PAUL BARRY: Kiribati is just a speck in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. Miles from anywhere, it's the setting for one of the most heroic tales of survival you'll ever hear. An epic story of a young Australian lost at sea. For 46 days he hung on, fighting sharks, battling starvation and raging storms. Then, near death, a miracle rescue. Six hours flying time from Australia, Kiribati is a string of skinny coral atolls straddling the equator. Its waters are shark infested, its weather wild and unpredictable, the last place you'd want to be adrift in a 12ft tinnie. It was here at Christmas that Ben, his mum and friends came for an island holiday. And it was here around new year that Ben and his uncle and a friend set out for a nearby island 40km away, only to find themselves heading into the teeth of a storm.
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, it was like hell. It was just like you get hit by one side and the other side gets hit. You get salt going over your eyes, stinging them. Your backside was just bouncing up and down.
PAUL BARRY: Wind blowing? Yeah, the wind was shocking.
PAUL BARRY: Several hours afterwards, Ben's mother, his friend Hannah and her mum, Irene, set off in a much bigger and safer boat but soon, they too were at the mercy of the raging winds.
HANNAH MORAN: The boat ride was meant to take about an hour, and it took more like close to four hours. It was incredibly rough, and we all just panicked because we were seriously wondering whether or not the boat was going to turn and when it was going to happen.
PAUL BARRY: Hannah and the women made it safely to land, arriving in port at dusk, but Ben's boat wasn't there. And his mother immediately assumed the worst.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: That's when I started to get very worried, and I felt like numb and I don't know what to do or I can't walk like I couldn't even lift my legs up, and my heart began to get heavy, and I felt like screaming and crying.
PAUL BARRY: Ben and his uncle survived the raging storm, but after that, simply got lost, and out here, in this great big ocean, that's remarkably easy to do. The land's so low that if you're more than 2km offshore you can no longer see it. They had no compass to steer by, they couldn't see the sun because of the clouds, and as they plugged away with their feeble motor, huge waves and howling winds were belting them off course.
HANNAH MORAN: We were getting quite scared because it was getting dark, and we knew that this was a country that might not have the resources to assist us with searching the way we may have been able to in Australia.
PAUL BARRY: Within 24 hours, an air search was under way with friends Hannah and Irene on board, but they had no idea where the boat had been blown to and a vast, vast ocean to search. How hard is it to find someone out there?
IRENE MORAN: It's impossible. It's really impossible. In the plane, you just see a billion drops of water down there, making this big collection, and you realise that you're looking for something that's just 12ft long in the water, and it's silver, so every little wave was, "There, no. There no, oh."
PAUL BARRY: Ben and his uncle had set out with two litres of water and a bunch of bananas but after a week, it was all gone, and with no sign of rescue, they needed food and water desperately to stay alive. The good news was they had a hook and line. The bad news was there was no bait, and the fish they saw were sharks. Scared though they were, the hunger was worse. On day 14, Ben plunged his hands in the sea and grabbed a shark. It provided food for a week. So you grabbed it by the body, by the tail and yanked it into the boat?
BEN TOOKI: Yanked it into the boat.
PAUL BARRY: To catch water, they rigged a tarpaulin, but as the sun beat down, they were forced to drink shark's blood to quench their thirst. What's it like?
BEN TOOKI: Oh. Shark's got a weird taste to it, but you sort of just hold it down there and just breathe through your nose and just... You know, it was just like, "What the hell was that?"
PAUL BARRY: And what about water? How did you collect water?
BEN TOOKI: Sometimes there wouldn't be enough rain, so we licked the boat.
PAUL BARRY: You licked the boat?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah.
PAUL BARRY: To get some water?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, licked the boat to get some water.
HANNAH MORAN: These are men of the sea, and they are so resourceful. And so immensely intelligent when it comes to survival. Had it have been me on the boat, I probably wouldn't have lasted three days. But for them, there really was that hope, "Well, if they are still floating, perhaps they can make it."
PAUL BARRY: At the end of the first week, Hannah and her mum Irene made the long flight back to Australia.
HANNAH MORAN: It was very intense is really the only word I can describe it. It was intense sadness.
PAUL BARRY: Back on the island, Ben's mother spent her life savings, more than $20,000, hiring boats to search for her boy. They searched for weeks.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: I'm always you always hope that Ben is out there, waiting to be rescued.
PAUL BARRY: A month passed without any sign of the men. On board the tinnie, trapped in a confined space with just a few bits of fish to share, tensions boiled over. The young men began arguing when Ben accused his friend of stealing the food. So did you come to blows?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah. It got pretty close. Towards the thing, I just went and grabbed the bag of food, and I said "I'm hanging onto this, we're all going to eat at the same time, drink at the same time. And we're going to grab the knife, and we're going to start splitting the food up properly."
