{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Peter Warner | birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|02|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|04|13|1931|02|22|df=y}} | death_place = Ballina, New South Wales, Australia | known_for = Discovering six Tongan youths that had been presumed dead }} {{Short description|Australian fisherman and yachtsman (1931–2021)}} '''Peter Raymond Warner''' (22 February 1931<ref name="auto">{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Warner |title=Astor: Adventures ashore and afloat|url=https://www.amazon.com.au/ASTOR-adventures-ashore-afloat-Warner-ebook/dp/B07KCZP32F|date=2018|isbn=978-1-9866-2450-3}}</ref> – 13 April 2021) was an Australian seafarer and ship's captain who discovered six Tongan youths marooned on a Pacific island in 1966, more than a year after they had been presumed dead. He also won the line honours three times in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.<ref name="ANNM-Astor">{{Cite web|title=Astor|url=https://www.sea.museum/2014/10/31/sydney-to-hobart-yacht-race-70-years/astor|publisher=Australian National Maritime Museum|access-date=13 May 2020|date=31 October 2014|website=sea.museum}}</ref>
== Early life == Peter Warner was the youngest son of businessman and politician Sir Arthur Warner (1899–1966), who was head of Electronic Industries, and Ethel Wakefield.<ref name="timesobit">{{cite news |title=Peter Warner obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/peter-warner-obituary-m2zhz8599 |access-date=16 April 2021 |work=The Times |date=16 April 2021}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated1 /> He had one brother.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Costar |first1=B.J. |title=Warner, Sir Arthur George (1899–1966) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/warner-sir-arthur-george-11967|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=MUB|date=2002 |access-date=13 April 2021}}</ref>
== Sailing career == Warner ran away from home at the age of 17, wanting to sail boats, and not wanting to be a part of his wealthy father's large business.<ref name=autogenerated3>{{Cite news|date=19 June 1974|title=THE DROPOUT WHO WENT TO SEA|pages=7|work=Australian Women's Weekly (1933–1982)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46242390|access-date=13 May 2020}}</ref> Upon his return a year later, his father made him finish school, and enroll in law at the University of Melbourne.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> However after six weeks of studying law, he ran away to sea again and did not return for three years.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> During that time, he served in both the Swedish and Norwegian navies.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> After learning Swedish, he sat for the exams to obtain a Swedish master's ticket.<ref name=autogenerated3 />
Upon returning to Australia, Warner finally joined his father's business, staying for five years and studying accountancy.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> While working for his father, as a side business, Warner acquired a small fleet of fishing boats based in Tasmania.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> From time to time, he would take a break from business and work aboard boats in the fleet.<ref name=autogenerated3 />
Skippering his yacht, ''Astor'', Warner won line honours in 1961, 1963, and 1964 in the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race,<ref name="ANNM-Astor"/> and came second in 1962 by 1 minute.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sydney Hobart result 1962 |url=https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/Standings?categoryId=144&raceId=32&seriesId=2 |website=Rolex Sydney Hobart |publisher=Cruising Yacht Club of Australia |accessdate=10 September 2020}}</ref> The boat was named after the Warner family's household appliance company, Astor Radio Corporation.<ref name=ANNM-Astor/>
=== Boys marooned on the island of 'Ata === {{See also|Tongan castaways}} On 11 September 1966, Warner was sailing his Australian fishing boat ''Just David'' past the Tongan island of {{okina}}Ata. He noticed patches of burned grass on the island's cliff sides, which he thought unusual, and approached to investigate. Warner was greeted by the six boys, who had been keeping a lookout for more than a year.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite news|last=Bregman|first=Rutger|date=9 May 2020|title=The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months|access-date=13 May 2020|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Although they had lit signal fires each time a ship passed, four had failed to sight the boys. Once aboard Warner's boat, they told him that they were students at a boarding school in Nuku{{okina}}alofa, the Tongan capital. They had decided to steal a fishing boat one day, only to get caught in a storm.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> The boys had fallen asleep after dropping anchor north of the island of Tongatapu, when a squall broke their anchor rope and they drifted out into wild seas and gale-force winds.<ref name=Lavin-66>{{Cite magazine |last=Lavin |first=Dorothy |date=October 1966 |volume=37 |number=10 |magazine=Pacific Islands Monthly |pages=101–103 |title=Tongan Robinson Crusoes Gaoled After 15 Months On Lonely Isle |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-370541289/view?partId=nla.obj-370594017#page/n101/mode/2up |language=en|access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> Their trip to the island lasted eight days, and they needed to constantly bail water from the 24 ft boat.<ref name=Lavin-66/> Fortunately, when at anchor they had caught some fish, and by eating it raw were kept sustained during the journey.<ref name=Lavin-66/> The boat was beginning to break up when they sighted ʻAta, the southernmost island in the Tongan group.<ref name=Lavin-66/>
One of the boys, Sione Filipe Totau, went ashore first to scout the island. The others joined him, but it was nighttime and they were weak from hunger and thirst. That night the boys went hunting, drinking the blood of sea birds and draining their eggs.<ref name=autogenerated4>{{Cite news|last=Lyons|first=Kate|date=13 May 2020|title=The 'real Lord of the Flies': a survivor's story of shipwreck and salvation|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-mano-totau-survivor-story-shipwreck-tonga-boys-ata-island-peter-warner|access-date=16 May 2020|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Once established on the island, they climbed to the top of a volcanic crater where they found wild taro, bananas and chickens descended from those cultivated when the island had been inhabited a century earlier.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> By the time Warner arrived, the boys had set up a commune with a food garden, hollowed-out trees to store rainwater, a gymnasium, badminton court, chicken enclosures, and a permanent fire.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bregman|first=Rutger|date=9 May 2020|title=The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months|access-date=16 May 2020|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
