The Journal of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery

TIGHAR TRACKS

THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR HISTORIC AIRCRAFT RECOVERY

1999 © TIGHAR 1999 Volume 15 Contents Problems and Progress ...... 3

Niku IIIIP: Expedition Report ...... 5 The Fiji Bone Search ...... 12 Context: The Phoenix Islands Set- tlement Scheme ...... 17

Mrs. O’Brian ...... 19 … that they might escape the teeth of time and The Carpenter’s Daughter ...... 25 the hands of mistaken zeal. Where Were the Bones? ...... 38 – Jo h n Au b r e y St o n e h e n g e Ma n u s c r i p t s Gallagher’s Clues ...... 42 1660 The TIGHAR Hypothesis ...... 51 FAQs ...... 60 TIGHAR Tracks: The First Fifteen Years ...... 63 Appendix: Interviews with Emily Sikuli ...... 65 About TIGHAR On the Cover TIGHAR (pronounced “tiger”) is the acronym for The In- This is Temou Samuela, the carpenter on Nikumaroro in ternational Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a non- 1940. He built the box that held the bones and, according to profit foundation dedicated to promoting responsible his daughter, knew about the wrecked airplane on the reef. See aviation archeology and historic preservation. TIGHAR’s “The Carpenter’s Daughter, page 25. activities include: • Compiling and verifying reports of rare and historic aircraft surviving in remote areas. • Conducting investigations and recovery expeditions Visit us on the Web in co-operation with museums and collections worldwide. • Serving as a voice for integrity, responsiblity, and professionalism in the field of aviation historic preservation. http://www.tighar.org TIGHAR maintains no collection of its own, nor does it engage in the restoration or buying and selling of artifacts. The foundation devotes its resources to the saving of endangered historic aircraft wherever they may be found, and to the education of the international public in Board of Directors the need to preserve the relics of the history of flight. TIGHAR Tracks, published four times each year, is the official publication of The International Group for Historic Richard Cobb Aircraft Recovery. A subscription to TIGHAR Tracks is Richard B. Gifford included as part of membership in the foundation (mini- mum donation $45.00 per year). The editors welcome Richard E. Gillespie contributions of written material and artwork. Materials Thomas F. King, Ph.D. should be addressed to: Editors, TIGHAR Tracks, 2812 Fawkes Drive, Wilmington, DE 19808 USA; telephone Peter Paul Luce (302) 994-4410, fax (302) 994-7945; Email TIGHAR@ Richard J. Reynolds AOL.com. Photographs and artwork will be returned on request. John Sawyer, Chairman Patricia R. Thrasher H. Donald Widdoes

TIGHAR Tracks p. 2

Problems and Progress

The last year of the 20th century was an intense and difficult, but ultimately very pro- One Big TIGHAR Tracks ductive year for TIGHAR. The constraints of time and the lack of a sponsor for production costs prevented us from publishing TIGHAR Tracks on schedule, Two Expeditions and for that we are truly sorry. This single large For the first time we ran two simultaneous issue covers the entire year. We’re hoping to expeditions to the Pacific: a reconnaissance for return to a more regular publication schedule the Niku IIII expedition which we called Niku in 2000, and we’re still looking for a sponsor. IIIIP (for Preliminary), and a search in Fiji for the bones brought there in 1941, creatively termed The Fiji Bone Search. Although Niku Membership IIIIP found no new Earhart-related artifacts on Although many new members joined Nikumaroro and the Fiji Bone Search failed to TIGHAR during 1999, primarily through the turn up the bones, the summer’s field work TIGHAR website and Earhart Forum, an al- did succeed in uncovering an abundance of most equal number of members who are not new and unexpected information which may on line decided not to renew their member- prove to be the key to finding conclusive phys- ship, doubtless because of our failure to stay ical evidence. This issue of TIGHAR Tracks tells in touch with them. We recognize the problem the story of what we learned. and intend to correct it. The ease, speed and economy of communication afforded by the internet and email does not absolve us of Video Delayed our responsibility to serve that portion of Our biggest disappointment this year was our membership which does not yet have, the loss of most the videotape that was shot or perhaps does not want, that capability. during the summer’s expedition to Nikuma- Members who dropped out during 1999 are roro. En route back to the U.S. from Fiji some receiving this issue of TIGHAR Tracks, and we of the baggage was left behind by the airline to hope that, if you let your membership lapse, lighten the aircraft for takeoff due to unfavor- you will consider rejoining. You can even have able runway conditions. When the baggage your old membership number back. finally caught up with us a week later, the videotapes were missing. We’ve made every effort to recover them but to no avail. We’ll still make the promised video of Nikumaroro—we have lots of other footage to work from—but production will be delayed somewhat. We appreciate your patience. (cont.)

Volume 15 p. 3 Voyage of Discovery The 8th Edition TIGHAR’s multi-disciplinary educational TIGHAR’s Earhart investigation status program built around the Earhart Project is report, officially entitled “The Earhart Proj- still in search of funding. Grant proposals ect, An Historical Investigation” and often to two large federal programs in 1999 were referred to as simply “the Project Book,” unsuccessful but we’re convinced of the was last published as a 7th Edition in May program’s merit and are determined to find 1993. During 1999 seven TIGHAR author/ sponsorship for it. researchers prepared detailed reports in their various areas of expertise for the greatly ex- panded 8th Edition. Now in the editing and WWW.TIGHAR.ORG lay-out phase, this massive work is slated for publication in the spring of 2000. The TIGHAR internet website, instituted in November 1996 with about 50 visitors per week, now hosts an average of well over 1500 PPPPPP visitors per day. Periodic research bulletins re- We start the new century with a new un- port the latest findings and the Document of derstanding of one of the old century’s most the Week series makes available rare primary perplexing riddles, and with a stronger-than- source information. There are photos and ever organization with which to find the final maps, articles from TIGHAR Tracks, and even pieces of the puzzle. And you, the members film of Earhart’s last takeoff. New features are of TIGHAR, have made it possible. We thank being added weekly. you.

“Love to Mother” That unlikely phrase, often abbreviated “LTM,” has become the traditional tag line of The Earhart Search Forum. TIGHAR’s online research group has grown to more than 600 email subscribers and generates between a dozen and two dozen messages every day. The quality of postings is very high and the Forum has proven itself to be a powerful research tool.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 4 Niku IIIIP

OBJECTIVES T he expedition’s first mission was to (see TIGHAR Tracks Vol. 13, No.1 “I Saw determine whether the anecdotal accounts Pieces of an Airplane...”, p. 9). Ms. Taiki gathered in Funafuti at the end of Niku III in lived on Nikumaroro as a young teenager 1997 might lead directly to discovery of the with her family in the late 1950s/early main body of wreckage and, thus, permit the 1960s just before the settlement was aban- Niku IIII expedition to be organized as an ar- doned. chaeological recovery operation. Recognizing 2. Conduct a reconnaissance of the beachfront that the identification of conclusive Earhart areas on the lagoon shore where Pulekai wreckage would, by defnition, put those ar- Songivalu, interviewed by TIGHAR on tifacts at risk, this purpose of the expedition Funafuti in 1997, said he saw airplane was not widely publicized. No such wreckage wreckage when he served as the island’s was found on this trip, so the point is now schoolmaster during the late 1950s/early moot. The secondary mission of the expedi- 1960s. Mr. Songivalu is Ms. Taiki’s father. tion was as a preparatory operation to gather 3. Conduct a reconnaissance of Kanawa information for Niku IIII, an intensive search Point, one of three geographical locations operation now scheduled for 2001. The spe- identified by TIGHAR researchers as pos- cific objectives of the expedition were: sibly fitting the description of where a 1. Test the hypothesis that airplane parts castaway’s remains and campsite were could be found in the dense beachfront discovered by Gerald B. Gallagher, Offi- vegetation of Nutiran district near a “Eu- cer-in-Charge, Phoenix Islands Settlement ropean-style house,” per an anecdotal Scheme, in September 1940. account by Tapania Taiki who was inter- 4. Familiarize the project’s forensic anthro- viewed by TIGHAR on Funafuti in 1997 pologist, Dr. Karen Ramey Burns, with

Volume 15 p. 5 the site where shoe parts were found during Niku II in 1991 (known as the “Aukeraime Site”) and conduct a further investigation of the site with the aid of remote-sensing data gathered during Niku III in 1997. The Aukeraime Site is the second candidate for where the bones were found in 1940. 5. Familiarize Dr. Burns with the site near the southeast end of the island where village-related artifacts were found during Niku IIIP in 1996. This is the third location suspected of being where Gallagher’s discovery took place. ~~~~~ TEAM The team assembled to conduct these operations consisted of:

Richard Gillespie TIGHAR Executive Director Project Director. Karen Ramey Burns, Ph.D. TIGHAR #2071E Forensic anthropologist. John Clauss TIGHAR #0142CE Veteran of Niku I, II, IIIP, III, and the Kanton Mission. Veryl Fenlason TIGHAR #0053CE Veteran of Niku I, II, IIIP, and III. Richard “Skeet” Gifford TIGHAR #0001CEB Member of TIGHAR’s Board of Direc- tors and project sponsor. Van Hunn TIGHAR #1459CE Veteran of Niku III. Jerry Ann Jurenka TIGHAR #0772E TIGHAR member and project sponsor. Chris Kennedy TIGHAR #2068E TIGHAR member and project sponsor. Russ Matthews TIGHAR #0509CE Veteran of Niku I, II, IIIP, and the Kanton Mission. Gary Quigg TIGHAR #1025CE Veteran of Niku III. Richard Reynolds TIGHAR #0981CEB Member of TIGHAR’s Board of Direc- tors, veteran of the Kanton Mission, and project sponsor. Ronald Rich TIGHAR #2267E TIGHAR member and project sponsor. Accompanying the expedition as an official representative of the Republic of Kiribati was Senior Examining Officer, Kiribati Customs, Manikaa Teuatabo. Mr. Teuatabo also accompanied the Niku II and Niku IIIP expeditions.