PAUL BARRY: While you're out there, while you're drifting around, waiting to be rescued, does anyone go by?
BEN TOOKI: All up, there was about six ships that I reckon they saw us.
PAUL BARRY: It's the law of the sea that you help those in distress, but the distressing reality for Ben and his mates was that the ships passed them by, one boat even turning directly away from them.
BEN TOOKI: It was coming straight at us, so we're just like, "There's a yacht coming straight at us." And we started to get real excited. So I grabbed the longest stick we had, grabbed my uncle's sarong and tied it onto it. And then we started just sort of like just waving it around. And they must have spotted us, and the next minute, they just started drifting the other way. And so
PAUL BARRY: They went past you?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, they sort of dodged us.
PAUL BARRY: There's no question they saw you?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, they definitely saw us.
PAUL BARRY: After more than six weeks in this tiny tinnie, the three men had it just about got it sorted. They had plenty of water and enough food to last them another couple of months, but then suddenly, another storm came along, and it got worse much, much worse. In the dark, a giant wave crashed over their tinnie, capsizing it. They lost everything, and they were now hanging onto the boat with their legs dangling in the water.
BEN TOOKI: There was a couple sharks that turned up and I had a cut on my foot at the time. As soon as I saw it, I just freaked. That's when I grabbed the petrol and just poured it on me and on me cuts so I knew that the smell of blood and stuff would probably keep them a bit more keen for a feed so I thought I'll just put fade it away with the petrol smell.
PAUL BARRY: Sometime after midnight, after six hours clinging to the side of their boat, they righted the tinnie and climbed in, but it was now full of water and they had nothing to bail with.
BEN TOOKI: After the boat tipped over, it was just like hell. Just wet 24 hours.
PAUL BARRY: And things got worse. His uncle was now deathly ill.
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: I thought maybe I can stay with you for one or two more days, yeah? But if it's more than that, I don't think I can stay stay long, yeah?
PAUL BARRY: So what did you say to them, "Cut me loose, push me off"?
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: No, I just told them be strong and what, yeah. And they don't have to mind about me if ... I maybe if I...
PAUL BARRY: Die.
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: ... maybe if I die, I have to die.
BEN TOOKI: I reckon he wasn't going to make the next day. I told the other guy that I was going to give him two days to help him get the water out of the boat. And after that, after that two days, I was just going to finish myself off if I'm still alive. And I was just slowly just dying too so I got sick of suffering, so I thought that would be ... probably one of the ... probably do myself a favour, and I've tried for nearly seven weeks, so I thought, I've tried.
PAUL BARRY: For 2.5 days, sitting in sea water up to their waist with nothing to eat and nothing to drink, they drifted, near death without hope. They'd been seven weeks at sea, and then suddenly, out of the blue salvation. A fishing trawler appeared on the horizon.
BEN TOOKI: I got up and just saw the boat, sort of looked and said, "Hey, it's a ship." So I just started whirling my shorts around, buck naked, and just kept waving it and waving it and waving it. Then the boat started getting a bit closer.
PAUL BARRY: The boat, trawling for tuna, headed straight to the boat and hoisted the three aboard. It was their 46th day lost, February 17. Ben, his uncle and friend had drifted 250 nautical miles from their destination. The ship's crew fed and clothed them, tended to their injuries and then delivered them to one very happy mother.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: When I saw him, I stared at him for some time, and I said, "Oh, that's my son." I couldn't believe how he had changed.
PAUL BARRY: So he was so thin you didn't recognise him?
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: Oh, yeah, very thin and dark brown with a beard.
PAUL BARRY: He's a very lucky man.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: He's a very lucky man, and I think so I'm a very lucky mother to have my son back.
PAUL BARRY: As soon as she could, Ben's mother rang Hannah and Irene in Australia to tell them the wonderful news. The next day, both women boarded a plane back to Kiribati. Nothing was going to stop them meeting up with Ben.
HANNAH MORAN: It was the most emotional moment of my life. It was like I'd heard that someone had died and someone was born all at once. Thank you. Thank you for not giving up hope.
PAUL BARRY: And how has it changed you?
BEN TOOKI: I know it won't stop me from drinking beer. (Laughs) But I know I'll be going to appreciate life a bit ... a bit more. Especially with mum and just family.
PAUL BARRY: Any advice on going out in boats?
BEN TOOKI: Oh, plenty. Yeah. Plenty. Where do you want me to start?