Upon their return, the boys were greeted by their friends and relatives, who had presumed them dead and held their funerals.<ref name=autogenerated4 /> However, they were arrested for stealing the boat, as its owner, Mr. Taniela Uhila, wanted to press charges.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{Cite web|title=Six Boys Survived Being Shipwrecked For 15 Months After 'Borrowing' Boat|url=https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/six-boys-survived-being-shipwrecked-for-15-months-after-borrowing-boat/|website=www.unilad.co.uk|language=en|access-date=13 May 2020}}</ref> Warner helped the boys get out of jail by paying Uhila for the boat. He also secured the documentary rights to the story, with the boys acting as themselves in the film.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Real 'Lord of the Flies' story had a happier ending for castaway boys|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/6929891/real-lord-of-the-flies/|website=Global News|language=en|access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> He later had a new ship built and hired the boys as crew.<ref name=autogenerated2 />
Author Rutger Bregman has contrasted the incident with ''Lord of the Flies'', the 1954 novel by William Golding.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
=== Second saved crew === In 1974 Warner was undertaking sea trials of his refurbished fishing boat ''Ata''. On reaching Middleton Reef in the Tasman Sea he discovered four sailors, a Welsh captain and crew, a New Zealand nurse, an Australian teacher and an Australian student, from the sailing boat ''Sospan Fach'' who had been shipwrecked.<ref> [https://www.smh.com.au/national/missing-yacht-still-afloat-says-father-20130704-2pd6w.html?js-chunk-not-found-refresh=true Missing yacht still afloat, says father] ''Sydney Morning Herald'', Michael Field and Sarah Harvey, July 4, 2013 </ref> The crewman who sighted the distress flashes from a mirror was Sione Filipe Totau, the lead boy from Ata Island – now a deckhand on Warner's ship.<ref name=autogenerated3 />
== Later years == In 1968, Warner moved with his family to Tonga and lived there for the next three decades. In 1990, he became a member of the Baháʼí Faith and, in 1996, he helped found the Ocean of Light International School in Tonga, a Baháʼí school.<ref name="auto"/> In the 1990s, Warner’s career turned from fishing and shipping to horticulture, tree management, and the farming of nuts. Several years after returning to Australia in 1998,<ref name="auto"/> Warner founded Tree Carers Pty Ltd, a business dedicated to nut farming.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Peter Warner|url=https://www.treecarers.com.au/team-member/peter-warner/|website=Tree Carers Pty Ltd|access-date=}}</ref> ==Autobiographies== In 2019, Warner published a book about his life as a fishing boat captain and ocean racing sailor.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Peter Warner to launch book of sailing tales in Ballina|url=https://www.echo.net.au/2019/05/peter-warner-launch-book-sailing-tales-ballina-may-9/|last=Bibby|first=Paul|date=8 May 2019|website=Echo Net Daily|access-date=}}</ref> He published three volumes of his autobiography:
*''[https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Astor-Adventures-Ashore-and-Afloat--Peter-Warner_p_371.html Astor: Adventures Ashore & Afloat]'' (2020), on his upbringing and taking to sea and his yachting successes up to 1965.<ref name="NS1">{{cite news |last1=Doyle |first1=Michael |title=A life on the sea penned in autobiography |url=https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/a-life-on-the-sea-penned-in-autobiography/3803650/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=Northern Star |date=13 August 2019}}</ref> *''[https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Ocean-of-Light-30-Years-in-Tonga-and-the-Pacific--Peter-Warner_p_367.html Ocean of Light: 30 years in Tonga and the Pacific]'' (2020), on his time from finding the Tongan boys in 1966, establishing a fishing fleet and then a small shipping line based in Tonga, until his intended retirement to Australia in the mid-1990s.<ref name="NS1"/> *''[https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Twilight-of-the-Dawn--Peter-W-Warner_p_394.html Twilight of the Dawn]'' (2020), on his attempts to retire—always frustrated by his entrepreneurial spirit and a wish to solve problems—with his search for meaning in an age of excess information and poor wisdom.<ref name="NS1"/> ==Death== On 13 April 2021, Warner drowned when his boat capsized attempting to cross the Ballina Bar at the mouth of the Richmond River.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.9news.com.au/national/peter-warner-dies-when-yacht-capsized-ballina-nsw/11f491fa-703f-47dc-938b-3375b416c352|title=Celebrated sailor Peter Warner killed in yacht capsize on NSW coast|first=Freya|last=Noble|work=Nine News|date=13 April 2021|access-date=13 April 2021}}</ref> He was 90 years old at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/experienced-seafarer-peter-warner-dies-after-boat-capsized-on-mid-north-coast-20210413-p57iyp.html?ref=rss|title=Experienced seafarer Peter Warner dies after boat capsized on Mid-North Coast|date=13 April 2021|publisher=Brisbane Times|last=Chung|first=Laura|website=brisbanetimes.com.au}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{YouTube |id=tT1C4BSRzak|title=Peter Warner: Captain who saved the six castaways boys in 1966}}. ''Testimony of Peter Warner''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Peter}} Category:1931 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Accidental deaths in New South Wales Category:Australian Baháʼís Category:Australian expatriates in Norway Category:Australian expatriates in Sweden Category:Australian expatriates in Tonga Category:Australian farmers Category:Australian fishermen Category:Australian sailors Category:Boating accident deaths Category:Royal Norwegian Navy personnel Category:Swedish Navy personnel