Standing, from left: Kar Burns, Russ Matthews, Ron Rich, Skeet Gifford, Jerry Jurenka, Veryl Fenlason. Kneeling: Gary Quigg, Ric Gillespie, Chris Kennedy, John Clauss, Van Hunn. Not pictured: Dick Reynolds, Manikaa Teuatabo. TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 6 with head winds and conflicting currents COST slowing progress at times to a little as 6 knots. Structural problems with the mast prevent the he direct cost to TIGHAR for the Niku IIIIP T use of the sail with consequent loss of its sta- expedition was: bilizing and fuel saving effect. Airfare* $5,785 Ship Charter $99,492 July 6–10. Continued high seas make for Kiribati representative $1,904 an unpleasant passage. No one can go out Equipment and incidentals $2,500 on the exposed decks, the galley is limited Total $109,681 in what foods can be prepared and served, spills and breakage are commonplace, and *several team members paid their own airfare just moving about requires constant The cost of the Fiji Bone Search was: vigilance. Most of Airfare* $1,982 the team is seasick Accommodations $1,300 to at least some de- Meals and incidentals $2,849 gree and a few are

Car rental $1,351 Photo courtesy J. Clauss. A rough ride to Niku brought back truly miserable. memories of the storms of 1997. Total $7,482 *one team member paid her own airfare July 11. Having arrived at Nikumaroro just In addition to these direct expenses, before dark the previous evening, the team TIGHAR’s operating expenses during the goes ashore at 07:45 and spends the day sur- period of preparation and execution of the veying and building a trail from the landing to expeditions (February through July, 1999) the shore of the lagoon passage where a skiff, were roughly $90,000. walked in over the reef at high tide, will be Grand Total $207,523 based to ferry the team over to Nutiran. Seas in the lee of the island are relatively calm—a ~~~~~ welcome relief. However, tropical down- pours during the day make the heavy work OPERATIONS of clearing the trail through the jungle a soggy July 1-3. Team flies to Fiji and boards ex- endeavor. It is also discovered that the ship’s pedition vessel Nai’a at port of Lautoka. One water maker, which had been unusable dur- large bag of expedition gear (with essentials ing the voyage out due to the extreme rolling, such as metal detectors and laptop computer) is missing and it takes two days to track it Photo courtesy J. Clauss. down and get it to Fiji. When the bag finally arrives the screen of the laptop has been cracked in transit, but the computer is still usable.

Nai’a sets course for Nikumaroro. July 5. Nai’a de- parts Fiji. Once Heavy rain squalls and a wet welcome back to Nikumaroro. clear of Fijian waters, seas be- is not working. Without the ability to make come quite high fresh water the expedition must depend en- (approximately Photo courtesy J. Clauss. tirely upon the tanks of water aboard the ship. seven meters) This supply should be adequate if carefully

Volume 15 p. 7 conserved, but luxuries such as laundry are with Dr. Burns, the decision is made to seek out of the question. permission from the Kiribati representative to excavate the grave. July 12. In the morning a base camp is established on the Nutiran shore and base lines July 14. After a discussion at the grave site are “shot in” with the pulse laser from known with Senior Examining Officer Manikaa Teua- features on the village shore to permit accu- tabo, permission to excavate is granted and rate mapping of the search area. More heavy digging begins. Meanwhile, a detailed search rain slows the work. In the afternoon, the of the area where the cruciform object appears team begins the process of setting out grid in the photo finds only vegetation and what lines 20 meters square in the sector where may be a broken oarlock—possibly from one aerial photography indicates there was once of the lifeboats from the SS Norwich City. Two a structure which may be the “European style divers, Van Hunn and Jerry Jurenka, inspect house.” Nearby, the 1953 photo also shows a the lagoon passage and inshore reef area at cruciform feature in the beachfront vegetation high tide for any anomalous material. The which looks alarmingly similar to an aircraft. results are negative. Search operations are ex- Hopes are high for a significant discovery but tended northward along the Nutiran shore in the day’s searching yields no sign of a Euro- the hope of finding something that better fits pean style house (a structure built of wood the description of a European style house. frame and boards rather than local materials), Late in the day, Chris Kennedy comes let alone an airplane. A grave about four feet upon boards and sheets of corrugated metal. in length is found not far from the beachfront. Further investigation reveals the ruins Like the grave excavated on Aukeraime in of a structure incorpo- 1991 and found to be that of an infant, this rating wood framing burial seems to be anomalous in the context and boards. There of the island settlement and fits folklore about are pipes and a fau- bones said to have been found and buried on cet. It seems quite TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie. Nutiran by the early settlers. likely that this was a European Further gridding and searching July 13. style house but reveal a scattering of cultural material (nails, it does not seem wire, cans, etc.) indicating that a structure of to be present in some kind once stood on the spot where the the 1953 aerial putative European style house is seen in the photos. Plant-ings 1953 aerial photo, but the absence of boards of coconut and pan- or framing suggests that the structure was danus just inland from made from local materials. An area around this location support the grave is cleared and, after consultation the possibility that The site of the “European style this structure is a house”. relic of development in the later days of the settlement. That would conform to Ms. Taiki’s time on the island in the late 1950s. Among the debris where the house once stood is a small (1.5 inch by 5 inch) piece Photo courtesy J. Clauss. of aluminum aircraft skin which had been cut through rivet holes along one long edge. The Looking for the “European style house.” L to R, Ron Rich, Veryl presence of zinc chromate corrosion inhibitor Fenlason, Van Hunn, Jerry Ann Jurenka, Ric Gillespie.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 8 would appear to disqualify it as being from tery, further excavation ceases and the grave Earhart’s aircraft. is later restored to its original condition and appearance. July 15. On doctor’s orders, one team At 13:00 a satellite telephone commu- member with a foot infection remains aboard nication with TIGHAR’s office in Delaware ship and is on antibiotics. Ashore, while Dr. brings the news that Dr. Tom King in Fiji has Burns and two assistants, Quigg and Gifford, interviewed a former resident of Nikumaroro proceed with the grave excavation, the rest who reports having seen aircraft wreckage of the team begins to lay out grids and search (heavy structures, not aluminum sheet) on the the area southward from the newly identified reef north of the Norwich City shipwreck in the European house. Heavy iron debris from the years prior to WWII (1939-1941). Reports dat- shipwreck is found as much as ten meters ing from the late 1950s had placed scattered back into the beachfront vegetation along the aircraft wreckage on the reef and along the shoreline directly in front of and southward shoreline south of the shipwreck. This new from the Norwich City, but no aluminum or information matches our earlier hypothesis aircraft-related material is in evidence. Be- that the landing had been made on the reef cause it will be roughly the half-way point in and the airplane destroyed by surf action, but the expedition, the following day is declared indicates a more northerly specific location a “day off” for anyone who needs to take a than we had previously contemplated. break. Aboard ship, the water maker is still Later in the afternoon Gillespie and Clauss not working. conduct a reconnaissance of the lagoon shore July 16. On this “day off” the entire team in the area where Mr. Songivalu reported see- turns out for duty except for two people with ing airplane wreckage. While access to the area minor injuries. Further gridding and searching by skiff is not as difficult as had been antici- southward from the European house fail to pated, the beachfront vegetation is quite heavy turn up anything of interest. Dr. Burns’ team in most areas until a low ridge of land about reaches the interment in the grave and finds 50 meters inland from the lagoon shore marks the bones of a two or three year old child. As the beginning of open buka (Pisonia grandis) previously agreed, as soon as the grave is es- forest. A variety of lightweight flotsam (plas- tablished to be unrelated to the Earhart mys- tic, styrofoam, etc.) indicates that this first 50 Photo courtesy V. Fenlason.

The remains of the 1929 shipwreck. New information alleges that aircraft debris was once located just north (to the right in this photo) of the wreck.

Volume 15 p. 9 meters of shoreline is occasionally subject to the reef north of Norwich City permits a pre- flooding, but conducting a thorough search of liminary evaluation of areas that appear flat the entire shoreline by visual means would be and smooth enough to permit a Lockheed 10 labor intensive and time consuming. to land intact. That evening aboard Nai’a the water maker Temperatures hover near 100 July 17. is still not working despite heroic attempts at degrees Fahrenheit as they have since the repair by the ship’s crew. Team members team’s arrival on the island. Shifting the Nu- accomplish some semblance of laundry by tiran shoreline search northward based on the showering fully clothed. Quasi-clean clothes new information, the team begins inspecting are then dried overnight in the ship’s drier. the dense beachfront scaevola from the point of land just off the bow of the Norwich City July 18. In the morning, while most of the wreck and working northward. In an attempt team continues to work northward along the to inspect open areas inland, Gillespie leads Nutiran shore, cutting 40 meter transects back several team members into vegetation so thick into the bush at five to ten meter intervals, that it takes hours to cut their way out and Gillespie, Matthews, Clauss and Burns con- resume an organized search. The methodology duct a reconnaissance of Kanawa Point. The developed for searching what can only be de- cove just east of the Point is found to be very scribed as the beachfront scaevola wall is for deep in soft silt, making the landing of a skiff transects to be cut into the bush on a heading difficult (and dangerous if you don’t realize 90 degrees to the shoreline and flagged with that what looks like a sandy bottom is, in ef- colored tape. The flagged transects are spaced fect, quicksand. Hop out of the boat to push 25 meters apart and go back into the scaevola it ashore and—gloop—you’re gone). Kanawa far enough to be well beyond any evidence Point, while probably originally quite open of washed up material (typically 30 or 40 me- and pleasant when shaded by Kanawa trees, ters). Searchers then space themselves along is now so covered in dense scaevola as to be the beach closely enough to be sure they can impossible to search visually from any prac- visually cover the area between themselves tical standpoint. On the lagoon shore across and their colleagues on either side, and start the cove to the east of Kanawa Point, a feature cutting their way in, staying on line as much first noted by Tom King in 1989 was noted. The as possible, much like the beaters in an old- coral shelf above the water line is strewn with fashioned tiger hunt. When the line reaches the shells of an estimated 300 giant clams over the end of the flagged an area easily 20 meters long by perhaps 5 me- transects the search- ters wide. In some cases the shells have been ers make their way there so long as to be cemented into the coral back to beach, move and, in at least one spot, a number of shells down to the next are neatly stacked, back to front. There is no block, and start all doubt that this is where a human or humans over again. harvested, opened, and possibly ate clams. Yet another grave A few clams still grow in the surrounding