PAUL BARRY: Take a compass, take some flares.
BEN TOOKI: That's it.
PAUL BARRY: Take some food.
BEN TOOKI: Plenty of food, plenty of drink.
PAUL BARRY: And a hat.
BEN TOOKI: And sunscreen. Yeah. Take everything. A bed. (Laughs)
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, it was like hell. It was just like you get hit by one side and the other side gets hit. You get salt going over your eyes, stinging them. Your backside was just bouncing up and down.
PAUL BARRY: Wind blowing? Yeah, the wind was shocking.
PAUL BARRY: Several hours afterwards, Ben's mother, his friend Hannah and her mum, Irene, set off in a much bigger and safer boat but soon, they too were at the mercy of the raging winds.
HANNAH MORAN: The boat ride was meant to take about an hour, and it took more like close to four hours. It was incredibly rough, and we all just panicked because we were seriously wondering whether or not the boat was going to turn and when it was going to happen.
PAUL BARRY: Hannah and the women made it safely to land, arriving in port at dusk, but Ben's boat wasn't there. And his mother immediately assumed the worst.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: That's when I started to get very worried, and I felt like numb and I don't know what to do or I can't walk like I couldn't even lift my legs up, and my heart began to get heavy, and I felt like screaming and crying.
PAUL BARRY: Ben and his uncle survived the raging storm, but after that, simply got lost, and out here, in this great big ocean, that's remarkably easy to do. The land's so low that if you're more than 2km offshore you can no longer see it. They had no compass to steer by, they couldn't see the sun because of the clouds, and as they plugged away with their feeble motor, huge waves and howling winds were belting them off course.
HANNAH MORAN: We were getting quite scared because it was getting dark, and we knew that this was a country that might not have the resources to assist us with searching the way we may have been able to in Australia.
PAUL BARRY: Within 24 hours, an air search was under way with friends Hannah and Irene on board, but they had no idea where the boat had been blown to and a vast, vast ocean to search. How hard is it to find someone out there?
IRENE MORAN: It's impossible. It's really impossible. In the plane, you just see a billion drops of water down there, making this big collection, and you realise that you're looking for something that's just 12ft long in the water, and it's silver, so every little wave was, "There, no. There no, oh."
PAUL BARRY: Ben and his uncle had set out with two litres of water and a bunch of bananas but after a week, it was all gone, and with no sign of rescue, they needed food and water desperately to stay alive. The good news was they had a hook and line. The bad news was there was no bait, and the fish they saw were sharks. Scared though they were, the hunger was worse. On day 14, Ben plunged his hands in the sea and grabbed a shark. It provided food for a week. So you grabbed it by the body, by the tail and yanked it into the boat?
BEN TOOKI: Yanked it into the boat.
PAUL BARRY: To catch water, they rigged a tarpaulin, but as the sun beat down, they were forced to drink shark's blood to quench their thirst. What's it like?
BEN TOOKI: Oh. Shark's got a weird taste to it, but you sort of just hold it down there and just breathe through your nose and just... You know, it was just like, "What the hell was that?"
PAUL BARRY: And what about water? How did you collect water?
BEN TOOKI: Sometimes there wouldn't be enough rain, so we licked the boat.
PAUL BARRY: You licked the boat?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah.
PAUL BARRY: To get some water?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, licked the boat to get some water.
HANNAH MORAN: These are men of the sea, and they are so resourceful. And so immensely intelligent when it comes to survival. Had it have been me on the boat, I probably wouldn't have lasted three days. But for them, there really was that hope, "Well, if they are still floating, perhaps they can make it."
PAUL BARRY: At the end of the first week, Hannah and her mum Irene made the long flight back to Australia.
HANNAH MORAN: It was very intense is really the only word I can describe it. It was intense sadness.
PAUL BARRY: Back on the island, Ben's mother spent her life savings, more than $20,000, hiring boats to search for her boy. They searched for weeks.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: I'm always you always hope that Ben is out there, waiting to be rescued.
PAUL BARRY: A month passed without any sign of the men. On board the tinnie, trapped in a confined space with just a few bits of fish to share, tensions boiled over. The young men began arguing when Ben accused his friend of stealing the food. So did you come to blows?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah. It got pretty close. Towards the thing, I just went and grabbed the bag of food, and I said "I'm hanging onto this, we're all going to eat at the same time, drink at the same time. And we're going to grab the knife, and we're going to start splitting the food up properly."
PAUL BARRY: While you're out there, while you're drifting around, waiting to be rescued, does anyone go by?
BEN TOOKI: All up, there was about six ships that I reckon they saw us.
