Tom Neale

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the American actor and boxer of a similar name, see Tom Neal (1914–1972).

Thomas Francis Neale (born November 6, 1902 in Wellington , New Zealand , † November 27, 1977 ) was a New Zealand hermit and survivor. He spent most of his life in the Cook Islands and a total of 16 years alone on the island of Anchorage in the Suwarrow Atoll . The stay there was the basis for his popular autobiography An Island to Oneself (meaning: an island for oneself).

Life

Early life

Thomas Francis Neale was born in the New Zealand capital Wellington. His family moved to Greymouth on the South Island when he was a baby. When they were seven they moved to Timaru . His parents were Frank Frederick Neale and Emma Sarah Neale (née Chapman). He joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a young man but was too old to apply as a seaman at 18 and instead enrolled as an engineering candidate . For the next four years he traveled across the Pacific on Navy ships . He then bought himself out of the Navy to discover the islands himself. Neale spent the next six years moving from island to island. During this time he took on smaller jobs to make a living.

After returning to Timaru in 1928, Neale returned to the Pacific and settled on the French Polynesian Moorea , where he lived until 1943. He practiced various jobs there and enjoyed his life. He was offered work as a shop guard while the owners were away. In this capacity he was also an advisor to the local community. He met with the author Robert Dean Frisbie in Rarotonga and through his stories he became aware of the Suwarrow Atoll, where Frisbie had briefly lived. In 1945 Neale had the opportunity to visit Suwarrow briefly when a ship brought stones to the island for the construction of a surveillance post. He decided for himself that he wanted to live on this island.

First stay on Suwarrow

In October 1952 he was able to book a crossing on a ship that passed close to Suwarrow. The island has been uninhabited since the end of the Second World War . The ship dropped him off at Anchorage with his two cats and supplies. On the island there was a hut, water tanks, as well as some books and a badly damaged boat, the remnants of the surveillance post on the island. There were also wild boars and wild chickens on the island, although the wild boars made plantings impossible as they regularly destroyed them. He then set up a high seat over the hut and hunted the pigs. He also rebuilt the garden, tamed the chickens, and repaired the boat. He ate fish, chickens, eggs, coconuts and breadfruits .

After ten months, a couple visited the island with their yacht , as the authorities had asked them to inquire about his well-being. The couple stayed a few days and suggested that Neale repair the jetty, which had fallen into disrepair since World War II. It took six months of work to repair the bridge. One day after its completion, it was destroyed by a severe storm.

In May 1954, he injured his back when he threw an anchor from his boat. He managed to return to his hut on the other side of the atoll and lay there semi-conscious for the next few days. Another couple reached the island with their yacht without knowing of its existence and found him in pain, but were able to nurse him back to health. They notified the Cook Islands government, which sent a ship to take him from the atoll. According to biographers AH Helm and WH Percival, Neale returned to Rarotonga in July 1954. The problems with his back began a few months after his return to Suwarrow in 1956. Although Neale believed he had a problem with the disc, it was osteoarthritis .

Second stay

Neale wanted to return to Suwarrow as soon as his back healed, but the government refused to take responsibility for that. He married Sarah Haua (born 1924) on June 15, 1956. They had two children, Arthur and Stella.

Between March and April 1960 he was able to return to the atoll, this time with carefully selected and more expensive equipment. During this stay, he received a visit from the helicopter on board a US warship , which stayed on the island for half an hour and then returned to his ship. The British author Noel Barber learned of Neal's stay on the island from a report by the United States Navy and paid him a visit. 14 months later he received another visit, this time from an old friend from Rarotonga, who wanted to investigate the rumor that Neale had passed away. Many months later, a couple visited the island with their daughter. Their boat was driven onto a reef during the night, so that they lived together on the island for several months before they could give a distress signal to a passenger ship with mirrors.

In January 1964 he voluntarily returned to Rarotonga after three and a half years. His decision was based in part on the fact that pearl divers had visited him frequently on his island, which he found unbearable.

His autobiography An Island to Oneself reflects his life on the island during his second stay. It was written with the help of Barber, who also wrote the introduction to the book. The book sold so well that he could use the proceeds to get more supplies for another stay.

Third stay and death

In his absence, other people visited or lived on the island. In 1964, June von Donop, a former Honolulu employee, lived in the island cabin for a few weeks while his crew stayed nearby on the boat. Michael Swift was alone on Suwarrow between 1965 and 1966, but was not familiar with the necessary survival techniques and therefore found it difficult to find food. Many of the island's visitors left messages for Neale.

Neale returned to the atoll in June 1967. He was visited on the island in November 1970 by the German sailor Rollo Gebhard , who describes this encounter in his book A Man and His Boat . Neale stayed there until 1977 when a yacht found him with stomach cancer on the island and brought him back to Rarotonga. Despite treatment by the Czech cancer specialist Milan Brych, he died eight months later. His grave is in the RSA cemetery in Rarotonga, across from the airport .

His birth and death dates are indicated on his tombstone as November 2, 1902 and November 29, 1977. On his death certificate, November 30, 1977 is noted as the date of death. His daughter gives the corresponding dates as November 6, 1902 and November 27, 1977.

literature

• Tom Neale: An Island to Oneself . Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge 1990, ISBN 0-918024-76-5 (English, 255 pages, first edition: Collins, 1966).
• AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 (English, 192 pages).

Individual evidence

1. ^ AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 92 (English).
2. ^ AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 94-95 (English).
3. ^ AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 95-96 (English).
4. ^ AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 96 (English).
5. ↑ ^{a b} A.S. Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 99 (English).
6. ^ AS Helm, WH Percival: Sisters in the Sun: The Story of Suwarrow and Palmerston Atolls . Robert Hale Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3971-3 , pp. 63, 100, 105 (English).
7. ↑ Rollo Gebhard : A man and his boat: 4 years alone around the world . Pabel-Moewig Verlag , Rastatt 1983, ISBN 3-8118-3171-2 (256 pages).