followersOlaf Ruhen was the son of Carl Ruhen, a German from Schleswig-Holstein and a Frisian Islander, who became a timber merchant in New Zealand. His wife, Margaret nee Johnson, born in New Zealand, came from a Shetland Island family. Olaf Ruhen was educated at Otago Boys' High School. As a young man, he worked with horse teams, as a shepherd, and as a deep-sea fisherman for six years. This career ended when he wrecked his own boat, the 'Alice'. He had published some articles with the Dunedin Evening Star and from 1938 to 1941 was employed as a journalist with the newspaper. During this period he wrote a number of short stories published by the Sydney Bulletin.
During the Second World War Ruhen joined the RNZAF 1941-1945, serving with the RAF flying Lancasters for the Bomber Command. From 1945 to 1947 he was again employed by the Evening Star. In 1947 he moved to Sydney, where he worked for the Telegraph, the Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald. Ruhen was also writing short stories again for the Bulletin and, more lucratively, the Saturday Evening Post where his highest payment was $2,250 for a story. He resigned in 1956 to become a freelance writer after quarrelling with the Sydney Morning Herald.
Ruhen concentrated on overseas markets, primarily the United States, then Britain and Europe. Despite his reputation for treating writing as a business, Ruhen was a writer of integrity who rejected a Saturday Evening Post offer to serialise his first novel, Naked under Capricorn, because they wished to make changes that he felt would rob the novel of its truth. American serial rights to the novel would have been worth between $9,000 and $13,000. In 1963 he was the first director of the School of Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, and in 1973 of the summer school of creative writing in Papua New Guinea.
Ruhen published several hundred short stories in anthologies and magazines. He contributed to most of the Australian journals with a national circulation and to the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy and other overseas journals. He also wrote film scripts and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ruhen wrote a variety of non-fiction works, based largely on his extensive travels in Australia, New Guinea and the South Pacific. They included two historical works, Minerva Reef (1963) and Bullock Teams : the building of a nation (1980). Ruhen also wrote The Day of the Diprotodon (1976), an information book for children.
Ruhen was a founding committee member of the Australian Society of Authors, and vice-president of Sydney PEN. In 1976 he won the Qantas Short Story Award.
During the Second World War Ruhen joined the RNZAF 1941-1945, serving with the RAF flying Lancasters for the Bomber Command. From 1945 to 1947 he was again employed by the Evening Star. In 1947 he moved to Sydney, where he worked for the Telegraph, the Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald. Ruhen was also writing short stories again for the Bulletin and, more lucratively, the Saturday Evening Post where his highest payment was $2,250 for a story. He resigned in 1956 to become a freelance writer after quarrelling with the Sydney Morning Herald.
Ruhen concentrated on overseas markets, primarily the United States, then Britain and Europe. Despite his reputation for treating writing as a business, Ruhen was a writer of integrity who rejected a Saturday Evening Post offer to serialise his first novel, Naked under Capricorn, because they wished to make changes that he felt would rob the novel of its truth. American serial rights to the novel would have been worth between $9,000 and $13,000. In 1963 he was the first director of the School of Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, and in 1973 of the summer school of creative writing in Papua New Guinea.
Ruhen published several hundred short stories in anthologies and magazines. He contributed to most of the Australian journals with a national circulation and to the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy and other overseas journals. He also wrote film scripts and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ruhen wrote a variety of non-fiction works, based largely on his extensive travels in Australia, New Guinea and the South Pacific. They included two historical works, Minerva Reef (1963) and Bullock Teams : the building of a nation (1980). Ruhen also wrote The Day of the Diprotodon (1976), an information book for children.
Ruhen was a founding committee member of the Australian Society of Authors, and vice-president of Sydney PEN. In 1976 he won the Qantas Short Story Award.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 4, 2021
While this is perhaps not the best written book, its story is at least well recorded. Minerva Reef is the story of a shipwreck - 17 Tongan men stranded on a remote reef which is only exposed at low tide. This occurred in 1962 when the cutter Tuaikaepau, sailing from Tonga to Auckland, ran aground on South Minerva Reef, 380 miles south of Suva in Fiji.
We are told the story from departure from Tonga; the crew and their relationships, backgrounds and friendships; the circumstances of the grounding and destruction of their boat; the discovery of another much larger wrecked boat nearby, which provided them some shelter. Cleverly these men constructed a still to produce drinking water, were able to fish and collect shellfish, octopus and crayfish sufficient to eat (except for the requirement for vitamin C - unfortunately no seaweed in this proximity); amazingly they then undertook to construct a boat from salvaged materials and tools, even developing ways to steam curve timbers.
Three men then set off on a voyage to alert people to their plight, sailing to the nearest island of Fiji and triggering the rescue of their companions, 102 days after initially being wrecked.
A story of the determination and courage of these men, ably led by the captain David Fifita. Not a happy ended for all seventeen men however, but I won't spoil the outcome. A part of Tongan maritime history.
