[citation needed] In July 1962 the Tuaikaepau was under sail between Tonga and Auckland, carrying a crew and passengers totalling 17.
[1][2] On 7 July 1962[1] the Tuaikaepau, under the command of captain David Fifita,[3] hit the outer edge of the Southern Minerva Reef.
[8] On Monday 16 October, an RNZAF Sunderland flying boat from Laucala Bay, Fiji, flown by Group Captain J.D.
[9] The next day, Tuesday 16 October, the same Sunderland landed in the lagoon and rescued the ten survivors (of whom five were by now bedridden) and one body, departing Minerva at 3:30 p.m. and reaching Suva by dark.
The Tongans were taken to Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital, but the only real health issues were dehydration and, for one, the onset of tuberculosis.