PAUL BARRY: It's the law of the sea that you help those in distress, but the distressing reality for Ben and his mates was that the ships passed them by, one boat even turning directly away from them.
BEN TOOKI: It was coming straight at us, so we're just like, "There's a yacht coming straight at us." And we started to get real excited. So I grabbed the longest stick we had, grabbed my uncle's sarong and tied it onto it. And then we started just sort of like just waving it around. And they must have spotted us, and the next minute, they just started drifting the other way. And so
PAUL BARRY: They went past you?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, they sort of dodged us.
PAUL BARRY: There's no question they saw you?
BEN TOOKI: Yeah, they definitely saw us.
PAUL BARRY: After more than six weeks in this tiny tinnie, the three men had it just about got it sorted. They had plenty of water and enough food to last them another couple of months, but then suddenly, another storm came along, and it got worse much, much worse. In the dark, a giant wave crashed over their tinnie, capsizing it. They lost everything, and they were now hanging onto the boat with their legs dangling in the water.
BEN TOOKI: There was a couple sharks that turned up and I had a cut on my foot at the time. As soon as I saw it, I just freaked. That's when I grabbed the petrol and just poured it on me and on me cuts so I knew that the smell of blood and stuff would probably keep them a bit more keen for a feed so I thought I'll just put fade it away with the petrol smell.
PAUL BARRY: Sometime after midnight, after six hours clinging to the side of their boat, they righted the tinnie and climbed in, but it was now full of water and they had nothing to bail with.
BEN TOOKI: After the boat tipped over, it was just like hell. Just wet 24 hours.
PAUL BARRY: And things got worse. His uncle was now deathly ill.
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: I thought maybe I can stay with you for one or two more days, yeah? But if it's more than that, I don't think I can stay stay long, yeah?
PAUL BARRY: So what did you say to them, "Cut me loose, push me off"?
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: No, I just told them be strong and what, yeah. And they don't have to mind about me if ... I maybe if I...
PAUL BARRY: Die.
BEN TOOKI'S UNCLE: ... maybe if I die, I have to die.
BEN TOOKI: I reckon he wasn't going to make the next day. I told the other guy that I was going to give him two days to help him get the water out of the boat. And after that, after that two days, I was just going to finish myself off if I'm still alive. And I was just slowly just dying too so I got sick of suffering, so I thought that would be ... probably one of the ... probably do myself a favour, and I've tried for nearly seven weeks, so I thought, I've tried.
PAUL BARRY: For 2.5 days, sitting in sea water up to their waist with nothing to eat and nothing to drink, they drifted, near death without hope. They'd been seven weeks at sea, and then suddenly, out of the blue salvation. A fishing trawler appeared on the horizon.
BEN TOOKI: I got up and just saw the boat, sort of looked and said, "Hey, it's a ship." So I just started whirling my shorts around, buck naked, and just kept waving it and waving it and waving it. Then the boat started getting a bit closer.
PAUL BARRY: The boat, trawling for tuna, headed straight to the boat and hoisted the three aboard. It was their 46th day lost, February 17. Ben, his uncle and friend had drifted 250 nautical miles from their destination. The ship's crew fed and clothed them, tended to their injuries and then delivered them to one very happy mother.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: When I saw him, I stared at him for some time, and I said, "Oh, that's my son." I couldn't believe how he had changed.
PAUL BARRY: So he was so thin you didn't recognise him?
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: Oh, yeah, very thin and dark brown with a beard.
PAUL BARRY: He's a very lucky man.
BEN TOOKI'S MOTHER: He's a very lucky man, and I think so I'm a very lucky mother to have my son back.
PAUL BARRY: As soon as she could, Ben's mother rang Hannah and Irene in Australia to tell them the wonderful news. The next day, both women boarded a plane back to Kiribati. Nothing was going to stop them meeting up with Ben.
HANNAH MORAN: It was the most emotional moment of my life. It was like I'd heard that someone had died and someone was born all at once. Thank you. Thank you for not giving up hope.
PAUL BARRY: And how has it changed you?
BEN TOOKI: I know it won't stop me from drinking beer. (Laughs) But I know I'll be going to appreciate life a bit ... a bit more. Especially with mum and just family.
PAUL BARRY: Any advice on going out in boats?
BEN TOOKI: Oh, plenty. Yeah. Plenty. Where do you want me to start?
PAUL BARRY: Take a compass, take some flares.
BEN TOOKI: That's it.
PAUL BARRY: Take some food.
BEN TOOKI: Plenty of food, plenty of drink.
PAUL BARRY: And a hat.
BEN TOOKI: And sunscreen. Yeah. Take everything. A bed. (Laughs)