Hard to rate. There was a flat part in the writing toward the middle, where there was excessive repetition and much was made of minor conflicts among the men. The writing was factual, but not particularly good. There was a balance of backstory and history of the Tongan men and the reef. Black and white photographs occupy a section near the rear, and while these are primarily of the rescue, these are again preserved for posterity.
On balance, for me, this sits at 3.5 stars, and due to its historical nature just gets a round up to 4 from me.
We are told the story from departure from Tonga; the crew and their relationships, backgrounds and friendships; the circumstances of the grounding and destruction of their boat; the discovery of another much larger wrecked boat nearby, which provided them some shelter. Cleverly these men constructed a still to produce drinking water, were able to fish and collect shellfish, octopus and crayfish sufficient to eat (except for the requirement for vitamin C - unfortunately no seaweed in this proximity); amazingly they then undertook to construct a boat from salvaged materials and tools, even developing ways to steam curve timbers.
Three men then set off on a voyage to alert people to their plight, sailing to the nearest island of Fiji and triggering the rescue of their companions, 102 days after initially being wrecked.
A story of the determination and courage of these men, ably led by the captain David Fifita. Not a happy ended for all seventeen men however, but I won't spoil the outcome. A part of Tongan maritime history.
Hard to rate. There was a flat part in the writing toward the middle, where there was excessive repetition and much was made of minor conflicts among the men. The writing was factual, but not particularly good. There was a balance of backstory and history of the Tongan men and the reef. Black and white photographs occupy a section near the rear, and while these are primarily of the rescue, these are again preserved for posterity.
On balance, for me, this sits at 3.5 stars, and due to its historical nature just gets a round up to 4 from me.
November 23, 2010
I read this book since Vai Sikahema, the former BYU and NFL player-turned-sportscaster in Philadelphia recommended it. It's the true story of how his grandfather and 16 other Tongan men, ranging from 17 years old up to forty-something, got shipwrecked on a remote Pacific coral reef (out of the shipping routes) on which they survived for more than 100 days.
After a few weeks on it the men began building their own 18-foot boat, with virtually no tools, from wood and scraps salvaged off theirs and another ship wrecked on the reef. While fish, octopus, shark and shellfish were plentiful since it was a reef, there was no fresh produce, causing several of them very serious illness. All the men lost huge amounts of weight, with the captain's being the most (112 pounds) since he often would forego food and water in his commitment to serve his men.
The boat, when it was finished, had to take only three of them over really dangerous seas to a populated island where they could then send help to their fellow castaways. The captain kept saying that one of the three had to survive, so that the others back on the reef could be saved. His amazing dedication as a leader was impressively inspiring, and though malnourishment, fatigue and every other form of deprivation afflicted him as much as all the rest, he was the only one who did not succumb to stealing water from the rest, due to his determination to be an example.
Not all survived, but the majority did. The story was a fascinating foray into what happens when stress, as only nature can dole it out, exceeds man's ability to cope.
This book is out of print, by the way, but can be found in some libraries and used bookstores. My copy came from England.
After a few weeks on it the men began building their own 18-foot boat, with virtually no tools, from wood and scraps salvaged off theirs and another ship wrecked on the reef. While fish, octopus, shark and shellfish were plentiful since it was a reef, there was no fresh produce, causing several of them very serious illness. All the men lost huge amounts of weight, with the captain's being the most (112 pounds) since he often would forego food and water in his commitment to serve his men.
The boat, when it was finished, had to take only three of them over really dangerous seas to a populated island where they could then send help to their fellow castaways. The captain kept saying that one of the three had to survive, so that the others back on the reef could be saved. His amazing dedication as a leader was impressively inspiring, and though malnourishment, fatigue and every other form of deprivation afflicted him as much as all the rest, he was the only one who did not succumb to stealing water from the rest, due to his determination to be an example.
Not all survived, but the majority did. The story was a fascinating foray into what happens when stress, as only nature can dole it out, exceeds man's ability to cope.
This book is out of print, by the way, but can be found in some libraries and used bookstores. My copy came from England.
April 5, 2012
This was an interesting story that unfortunately was poorly written and was hard at times to follow. It is a story of 17 Tongan men who get ship-wrecked on Minerva Reef in 1962. The reef is completely submerged under water for all but a few hours a day. They find a Japanese trawler that had previously been shipwrecked and this becomes their home for 102 days on the reef. When they finally realize they are not going to be rescued, they build a small boat using pieces from the trawler and 3 of them sail more than 400 miles to Fiji and arrange a rescue for those left on the reef. There are several inspiring men in the book but there are others who steal water and food and rely on others to help them survive. I would love to see this re-written - it could be so inspiring but instead gets bogged down in details that detract from the story.
March 24, 2012
I first read this book back in 1993 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a tale not only of survival, but of courage in the face of overwhelming difficulties. When I first read it, I thought: 'how could anyone survive in such conditions?' I had read the book as I was due to sail from NZ to Tonga, via Minerva Reef. After spending a week on the reef,in the luxury of a well-appointed catamaran with all 'mod-cons', my wonder is no less today than it was when I first read the book. The sheer mental ability required to simply live from day to day is amazing.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews