He got trapped on a deserted island

So this kid is about to get stranded on a desert island with no way home. Now, his name is Mono, and he's around 16 years old. He goes to a strict Catholic boarding school on an island in Tonga called Tongatapu, and this boarding school just sucks.

One day, he and five of his friends decide they're just going to leave. I mean, they're all bored as hell; their boarding school sucks, the cafeteria food is terrible, and they're just dying to get out and go on an adventure. So they get an idea: they want to check out Fiji, which is about 500 miles away from Tongatapu.

There's no way they could possibly make it there, but they're going to give it a shot. They gather up some basic supplies, and they steal a boat from a local fisherman. Now, this local fisherman they steal from, the boys think he's kind of a jerk, but we'll get back to him.

So anyway, Mono and his five friends push out to sea on this stolen boat. They coast away, and they're having a good time. Come nighttime, they're all asleep, and hours later, in the middle of the night—Kaboom!

A huge storm hits, waking them all up. They get up and raise the sail, but the wind is so strong that, bam! The sail is ripped apart, and then pow!

The ship's rudder breaks. Hours later, the storm finally passes, and they're all alive, but they're completely lost, and the worst part is they don't have any food. I mean, they're able to collect a little rainwater to drink, but otherwise, they've got nothing.

So these six boys just drift out at sea with basically nothing to live on for seven days. But then, on the eighth day, something crazy happens: they spot a little island off in the distance. It's not much, but it's something.

I mean, maybe there are people on it who can help. Luckily for the boys, the current of the ocean eventually pushes their boat close enough that they can jump in the water and swim the rest of the way. They all end up swimming to the shore, and that is when they discover they just landed on an island that is completely uninhabited.

Their boat had drifted from the Tongatapu area about 100 miles over to the island of Ata. Now, Ata is about half a mile big, and it doesn't really have much on it, but at this point, Mono and the boys are all starving and dehydrated, so they'll make do. They catch some seabirds, drink their blood, eat some seabird eggs, and try to start a fire, but they can't.

They don't have the tools, and the wood on the island isn't really dry. They keep up this life for a while, eating whatever they can find and doing whatever they can to survive. Luckily, there's enough rainfall on the island to keep them hydrated, but then about a month in, they get an idea.

They put their heads together and build a raft from vines and bits of wood that they're able to gather together. They put that raft in the water because they're going to test it out and get the hell off this island, but then—boom! Sadly, the raft is too flimsy, and it just falls apart in the ocean.

At this point, poor Mono is losing hope. He's like, "Damn! Are we ever going to get home?

" But then, around this time, one day they're out walking around exploring the island, and they suddenly find the remnants of a small settlement. Apparently, a micro-society of people had lived there a hundred years before, and sadly, at some point, they were all abducted by slave ships. But that's a whole other story.

Regardless, the boys find the remains of one of their settlements and discover some loot, including some very old knives. Now, these knives are a huge discovery for them because after months of having nothing, they can finally cut open coconuts. These knives allow them to build shelter and essentially continue to survive.

Then, about three months in, they have another big breakthrough: they finally find a log dry enough, and they're able to create enough friction to get a fire going. Making fire is huge for them. I mean, come on—a fire!

They haven't felt heat at night in months. They've been eating every animal they catch raw, so the first thing they do after building the fire is throw a big feast. They cook up a bunch of fish, birds, and wild beans.

It's like the best meal they've ever had—it's Thanksgiving up in there! Things are looking up, but even so, all the while, poor Mono is still wondering if they’re ever going to get home. About six months in, Mono and his friends are all locked into a survival routine.

They fish, catch wild chickens, build a functional hut, spend their free time sculpting wood statues, writing songs, and exercising in their homemade gym. One of the boys even makes a ukulele out of driftwood, coconuts, and wire—it's incredible! Meanwhile, back on Tongatapu, the boys' families are all distraught.

I mean, they've been missing for a really long time, so the families think they all died and are allegedly in mourning. They're having funerals and trying their best to grieve and move on. About a year in, the boys are still there, trying their best to survive, and poor Mono keeps thinking… They'll probably be stuck on this island forever [Music], until one day, this guy goes fishing.

His name is Peter Warner, and Peter Warner, he's an Australian, and he's the captain of a fishing boat. He and his small fishing crew, they're out one day cruising around the Tongatapu area looking for good spots to fish. On their way home, they just happen to pass by the little island of Ata.

So, Peter is looking at this island through his binoculars, and he notices something weird: there are burn patches on the cliffs in areas that would normally be green. Peter, he knows of Ata, and he knows this island is uninhabited, so what would cause a fire? He keeps looking and he looks closer, and then he sees one of the boys.

The boy, he also sees Peter's boat, and then he gets all excited. He jumps off the cliff into the water and he starts swimming straight toward that boat. Then, Peter sees the other four boys on the shore, and they're all screaming their heads off trying to get his attention.

Peter's like, "What the heck is all this? " I mean, he thinks these kids are all somehow native to this island or something. But then the first boy reaches his boat and he starts speaking to him in English.

He tells him that they've been stranded on that island for over a year. So, Peter invites all the boys on board his boat and he redirects it to shuttle them all back home to Tongatapu. Finally, after being stranded on a deserted island for 15 months, they're all home.

But it's not over. Remember when they first left Tongatapu and they stole a boat from a fisherman they didn't like? Well, this fisherman is not happy to see them.

I mean, they took his boat, and after all this time, he's still salty about it. So, he goes and he presses charges, and bam! All six boys are arrested and thrown in jail.

However, Peter Warner, he's a crafty guy and he knows these boys' story of survival is an incredible story. So, he hits up the manager of a television network in Sydney called Channel 7, and he negotiates with Channel 7. He sells part of the film rights to the boys' story to them so that they can make a documentary about it.

Then, he uses that money to pay off that grumpy fisherman to compensate him for his stolen boat in exchange for the fisherman dropping the charges. Once the charges are dropped, Mono and the boys are finally let out of jail. A few days later, the boys help film a documentary for Channel 7 that Peter Warner had agreed to, where they all go back to the island and recreate some of the events that happened.

That's where I got all these pictures that I use in this video: the boys went back to the island and they just recreated them for the documentary. To this day, Mono and Peter are still friends, so that's nice. And here's a picture of Peter and all the boys together.