Photo courtesy R. Gifford. is identified on the shallow water. A scattering of shells was also point just off the found on the shore of Kanawa Point itself. .bow of Norwich City The Aukeraime Site was also visited briefy but excavation is not There has been a significant increase in lagoon an option due to lack shore scaevola growth since TIGHAR’s last Veryl Fenlason and John of remaining time. In visit in 1997. A metal detector inspection of a Clauss shoot in a line in dense the afternoon, at low spot where remote-sensing data gathered in scaevola. tide, an inspection of 1997 suggested there might be metal in the

TIGHAR Tracks p. 10 ground was negative. With time short, a deci- flotsam, and these occur primarily on the open sion was made to forego a visit to the southeast beach and in the first 20 meters of vegetation. corner of the island. After nine solid days of heavy physical labor In the afternoon, at low tide, further in- in the intense heat, many team members are spections and measurements were taken on becoming dangerously exhausted. the reef flat north ofNorwich City and the pulse July 20. Departure day. The skiff must be laser was employed to measure the length of brought out of the lagoon by noon at high tide areas that were smooth enough to permit a and the morning is spent finishing up some safe landing. The longest area measured was last minute searching, breaking camp and 213 meters (700 feet). It has been estimated recovering all of the equipment back across that Earhart’s aircraft, at near empty weight the lagoon passage. By 14:00, everything and and landing into a 10 to 15 knot wind as is everyone is off the island and that evening common on the reef flat, could come to a stop Nai’a sets a course for Fiji. in as little as 91 meters (300 feet). With one more full day of work remaining July 21-25. As if to make up for the rough before the ship must depart for Fiji, the water outward passage, the trip back to Fiji is smooth maker is finally working. and fast, arriving in the port of Suva a full day ahead of schedule. This permits us to ter- minate the charter a day early and thus save nearly $5,000. Photo courtesy J. Clauss.

Kanawa Point. Photo coutesy J. Clauss. July 19. Inspection of the heavy beachfront vegetation north of Norwich City continues. In addition to the search conducted at the southern tip of Nutiran in the area around the initially supposed “European style house” and the gridding and searching done near the ruin that does seem to fit that description, Ready to leave. L to R, Dick Reynolds, Jerry Ann Jurenka, Chris Kennedy, Ric Gillespie, Russ Matthews, Veryl Fenlason, Gary the entire length of the Nutiran beachfront Quigg, and Van Hunn. from the north point southward to the west point just below the shipwreck, a distance of some 700 meters (nearly half a mile) has been searched visually to a depth into the vegetation of 30 to 40 meters. The search turns up no aircraft-related debris. Norwich City debris is present on the reef and in the first few meters of beachfront vegetation from a point perhaps 50 meters north of the bow to at least 500 meters southwestward down the beach. The reef and shoreline north of the wreck are free of any type of cultural debris other than

Volume 15 p. 11 by Thomas F. King, Ph. D., SOPA TIGHAR #0281CEB Project Archeologist TIGHAR photo by P. Thrasher

he Tarawa File (TIGHAR Tracks 13:1) and and Sir Harry Luke, the Tom King the files of the Western Pacific High Commis- High Commissioner of sion (WPHC) (TIGHAR Tracks 14:2) document the WPHC and Governor of Fiji. On April 5, that the human bones found on Nikumaroro 1941, Dr. Hoodless says: “I will take charge in 1940 were sent to Fiji for analysis, in a box of these bones until it is decided what to do built on Nikumaroro of kanawa wood (Cor- with them.” On April 11 Mr. Vaskess passed dia subchordata). The WPHC files contain the Dr. Hoodless’ offer to Sir Harry, whose re- report of Dr. D.W. Hoodless of the Central sponding note directed him to “request him Medical School (CMS) on his inspection of the (Hoodless) to retain the remains until further bones, including his measurements. Though notice.” On April 12 Mr. Vaskess asked the Dr. Hoodless concluded that the bones were Central Medical Authority to “take action ac- most likely those of a European male, re- cordingly.” After this, the WPHC papers (at analysis of the measurements using modern least, those we’ve found so far) have nothing anthropological procedures suggests that they to say about the bones. may represent a European female of about Needless to say, it would be useful to find Earhart’s height (TIGHAR Tracks 14:2). those bones. We could then (it is to be hoped) The last document we have about the extract DNA that could be compared with that bones is an exchange of notes among Dr. of living Earhart relatives. So on June 26 the Hoodless, WPHC Secretary Henry Vaskess, Fiji Bones Search got underway.

ctually, the search had been underway the search at all. By the time we arrived in Fiji, for several months, thanks to the enthusiastic the Museum had already contacted all the ap- cooperation of the Fiji Museum. The Museum propriate government ministries to make ar- is very much TIGHAR’s partner in this proj- rangements, held press briefings, and located ect. Without the support of its Director, Kate and interviewed a number of retired physi- Vusoniwailala, the Director of its Archaeology cians and others associated with the CMS and Department, Tarisi Vundadilo, and the whole its successor, the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM). staff, we would have made little progress in The Museum made its offices available to us,

TIGHAR Tracks p. 12 and took care of all ongoing contacts with the bones might have been tucked away in an attic various elements of government with which or basement or closet in one of these build- we worked and will continue to work, for the ings and forgotten, one of our first orders of Bones Search will go on. business was to find and search the buildings Our search focussed on Suva, the capital most closely associated with the Commission of Fiji, on the eastern end of the island of Viti and the Medical School. Another high priority Levu. Suva is a city of about 90,000 (400,000 was to examine the collections of human bones in the metropolitan area), with a rich colonial kept by the FSM Anatomy Department and by architectural tradition—in other words, a LOT the Fiji Museum itself, since it was possible of old buildings dating from the time of the that the Nikumaroro bones might have been WPHC and CMS. Reasoning that the box of absorbed into one of these collections.

n the first week, the Search team was made and Elaitia Vakarau are students at the Fiji In- up of forensic osteologist Dr. Karen Burns stitute of Technology, while Steven Brown is and me, so much of our work—besides initial a martial arts instructor (all are now TIGHAR meetings with ministries, members). While Kar measured bones, “the press conferences, and guys” and I searched old buildings. The the like—was focussed old CMS building is now the Dental Clinic on finding and exam- at the Fiji Colonial War Memorial Hospital. ining known collections Completely renovated several times over of bones. Armed with since Hoodless’ time, it still has an attic that Dr. Hoodless’ measure- hadn’t been looked at in years. It turned out Photo courtesy R. Gifford. ments, her calipers, and to be full of stuff—some of it apparently dat- her laptop loaded with ing back to World War II (old field medicine the FORDISC classific- cases and such)—but alas, no kanawa wood Kar Burns. ation program, Kar first box, no bones. Dr. Hoodless’ residence still went through all the un- stands, too; it’s now the office of the Student provenienced (i.e.: unknown origin) bones in Housing housekeeper. It has an attic, too, but the collections of the Museum’s Archaeology it turned out to be empty. Department. No matches. Next she examined About the time we arrived in Fiji, a skeleton the collection of the FSM Anatomy Depart- was found in the rainforest near Navua, west ment (we’d been told that this collection had of Suva. As (probably) the most experienced been “disposed of” when teaching methods forensic osteologist in several hundred if not changed at the School, but it turned out that thousand miles, Kar felt obligated to offer a dedicated Lab Manager, Satya Deo, had assistance to the police in their investigation saved it). Unfortunately, no matches there ei- of the discovery. Besides, it gave us a good ther. Incidentally, the Anatomy Department is opportunity to see how bodies decay in an housed in a modern building that comprises environment not unlike Nikumaroro’s. She ex- the “nerve center” of the FSM and that is amined the bones at the Hospital, and then we named “Hoodless House” in honor of the doc- trekked out to the discovery site and recovered tor himself, renowned as one of the founders more bones. The skeleton turned out to most of western Pacific medical practice. likely be that of a tourist who had gone miss- Early on, three young men generously ing back in April, leaving a suicide note. The volunteered their time to assist us. Faiz Ali interesting thing from our point of view was

Volume 15 p. 13 that the body had become completely skele- of them chewed by animals, and a number of tonized, the bones more or less scattered, some them missing, in a mere three months.

n July 5, Kar departed for Nikumaroro ing there but collapsed cardboard boxes and aboard Nai’a, and Education Director Barbara old tires. Norris arrived. About this time we had a bit of An interview with Sir Leonard Usher, who a flap over the fact that the government had had been with the government since 1930, declined to allow us to search the President’s gave us valuable information about Fiji during mansion, where Sir Harry had had his of- World War II, and especially about Vaskess. fices and residence. This Examining the WPHC file, Sir Leonard said not altogether surprising that its organization—elaborately annotated decision (what would the and cross-referenced—was “pure Vaskess.” U.S. do with a Fijian re- He described Vaskess as a “prince of bureau- quest to search the White crats,” who made sure that records were kept House?) was picked up by in good order—suggesting that if government the media, which caused had done anything with the bones on Vaskess’

TIGHAR photo by P. Thrasher some disquiet in the gov- watch (which ran until after World War II), it ernment. Eventually this would have been entered in the file. got smoothed over, and Meanwhile, thanks to Peter MacQuarrie

Barb Norris. the work continued. We (TIGHAR#1987), Kenton Spading (TIGHAR had run out of known #1382EC), and Mr. Metuisela Moa, the gen- bone collections, but had plenty of buildings erous head of the Fiji Intelligence Service, we to search, plenty of archives to inspect, and had met Mr. Foua Tofiga, who became perhaps plenty of people to talk with. our most valuable contact and, I hope, a good A search of the Fiji Intelligence Service friend. Mr. Tofiga is from Tuvalu, educated in building (formerly WPHC Bachelor Officer Tarawa, and he came to Fiji in 1940 to work Housing) yielded no bones. An interview for the WPHC. He was literally in Sir Harry’s with the head of maintenance for the Public office when the bones were sent in; he was a Works Department resulted in his agreement bit sorry that “the English” hadn’t shared the to get all government maintenance workers matter with him, the “only brown face” in the to keep eyes open for the box. We ran down a office, but he understood their perceived need rumor of “bones in a box” in the local Masonic for secrecy. Lodge—they were bones used in Masonic rit- Mr. Tofiga described Gerald Gallagher as ual, and didn’t match the Hoodless descrip- his great friend; he had assisted Gallagher in tion. In the Museum library we reacquainted loading the colonial ship Viti for the voyage ourselves with Margaret Guthrie’s biography that was to take Gallagher to his death on of her father, Dr. Hoodless, which sent Barb Nikumaroro. He had worked closely with and the guys off to search the old garage that Vaskess, and said he had seen the sextant box the Hoodlesses had used for storage. Noth- from Nikumaroro, which Vaskess kept in his

TIGHAR Tracks p. 14 office. He travelled to Nikumaroro with Sir tunnels—to no avail—while I negotiated Harry in December of 1941, where he visited for, but failed to get, permission to search Gallagher’s grave; Viti was on the high seas the War Memorial Hospital itself. About this leaving Nikumaroro when word came of the time, permission did come through to search attack on Pearl Harbor. Almost in passing, he the cellar and bomb shelter at Government mentioned that on this trip they had brought House—the President’s mansion. This search, Emily Sikuli away to work in medicine for the too, produced no bones, no box. WPHC. Emily, he said, was the daughter of Meanwhile Mr. Tofiga had arranged a Nikumaroro’s carpenter, who doubtless had meeting with Emily Sikuli. We met over tea built the kanawa wood box. Needless to say, at the home of Mr. Tofiga and his wife, and we were very interested in interviewing her. began by asking Mrs. Sikuli about her father. On July 12, Kris Tague arrived. Since Kris’ She promptly produced pictures of her par- speciality is archival work, we’d reserved most ents, said she well remembered her father’s of this kind of work for her. First, however, we construction of the box, described it, and then went after the old U.S. mentioned, sort of in passing, that the bones military base at Tama- that were put in it had been found “near that vua, where the CMS airplane wreck on the reef.” had moved in 1953; When we picked ourselves up off the floor, a number of people we asked her to continue and she gave us a had suggested this great deal of useful information. Since much as a likely place, and of this was subsequently duplicated in a long Steven Brown knew of videotaped interview with Ric, Kris, and Russ, Photo courtesy J. Clauss. tunnels under the fa- I won’t get into it here. Suffice to say that the cility, that he’d played first thing we did upon getting back to the in as a kid. Kris, Barb, TIGHAR apartment was to get a radio mes- Kris Tague and the guys slipped sage off to Nai’a about looking for wreckage and slid through the on the reef north of Norwich City.

he day of our interview with Mrs. Sikuli maroro, they turned out not to be those we’re was also the day of my departure, but Barb looking for. Barb returned to the U.S. a few and Kris carried on. Mr. Tofiga suggested days after I did, and Kris continued, shifting another look at the Museum’s collection, focus substantially to archival studies whose and it turned out that there were more un- results she is digesting as this is written. She provenienced bones there, in a collection not also arranged, with Mr. Tofiga, for videotaped maintained by the Archaeology Department. interviews both with Mrs. Sikuli and with Mrs. Some of these looked promising, but when Otiria O’Brian, widow of the wireless operator Kar examined them on her return from Niku- on Nikumaroro.

Volume 15 p. 15 bviously, we did not return from Fiji with most of the World War II era caves have been a box of bones. We did, however, get a good sealed up. The tunnel complexes under both deal of information about the circumstances Government House and Tamavua are reputed surrounding their sojourn in Suva, and about to be much larger than those we inspected, the individuals involved in whatever it is that but their entrances may have been blocked happened to them. We searched a lot of the and forgotten. most obvious places to look for the bones, Another possibility is that they were bur- and we left with the offer of a reward for ied. The Medical School has a pretty organized information leading to their recovery. This system for the burial of the cremated remains coupled with the extensive media coverage of cadavers no longer needed for teaching; ap- we received and the knowledge that’s been parently this system has been in place for a spread among government and Medical long time. Would unneeded bones have been School employees should guarantee that burned? Maybe. Buried? Maybe. It’s some- people will keep a lookout for them. And of thing to pursue. course, we met Foua Tofiga and Emily Sikuli, They may have gotten sent on with the who provided information that we’d never WPHC files to Honiara in the Solomon Islands expected to get. when the Commission’s offices moved there, So, where are the bones? We don’t know, or to Tarawa when Kiribati achieved indepen- of course, but I came away finding it hard to dence. They may have been sent to London. imagine that they were just thrown away— Or they may still be languishing somewhere though of course, in the early days of the War, in Suva. There are lots of possibilities to check. almost anything could have happened. One What we need to do now is more archival and possibility is that they were stored in caves interview work to narrow the range of likely during the War, and never came out. Lots of possibilities, and to continue the search. things were thus put away for safekeeping— the Museum’s collections, for example—and

TIGHAR Tracks p. 16 180ϒ Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) Tarawa Howland Baker 0ϒ

Ocean I. Onotoa Canton Enderbury McKean Birnie Phoenix Hull Gardner Sydney Phoenix Group Vaitupu Ellice Islands Funafuti (Tuvalu)

Rotuma

Vanua Levu Fiji Taveuni Viti Levu Suva 100 NM

Th r o u g h o u t t h e f i r s t h a l f o f t h e also had the distinction of being the last colonial twentieth century, British island possessions in the expansion of the British Empire. The scheme was Central Pacific were administered by the Western a project of the G&EIC and was the brain-child Pacific High Commission (WPHC) headquartered of Henry E. “Harry” Maude, then Lands Com- in Suva, Fiji. Five hundred miles to the north of missioner for the colony. His assistant, and later Fiji lay the Ellice Islands (Tuvalu) which include the Officer-in-Charge of PISS, was a dedicated Emily’s birthplace, Funafuti Atoll, and Foua To- young Cadet Officer by the name of Gerald B. figa’s home island of Vaitupu. Several hundred Gallagher. Despite the reference to “officers,” the miles north of the Ellice Islands are the Gilbert administration of these colonial possessions was Islands (Tungaru). Although the British lumped not a military or naval function and the individuals these two neighboring archipelagos together as who served in the islands were non-uniformed the Gilbert & Ellice Islands Colony (G&EIC), civil servants. the two peoples spoke mutually unintelligible Under the settlement plan, impoverished, languages and regarded themselves as distinctly landless families were recruited from islands in separate peoples. During the late 1930s and early the southern Gilberts such as Arorae and Onotoa, 1940s, the G&EIC was administered by a Resident to settle the uninhabited Phoenix Group which lay Commissioner who lived on Ocean Island to the some 500 miles to the southeast. Evaluated in Oc- west of the Gilberts and answered to the High tober 1937, only three of the eight islands of the ar- Commissioner of the WPHC in Fiji, the redoubt- chipelago were found to be suitable for cultivation able Sir Harry Luke. and settlement—Sydney, Hull and Gardner—and The Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme (with each was given a Gilbertese name—Manra, Orona, perhaps history’s most unfortunate acronym, and Nikumaroro respectively. Because Manra and PISS), was approved in 1938 as a means of reliev- Orona had previously seen some development as ing overpopulation in the southern Gilberts. It coconut plantations they could immediately ab-

Volume 15 p. 17 sorb several dozen settlers when colonization be- 1949 before clearing and planting operations on gan in late 1938/early 1939, but Nikumaroro was the island resumed in earnest. a clean slate with only 111 coconut trees surviving An active international commercial airport on from a brief planting foray in 1892. Ten men began Canton Island, built and operated as a military clearing the dense tropical forest in December 1938 facility during the war, provided employment for and settlement of the island officially began when many of the residents of the three settled islands. they were joined by their families in April 1939, The villages on Manra, Orona and Nikumaroro bringing the island population to twenty-three. struggled along for another fourteen years but The Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme pushed periodic droughts defeated attempts to make the forward despite the outbreak of war in Europe in islands self-sustaining and, in 1963, the British September 1939. Funding and resources, never finally abandoned the scheme and evacuated the plentiful, became increasing difficult to obtain settlers, leaving the three atolls once more unin- and what progress was made was due primarily habited. to Gallagher’s inspired leadership and unflagging In the late 1970s the British colonial system efforts on behalf of the settlers. The 29 year-old peacefully transitioned to self government for the officer quite literally worked himself to death and indigenous peoples. The Ellice Islands adopted died on Nikumaroro of an intestinal condition their ancient name and became the nation of Tu- known as “sprue” on September 27, 1941. The loss valu, while the Gilbert Islands became, in 1979, the of Gallagher, followed shortly by the outbreak of Republic of Kiribati (pronounced KIRibas, the lo- war in the Pacific, effectively arrested the further cal pronunciation of the English word “Gilberts”). development of the three Phoenix settlements. The The islands of the Phoenix Group are now part of island group was well outside the war zone and Kiribati but remain uninhabited except for a few there is no record of any Japanese activity on or families on Kanton (formerly Canton Island). near any of the three settled atolls. In July 1944, Nikumaroro’s southeastern tip became the site of a 25-man U.S. Coast Guard LORAN navigational facility which was subsequently shut down in December 1945 and dismantled in May of 1946. No British administrator had been in residence on the island since Gallagher’s death and it was

TIGHAR Tracks p. 18 Fiji Bone Search

by Ric Gillespie

hile still on Nikumaroro during Niku IIIIP we had received word via satellite phone that the team (pronounced “fowOOa towFINGa”) in Fiji had talked to a woman who was a former resident of the island. She described That afternoon, July 25, Kristin Tague seeing aircraft wreckage on the Nutiran reef and I met with Foua Tofiga who had worked north of the Norwich City shipwreck. A few as a clerk for the Western Pacific High Com- days later, another interview with an early mission in Suva settler, said to be the widow of the island’s during the years in radio operator, appeared to confirm that vil- question and had

lagers on Nikumaroro in the prewar years been instrumental TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie. were aware that an airplane had come to grief in helping our Fiji there at some time before their arrival. Team locate and con- During the voyage tact the two women. back to Fiji, again via He also served as satphone, we made translator during arrangements to do the interviews. Kris follow-up interviews and I spent a pleas- with the two women. ant two hours with Foua Tofiga No video or audio him at his home. I tape had been made found him to be a well-educated, articulate, Photo courtesy R. Matthews. of the initial inter- and soft-spoken man with an excellent com- views out of concern mand of English. Having studied the files of Ric Gillespie on Nikumaroro that cameras or re- the Western Pacific High Commission, I was learns via satellite phone of new corders might create quite familiar with the names, procedures information uncovered by the an intimidating atmo- and personalities of the WPHC and in chat- TIGHAR team in Fiji. sphere, but a friendly ting about those times and those people it rapport had been was immediately apparent that Mr. Tofiga established and we hoped that it would be was entirely genuine in his representation possible to videotape the second interviews. of his experience. He was, in fact, able to We arrived in Suva, Fiji early on the morning clear up several questions we had about of Sunday, July 25 and were scheduled to fly the meaning of various abbreviations in the back to the U.S. the night of Tuesday, July 27, files and flesh out our picture of the various so it was imperative that we waste no time in officials with personal anecdotes. arranging and preparing for the interviews.

Volume 15 p. 19 Mr. Tofiga has only been to Nikumaroro Otiria (pronounced “ohSEEria”) O’Brian once, in late November 1941 with High Com- was interviewed twice by TIGHAR, once by missioner Sir Harry Luke who was touring Kristin Tague, with Foua the Phoenix Islands settlements in the wake Tofiga serving as trans- of the death of Officer-in-Charge Gerald Gal- lator, on Monday, July 19th and again by me, lagher in September. Tofiga’s presence on TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie. that trip is confirmed in the published diary accompanied by Kris, of Sir Harry Luke (A South Seas Diary, Nich- with Tofiga again trans- olson & Watson, London, 1945) who says: lating, on Tuesday, July “The party consisted of Dr. Macpherson and 26th. The latter inter- ‘Mungo’ Thompson with Tofinga [sic], the El- view was videotaped. lice Islander clerk from the High Commission, Mrs. O’Brian, despite as interpreter.” Tofiga has no recollection of her Irish surname, is seeing or hearing about bones or airplane a Gilbert Islander by Otiria O’Brian wreckage during that visit but Sir Harry’s di- birth. Her late husband, ary indicates that the ship was only at Gard- Fasimata O’Brian, was not Irish either but ner one day (Sunday, November 30, 1941). was born in the Ellice Islands. (Perhaps there was an Irishman involved somewhere along the line but that was not clear.) Otiria speaks and understands virtually no English. The interviews were conducted in her bedroom Despite his close association with the top in her son’s home where she is confined by officials of the WPHC, Tofiga had not been her frail health. Tofiga translated my ques- aware of the discovery of bones and artifacts tions into Gilbertese, and her answers into on Gardner nor had he seen any of the official English. correspondence about attempts to identify Throughout both interviews she ap- them. This was because he worked in the peared to be alert and lucid, and although Accounts section rather than in Correspon- some of her memories seemed to be jumbled, dence and, as we know, the whole issue of the others tracked quite accurately with docu- castaway of Gardner Island was kept “strictly mented events. Otiria O’Brian is a Protestant secret.” Tofiga does, however, remember that Christian and, to my astonishment, began Henry Vaskess, Secretary of the WPHC, kept her videotaped interview by turning to the a collection of curios on a credenza in his camera and singing several verses of a Gil- office. The centerpiece was a wooden box bertese song which Mr. Tofiga later explained which, Tofiga says, looked very much like was a hymn about “Standing firm for Christ.” the photos we showed him of the Pensacola She says she is 80 years old which would sextant box. His recollection matches the make her year of birth 1919, and her general official record which last mentions the sex- appearance seems consistent with that age. tant box as being stored in Vaskess’ office. But when asked what year she was born she Mr. Tofiga doesn’t remember whether it had said she was born in August of 670 and went any numbers on it and has no idea what may to Nikumaroro in 178. It is possible that she have eventually become of it. was using a numbering system that is not familiar to Tofiga or to us.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 20 and Ellice Islands Colony which administered P.I.S.S. Its principal vessel was the Royal Col- Otiria says she was born on the island ony Ship (RCS) Nimanoa. Indeed, most of the of Onotoa in the southern Gilberts. When settlers for Gardner (Nikumaroro), Hull (Oro- asked how she and her family came to live na), and Sydney (Manra) were transported in in the Phoenix Islands, she says that the Nimanoa. government came and told the people that “Those who wished to own land—they could go.” That’s a good description of what hap- RCS Nimanoa pened and most of the first settlers did come from the southern Gilberts, including several from Onotoa.

In both interviews Mrs. O’Brian said that Photo courtesy E. she never lived on Nikumaroro but only Bevington. stopped there briefly en route to Sydney Island (Manra) where she and her family Sailing from the Gilbert Islands they came settled. This seemed odd given the amount first to Nikumaroro where they went ashore of detail she remembered about the island in boats that belonged to the ship and spent and the stories about an airplane wreck and one night in the village where there was a bones. Our other interviewee, Mrs. Emily “wooden house.” About “20 or 10” people, Sikuli, was adamant that Mrs. O’Brian had including some women and children, “whose lived on Nikumaroro for a time as the wife names were for Nikumaroro” stayed behind of radio operator Fasimata O’Brian. Subse- when, the next day, the others numbering “20 quent research has shown that Emily was or 30” reboarded the ship and continued on correct. We have been able to track Otiria’s to Orona where some disembarked. The rest, movements through clues gleaned from her including Otiria and her family, came finally answers to various specific questions and to Manra. from the official record. Gerald Gallagher, Officer-in-Charge of the Phoenix Island Settlement Scheme, whom Mrs. O’Brian refers to as “Kela,” was already in As best we can reconstruct events, Otiria residence on Nikumaroro when she got there. traveled with her family from her home island He had “a house that was just built” and he of Onotoa in the Gilberts to settle on Manra, had “servants to cook for him.” She says that making a one night stop at Nikumaroro along he came with them when the ship continued on the way. to the other islands. Although Otiria doesn’t remember the Given that Otiria was from Onotoa, I won- name of the ship that brought her to the dered if she might remember the name of the Phoenix Group, she does recall that it was a headman on Nikumaroro who had been a prom- “big ship” that “belonged to Banaba” (Ocean inent figure on Onotoa before becoming Native Island). “Word came from Heaven saying that Magistrate on Nikumaroro. To my surprise, the it was all right to go on this ship because it name she came up with was not Teng Koata, was from the government.” This could be a but “Tikana.” Bauro Tikana was Gallagher’s reference to an endorsement of the Phoenix clerk and interpreter. He arrived with Gallagher Island Settlement Scheme by the London Mis- in September 1940 at the same time that Koata sionary Society, the predominant religious took a leave of absence and traveled to Tarawa. presence in the southern Gilberts. Ocean This is a further indication that Otiria was not Island was the headquarters for the Gilbert on Nikumaroro prior to Gallagher’s arrival.

Volume 15 p. 21 It seems that Mrs. O’Brian’s initial visit to the death Gerald Gallagher. After a brief stop Nikumaroro was sometime after Gallagher’s at Gardner on the 18th, Viti continued on to arrival in early September 1940 but before Canton, Sydney and Hull, returning to Niku- his departure for Fiji in early June 1941. We maroro on the 25th with Gallagher gravely can further constrain the time because, ill. He died on September 27, 1941 and was according to Gallagher’s “Progress Report, buried at the foot of the island flagpole. This Fourth Quarter 1940,” his house on Nikuma- would seem to explain Otiria’s answer to my roro was not sufficiently completed to permit question: occupancy until the middle of November. It RG: How did you hear about this thing is also clear from his report that no ships [airplane crash] that happened on Niku- and no new settlers arrived between his ar- maroro? rival in September and the end of the year. OO: This I heard because this happened He does mention that “RCS Nimanoa paid a before we arrived at Nikumaroro. We very hurried visit to the District to distribute arrived and we followed the burial pro- essential stores” in early January 1941. The cession. The man who died was a gov- ship called at Nikumaroro first, apparently ernment official. He was buried under the on the 11th, and Gallagher accompanied it to flag, not in the common graveyard. Orona and Manra to check on the progress of those settlements. No mention is made of the ship bringing any new settlers but neither is it specifically stated that it did not. The -Progress Report, First Quarter 1941” specif- Otiria and her husband lived on Niku“ cally states that aside from Nimanoa’s brief maroro for the next two months until Viti visit in January, “No shipping has been avail- returned with High Commissioner Sir Harry able for the transport of settlers, stores, or Luke. According to the ships records, on equipment...” through the end of the quarter November 30, 1941 “Fasamata [sic], W/T (March 1941). During the spring of 1941 RCS operator, and wife” were transported from Nimanoa was being overhauled in Suva and Gardner Island to Hull Island, arriving there no other ships are mentioned in the record the next day. By coincidence, this is the same as having visited Nikumaroro. voyage that took Emily Sikuli from her home It would therefore appear that there is on Nikumaroro to nursing school in Fiji—so really only one documented possibility for Emily and Otiria left the island at the same when Otiria O’Brian spent her night on Ni- time and on the same ship. In her earlier kumaroro en route to Manra: January 11, interview with Kris Tague, Otiria had said 1941. that Fasimata had been assigned to Orona for only a short time before settling on Manra where she says she spent the war years.

Sometime later in 1941—we’re not sure just when—Otiria married Fasimata O’Brian on Manra and traveled with him to the G&EIC Having placed Otiria’s initial arrival at colonial headquarters on Ocean Island. The Nikumaroro in January 1941, well after Gal- provisioning records of HMFS Viti show that lagher had found the bones the previous “Fasamata” [sic] and “Atiria” [sic] left there September, it’s clear that any information on September 11, 1941 and arrived at Gard- she has is second hand at best. Indeed, the ner a week later on September 18th. This same ship that brings her to the Phoenix was the same voyage that would end with Group carries the box of bones and the arti-

TIGHAR Tracks p. 22 facts away from Nikumaroro when it leaves she spent the war years on Sydney Island (Gallagher’s letter that accompanies the (Manra) where we know that a C-47 crashed shipment is dated December 27, 1940). This catastrophically on December 17, 1943 (See may help explain her confusing response to “The Crash at Sydney Island” TIGHAR Tracks my question: Vol. 14, No. 2, page 15). How much of what RG: Was there a shipwreck at Nikuma- she remembers of that event is mixed up with roro? what she says about what she heard talked OO: No. It went aground, but was not about on Nikumaroro is hard to determine. broken up. Maybe it is still there. There In her initial interview, Kris Tague asked was no damage to it. It was right on the her whether she had seen wreckage of any reef but there were no people on board. I kind at Nikumaroro. She answered: remember seeing it. Standing there firm. OO: Many things I have seen. Things that Nothing broken. No people. Another ship float or move about in the sea. People came and took away the people from said they were parts of an airplane. the ship. The government put a stop to [Note: As far as we know, Mrs. O’Brian had people going on board. no idea that Kris had any interest in an air- When Mr. Kela [Gallagher] arrived plane. I later asked Mr. Tofiga if, in setting up he went to that ship and found a person the initial interview, he had told Mrs. O’Brian that had been killed but he was put under that we are searching for an airplane. He was the ship, below the ship. Mr. Kela then quite sure that he had not.] directed certain ones to come and build People and even members of the gov- a box and put this person in it and take ernment came to look at it. ... Men were it to be buried. The person was lifted and making expressions of sadness about the put in the box. The one who died was not fate of those whose plane crashed. I didn’t a European. He came from Onotoa. see because we were there only briefly. ... The story about the body and the box It is said that they broke up and sank in may be a very garbled rendition of something the ocean. They said that the parts were seen by a ship and they went to look for she heard on the island about the bones Gal- more of them. lagher found and the box built to contain them. We’ve heard other stories about bones In her second interview eight days later, I being found near the shipwreck which may tried everything I could think of to give her an or may not be true, but Gallagher certainly opportunity to talk about the airplane wreck- made no mention of any such discovery. age without “leading” her. I asked if there was Her assertion that the one who died was anything unusual about the island. She said from Onotoa could stem from the fact that the fishing was very good. I asked if there the original discovery of the skull seems to were other wrecks on the island besides have been made by Teng Koata, the Native the ship that was on the reef. She said there Magistrate from Onotoa who left the island were other wrecks there and on Orona, but when Gallagher arrived. volunteered no details. (There were no other shipwrecks at Nikumaroro but there was a shipwreck at Orona). Finally, in desperation, I asked: If Mrs. O’Brian’s recollections about Kela RG: Did the people on Nikumaroro say finding a body are difficult to match with anything about an airplane? known events, her account of an airplane OO: We did not stay on Nikumaroro. I was wreck at Nikumaroro is even more confusing. on Manra. Greatly complicating the issue is the fact that

Volume 15 p. 23 Okay, I thought, let’s see if she knows about very angry so that that one became very the crash on Manra. frightened [here she laughs] and he was RG: How long did you live on Manra? saying, “I didn’t kill him. I didn’t do any- OO: We were there when we were young thing bad to him. He was my brother.” and when we were girls. [giggles] And he left his plane and followed the On- otoa people. One died. The other lived. RG: During the war? Which details belong to which crash? OO: Yes. The pilot of the plane who was questioned RG: Do you remember an airplane crash- by the Onotoa people could be the one brief ing on Manra? survivor of the Sydney crash. The C-47 had OO: There was one, but it landed in the been circling the island and inexplicably hit lagoon. [As indeed it did.] Nobody died. a palm tree on a low pass. Was the fatally in- Only a few days and they went away. jured pilot trying to explain to the islanders I said nothing while she thought for a min- who found him that a bird had come through ute. the windshield and struck him in the face? Were the protestations of innocence that We buried three of them and maybe the Mrs. O’Brian found so amusing, in fact, the one who piloted the plane. One died and hysterical apologies of a guilt-ridden dying one lived. I do not know for sure if they pilot? We’ll never know. were American or British. [In fact, there It would be tempting to ascribe all of were nine fatalities in the Sydney Island her memories about crashed airplanes to crash. All died on impact except one who the one accident we know happened on the lived for about fifteen minutes.] island where she lived, except that some of I then said to her as a statement, not a ques- the details she offers about the Nikumaroro tion: wreck don’t fit the Sydney wreck at all. The RG: But you remember nothing about an mention of “a woman, a man and a woman, airplane at Nikumaroro. a couple” is remarkable. She also describes After a long thoughtful pause she said, not a witnessed crash but parts said to be “pieces of a plane.” The Sydney crash hap- OO: There was a plane that crashed at pened in full view of the villagers. The phrase Nikumaroro. There was a woman. No. A “the parts were seen by a ship” can be in- couple. A man and a woman. The man terpreted as “the parts were seen by people was the pilot. He was the one flying the on a ship” or it could mean “the parts were plane. seen near a ship.” If she meant the latter, Another long pause during which I said then her recollections match those of Emily nothing. Sikuli who says she saw aircraft wreckage on A bullet hit him in the eye [gestures to- the reef at Nikumaroro near the wreck of the ward her eye] and of course that made S.S. Norwich City. him lose control [moves her hands as if In the end, Mrs. O’Brian’s recollections rocking a steering wheel]. One died. The are not terribly helpful except as garbled cor- Onotoa people came and lifted him out roboration of Emily Sikuli’s far more detailed and made a box for him. When he was and specific account of an airplane that was questioned why he didn’t take care, he wrecked at Nikumaroro before the first set- said that he was hit and he didn’t have tlers arrived in 1938. any control. The Onotoa people were

TIGHAR Tracks p. 24 The Carpenter’s Niku IIIIP Daughter In TIGHAR’s efforts to find a conclusively who claim to have seen Earhart imprisoned identifiable piece of the Earhart aircraft, it on Saipan. How do we assess the accuracy of would be difficult to overstate the potential her recollections? importance of Emily Sikuli’s recollections. If The first step is to pay close attention to credible, her testimony confirms the general what she said. Mrs. Sikuli was interviewed scenario that TIGHAR had already deduced twice, once on July 15, 1999 by Project Archae- from other sources. She provides specifcs ologist Tom King and again twelve days later that not only fill in the picture of what really on July 27th by Ric Gillespie. The records of happened, but may enable us to determine the two interviews, separated by more than a where we should look to find what we’re week, and conducted by different researchers, looking for. provide a good check on how consistent Emily But Emily’s information is anecdotal. It was in her story. is a reminiscence of events that occurred Transcripts of both interviews are pre- over half a century ago and, in principle, is sented as appendices at the back of this issue no more credible than the memories of those of TIGHAR Tracks. Evaluating Emily Emily’s startling description of airplane wreckage on the reef at Nikumaroro merits close examination. Although she had apparently never heard of Amelia Earhart and had little or no information about TIGHAR’s investigations, she nonetheless described a situation which not only fit our hypothesis (that Emily Sikuli the aircraft was landed on the reef flat off the western end of the island), but also provided details (a specific location and appearance) which seem to explain what has always been the most disturbing aspect of the puzzle—how could the airplane have escaped the notice of the various Westerners who later visited the island? If Emily’s recollection is accurate, it seems that the landing was made on the outer por- TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie tion of the reef-flat just north of the shipwreck.

Volume 15 p. 25 Although this is one of the few areas where the occasion to view it up close. The reef edge is reef is smooth enough to permit a safe land- a dangerous place and the only people with a ing, it is also perilously close to the breakers reason to go there were the Gilbertese fisher- along the reef edge. Calm conditions could men—so they were the only ones who knew. have permitted the sending of radio trans- Later accounts of bits and pieces found along missions for as much as a few days, but the the shoreline, including some of TIGHAR’s building of any signifcant swell on the ocean own discoveries, could be chance encounters could have resulted in surf that quickly re- with a widely scattered debris field. It may be duced the Electra to the sort of nondescript that Emily has given us the missing piece of debris Emily describes. Visible only at low the puzzle and our best clue yet as to where tide, rusty rather than silver-colored, not we should look for that elusive “smoking far from the shipwreck, and masked to view gun” artifact that will prove the case. It’s a from the populated part of the island by the tantalizingly tidy explanation, but it’s just a shipwreck itself, what little remained of the good story unless verified from sources that airplane might have been easily missed, or if are not reliant upon the ever-fallible human seen, dismissed by anyone who did not have memory.

The Carpenter’s Daughter?

In evaluating any anecdotal account it is Photographs she showed us leave no doubt essential to verify as many details of the tes- that Temou was her father, but was he the timony as possible through contemporary island carpenter? Dr. Duncan Macpherson’s written records. This process is not intended first hand account of the death of Gerald Gal- to disparage the sincerity of the witness but lagher, dated November 9, 1941, specifcally rather to get a general impression of the reli- mentions that “...Temou (native carpenter at ability of his or her memory of the events in Gardner island) proceeded to prepare a casket question. If our interrogation of Emily’s cred- for the remains.” It would seem that Emily is, ibility seems rigorous it is only because her indeed, the carpenter’s daughter. testimony is potentially so important. The next task is to determine whether To begin, we must ask the most basic Emily herself was on Nikumaroro and, if so, question and establish that Emily is who she just when she was there. This allows us to -says she is. Emily says that her father Temou put her alleged experiences in a specifc his Samuela was the torical context and island carpenter check them against on Nikumaroro. known events.

Emily’s father. Emily’s mother.

Photos courtesy E. Sikuli.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 26 ES: Yes. That is why I came. Date of Departure RG: Mr. Tofiga, I understand that you re- We are able to confirm Emily’s presence on member this. You were there at that the island and establish the date of her depar- time. Is that right? ture by means of a rather obscure document FT: I was aboard the Viti. We traveled from which we examined in November 1998 at the here [Suva] in the late November or early archives of the Western Pacific High Commis- December of 1941. I never forget the date sion in England. The provisioning records of because we were at Nikumaroro when His Majesty’s Fijian Ship (HMFS) Viti show a the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. charge of two shillings per diem for the transport of a “nurse” by the name of “Sengalo” from Gardner Island on November 30, 1941 to Suva, Fiji (11 days). Emily’s first name in Tuvaluan is “Segalo,” pronounced (and often spelled) “Sengalo.” Is this Emily?

1941. December, Excerpt from “Viti,

VIII(i). H.M.F.S.: - Claims From A South Seas Diary by Sir Harry Luke.

9. J. Mullins. Lt. Commander for Messing of in H.M.F.S. In the earlier interview Tom King had of passengers 1. 0 W.P.H.C. and Provisioning 30 = "Viti.":- Coastwatching asked: 1 2 Dresser Vasiga, 30 days at 2s.0d.per diem 17 0 1-30. 1 Novr. personnel on” , 19) = Novr. ) N.M.P. Tatoa, from Suva to Hull Island, 12 ) TK: Where you there when Mr. Gallagher (Dinner) days at 3s.0d. per diem WPHC List No. 4, to 1) Decr. ) 0 (Dinner) 24IV, Vol. for 1940-41, 30) Nurses Maria and Sengalo, from Gardner Island ) died? Novr. to Suva, 11 days at 2s.0d. each per (Dinner) ) = to 11) diem M.P. No. 5268/ Decr. ) (Lunch) 1941, (Fiji). ES: No, I wasn’t. [she has a brief conversation 1s. 0d. 1 £7. 20-12-4 with Mr. Tofiga]NO! I WAS there. When 5268/41. I was picked up [to go to Suva to attend nursing school] he had already died. It was Sunday morning, we were getting ready for church, December 7th, when RG: Tell me about when you left Nikumaroro, I left. [Emily traveled to Suva with Tofiga when you went away. How did that hap- who remembers that she cried all night long pen? and he felt helpless to comfort her.] ES: That was the year we came away. It was the government that made that decision. That Mr. Tofiga was aboard Viti on that Because we sat a test and it was decided voyage is confirmed by the published diary of that it was not practical to send us to High Commissioner Sir Harry Luke who, in Tarawa but to bring us to Suva. [In an November/December 1941, made a tour of the earlier conversation she had said that, as Phoenix settlements in the wake of the death a teenaged girl, she assisted as midwife at of Officer in Charge Gerald Gallagher the pre- several births on Nikumaroro and had later ceding September. “I managed to get on board attended nursing school in Suva.] the Viti by midnight of the 19th [November] and sailed at once. The party consisted of Dr. RG: Was it your whole family or just you? MacPherson, ‘Mungo’ Thomson ..., with Tof- ES: It was I only. inga, the Ellice Islander clerk from the High RG: So there was a test and you were selected Commission, as interpreter.” because of this test?

Volume 15 p. 27 The ship’s records show that Viti was at Kemo went to Manra to build the hospi- Nikumaroro on Sunday, November 30, 1941, tal building and water tank. not Sunday, December 7th, so Tofiga’s mem- There are a couple of good clues here. ory of hearing about the Pearl Harbor attack The big push to build houses and plant coco- while at Nikumaroro is apparently not accu- nuts on Nikumaroro was in the early days of rate. However, Emily’s recollection that she the settlement—from the arrival of the first left on a Sunday is correct. Clearly the nurse women and children in April 1939 through “Sengalo” is Segalo Samuela, now Emily Si- Gallagher’s death in September, 1941. “Uncle kuli, and she left Nikumaroro on November Kemo” is Jack Kima Petro (sometimes spelled 30, 1941. Kemo Pedro). He was a half-Portuguese construction specialist who acted as foreman for many of the building projects in the G&EIC Date of Arrival and PISS. He was on Gardner in early 1939 Pinning down just when the Samuela fam- building the 10,000 gallon water collection cis- ily arrived on Nikumaroro is a bit more dif- tern which still stands today, and Emily seems ficult. Unfortunately, we don’t have passenger to imply that he was on Beru when she left manifests for all of the ships that transported for Nikumaroro. Gallagher’s proposal for the settlers and skilled artisans for the Phoenix hospital to be built on Sydney Island (Manra) Islands Settlement Scheme, but transportation is dated July 4th, 1939 and was drawn up on of personnel and supplies was enough of a Beru. He left Beru on July 11th and went to problem for the struggling colony that the Fiji for medical treatment and administrative comings and goings of ships are fairly well duty, returning on November 7th. Gallagher documented. Emily was unable to give us a left Beru to go back to the Phoenix Group on firm date for her arrival at Nikumaroro, but January 7, 1940 and his “Progress Report, First there are clues in what she remembers, and Quarter 1940” states that the building of the does not remember, which make it possible hospital on Sydney was underway between to constrain the date of her arrival. January and March. Emily’s correlation of her arrival on Nikumaroro with the departure of TK: When did you get to Nikumaroro? “Uncle Kemo” to build the hospital on Manra ES: We had not been on Beru Island a year seems to place the event in January 1940. when we were sent to Nikumaroro. Per- Further support for this hypothesis is haps 1938-39. In less than 3 years, I left found in another passage from Gallagher’s Nikumaroro. “Progress Report First Quarter 1940.” In de- Beru, in the southern Gilberts, served as a scribing the settlement on Gardner he says, staging area for the settlement of the Phoenix “Apart from an expert canoe builder and Group. We don’t know when Temou and his family came to Beru but we do know that Emily left Nikumaroro in late 1941. Her “less than 3 years” on the island puts her arrival not earlier than late 1938 but, in fact, there were no women at all on Nikumaroro until April 1939.

TK: What caused your family to move to TIGHAR photo by P. Thrasher Nikumaroro?

