Boys found adrift after 50 days

THREE teenagers missing in the South Pacific for 50 days — who were already eulogised in a memorial service — have been found alive by a New Zealand fishing boat.

The boys — two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-old — disappeared while attempting to row between two islands in the New Zealand territory of Tokelau in early October and were given up for dead after a search involving New Zealand’s air force.

Their craft had drifted 1,300km to a desolate part of the Pacific north-east of Fiji, when the crew of a tuna boat saw them frantically waving for help on Wednesday.

“All they could say was ‘thank you very much for stopping’,” Tai Fredricsen, first mate of the San Nikuna, said.

“In a physical sense, they look very physically depleted, but mentally... very high,” he told New Zealand’s National Radio yesterday.

The boys, Samuel Pelesa and Filo Filo, both 15, and Edward Nasau, 14, will be taken to a hospital in the Fiji capital of Suva tomorrow.

The rescue came not a moment too soon: Fredricsen said they had begun to drink sea water because it hadn’t rained in the past few nights.

He said the boys survived by catching fish and eating a seagull that landed on their boat.

Fredricsen said the boys were dehydrated, sunburned and very thin, but otherwise seemed OK.