ES: Instructions from the government to Model canoe and small boxes made from kanawa wood with build houses and plant coconuts. Uncle inlaid aluminum, given as presents to PBY pilot John Mims by residents of Nikumaroro in 1944.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 28 his family of four, there have been no addi- RG: Were there many people who came with tions to the population of Gardner since the you? last report was written.” (This would have ES: A policeman and his family came also. been Lands Commissioner Harry Maude’s Second Progress Report dated November 29, Gallagher doesn’t mention a policeman 1939.) Curiosity about this statement is what and family but they could have been destined prompted me to ask Emily the following series for one of the other islands. of questions: RG: Was there ever a time when there were RG: Any brothers or sisters? Europeans who came to the island to do ES: Three brothers, I was the only girl. things? RG: Did the whole family come to Nikuma- ES: No. roro? This would seem to confirm that she ES: Only three of us. Our eldest brother was arrived after the USS Bushnell’s survey of at Tarawa. Gardner Island which was conducted from November 28 to December 5, 1939. RG: Did your father ever work at building Gallagher’s return to the Phoenix Group canoes? from Beru in January 1940 is the only known ES: Yes, he used to build canoes. voyage which fits all of the conditions of RG: Was that part of his job on Nikuma- Emily’s description. It is not clear from the roro? record what ship was used, but it could well ES: Not while I was there. He did build small have been the Kiakia. In his “Progress Report, model canoes as presents. First Quarter 1940” Gallagher mentions that he stopped briefly at Gardner in January but Although he may not have actually prac- doesn’t give the exact date. Other correspon- ticed that particular skill while at Nikuma- dence mentions that he arrived at Hull on roro, it would appear that Temou, his wife, January 14th and at Sydney, his final desti- and three of his children are the “expert canoe nation, on the 18th. Logically, that puts him builder and his family of four.” at Gardner on or about the 12th. Unless better RG: Do you remember what ship brought the documentation turns up to the contrary, we family to Nikumaroro? will use mid-January 1940 for the supposed ES: It was the government ship, Kiakia. Not date of Emily’s arrival at Nikumaroro. a big boat. There was, indeed, a small government ship named Kiakia which was used for ad- Emily’s Age ministrative work. It is not uncommon for older people in Ocea- nia to have difficulty placing their year of birth because they tend to have fewer points of reference, or connections to recorded dates than is common in Europe and America. Emily’s statements about her age while she was on the island are not consistent. At one point she said, “ I came in 1938-1939, when I was 11 years old” which would make her year of birth 1927 or 1928. When Tom King asked, Courtesy E. Bevington. “How old were you when your father built Royal Colony Ship Kiakia the box?” she said, “14 years old, not yet 15.”

Volume 15 p. 29 The box was built in the fall of 1940, so that We don’t have the name of the Native would mean that she was born in 1926, but in Dresser. In the British colonial system there response to my specifc question: were two categories of medical certification “What year were you born?” she replied for indigenous people. “Native Dressers” re- “1923,” which would make her 16 or 17 at the ceived training in basic health, hygiene, and time of her arrival and 17 or 18 when she left first aid. “Native Medical Practitioners” re- to attend nursing school. Because most peo- ceived more extensive instruction and served ple can more reliably relate the year of their virtually as physicians for island communities birth than how old they were at the time of a between rare visits by the colony’s Medical particular event in the past, and because the Officer who was a British doctor. older age is perhaps more credible for a young woman to go away to school, it seems most likely that Emily was a youth of about 17 dur- The Onotoa Man ing the period in question. In either event, she The leader on Nikumaroro, whom Em- was a youth or young adult, not a child. ily calls “the Onotoa man,” was the Native Having established fairly reliably that Magistrate and overseer Teng (Mr.) Koata. Emily lived, as a youth, on Nikumaroro from Formerly Native Magistrate on the island mid-January 1940 to November 30, 1941 with of Onotoa in the southern Gilberts, Koata her father Temou, the island carpenter, and had been recruited by Lands Commissioner her mother and two of her three brothers, we Harry Maude to help establish the settlement can now review the context in which her ex- on Nikumaroro with the understanding that periences took place. it would be a temporary assignment. Koata, whose “exceptional qualities of loyalty and leadership had been proved in the Onotoa The Pioneers religious troubles of 1931” (Maude, Of Islands When Emily and her family arrived on Ni- And Men) had been one of the senior Gilbertese kumaroro in January 1940, the island’s popu- delegates on the original voyage in October lation was made up of 16 men, 16 women, 11 1937 when Maude, assisted by Cadet Officer boys and 15 girls, for a total of 58 individuals. Eric Bevington, evaluated Gardner, Hull, and Of the 16 men, one was the Native Magistrate, Sydney Islands for future settlement. Koata and one was a medic, known as a Native also helped Maude and Gallagher install the Dresser. The remaining fourteen were Gilber- first ten-man work party on the island in late tese laborers who, with their wives and chil- December 1938 and returned to take up res- dren, hoped to eventually become landowners idence on the island with his family in June in the new colony. Like pioneers everywhere, they were poor people who had come to the wilderness to find opportunity and a better life. They were Protestant Christians, as were Emily and her family, for the London Mission- ary Society had established a firm hold in both the Ellice Islands and the southern Gilberts. Native Magistrate Teng Koata The laborers spoke the Gilbertese language on Nikumaroro in December 1938. Photo courtesy Wigram and had little or no English. We didn’t ask Air Force Museum, New but we must presume that Emily’s father, an Zealand. Ellice Islander sent by the government to help people to whom he was a foreigner, spoke at least some Gilbertese.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 30 1939. He left Nikumaroro in 1940 on the RCS tember when Gallagher dies. And she leaves Nimanoa and traveled to the Central Hospital the island a week before the outbreak of the .in Tarawa in the Gilberts where he arrived on war in the Pacifc or about September 30th. Whether he ever returned to the Phoenix Group is not known but a memorandum by Lands Commissioner Paul The Plane on the Reef B. Laxton circa 1950 lists him as retiring and In Emily’s mind, the bones for which her being replaced by “Teng Iokina” in 1941. father built the box are inextricably linked to the airplane wreckage she says she saw on the northwestern reef, and yet we know Kela from Gallagher’s telegrams that the bones he The other player in the drama is Gerald B. found were near the lagoon shore on a com- Gallagher, Officer-in-Charge of the Phoenix pletely different part of the island (which he Islands Settlement Scheme, whom Emily calls describes variously as “the South East corner” “Kela.” When the scheme was launched in and “on the South Eastern shore”). The corre- early 1939, Gallagher, then 27 years old, made spondence also gives no indication whatever his headquarters on Sydney Island (Manra). that Gallagher was aware of an airplane wreck He was able to keep track of events on Hull on Nikumaroro. Clearly there is a conflict (Orona) and communicate with his superiors between Gallagher’s and Emily’s respective in the Gilberts and in Fiji by radio, but he descriptions of the discovery. was totally dependent upon rare visits by Emily does not claim to be a witness to the government ships for any inter-island travel. finding of the bones and, in fact, says that she Because there was no radio on Nikumaroro never saw them herself. Nevertheless, the doc- until Gallagher moved his headquarters there umentary record leaves little doubt that bones in September 1940, his contact with the island were found. But what about the wreckage on prior to that time was sporadic at best. the reef, which she says she saw on at least Emily’s two years on Nikumaroro, 1940 two occasions? Emily’s description of what and 1941, span a crucial period in TIGHAR’s she saw from the beach, which is roughly 600 investigation. She is there in the spring of feet from the edge of the reef, was consistent 1940 when the skull is found. She is there in in both interviews. September when Gallagher arrives, learns of On July 15th Tom King asked: the discovery, and searches out the partial TK: Where were the parts of the airplane? skeleton and artifacts. She is there when the ES: Not far from where the ship was. Not bones are shipped off to Fiji in a box built by toward the village but away from it. her own father. She is there the following Sep- The struts were there. (holds up hands in circle, apparently indicating that the struts were round in cross-section, about 20 cm. in diameter) TK: Did people use parts of the airplane?

Gerald B. Gallagher, ES: I don’t know for sure. When we got there circa 1937 only the steel frames were left, only the long pieces were there. We were fright- Photo courtesy D. Clancy. ened to go close to the plane. Where the shipwreck was—the remainder of the

Volume 15 p. 31 plane was not very far from there. The ES: [marks the map] It was here. waves were washing it in low tide. RG: And on the back of the map could you And on July 27th I asked: draw a picture of what you saw? RG: Did you ever see any part of that ES: It was a long steel. [draws a line] There plane? was a round part of it. [adds a small solid ES: Only the frame, a piece of steel. circle at the end of the line] I do not know RG: And where was this piece? what part of the plane it was. We were forbidden to go there. I was following ES: Nearby that wrecked ship. It was not my father. When I went there my father far from there. From about here to that stopped me. house. [She points to a house across the road.] RG: How big was this piece? RG: OK. That’s probably 100 meters. Was it ES: About four arm spans. [Holds her arms on land or in the water? out.] ES: On the rocky part. It was not far from RG: So it might fit in this room? where the waves break. ES: Yes, barely. It was a big plane. [The room RG: Let’s look at a map. If you could show was perhaps twelve feet long.] us the shipwreck? RG: How did you know that this was part of ES: Is this the part called Nutiran? [points to an airplane? northwestern end of island] Maybe this is ES: I heard it from those who were there be- the place. [points to the small ship symbol fore us that it was part of an airplane. on the map] It was not very far from that RG: So the people on the island said that this place. was part of an airplane. RG: [explaining map] This part here is the rock. ES: Yes. The waves of the ocean break out here. Russ: What color was the wreckage that you The beach with the sand is here. drew on the map? ES: That means this is where that plane was. ES: It was very rusty. It was not very far from the ocean where the waves break. That’s why the parts of RG: What color rust? the plane got carried away quickly. That ES: Very red. When it is seen at low tide. Not frame was also very rusty. observable at high tide. At low tide it RG: Could you put a mark on the map where could be seen. Very rusty, bad, useless. the plane was? TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie. TIGHAR photo by R. Gillespie.

Low tide on the reef flat where Emily says there was once airplane The reef surface near the shore is deeply pitted and quite jagged. wreckage. The distance from the beach in the foreground to the surf The outer section of the reef flat, however, is relatively smooth. line is about 200 meters.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 32 RG: Was there other wreckage or debris the reef edge looking northward from the around it or all by itself? wreck. The photo is one of several dozen in a ES: Nothing. scrapbook of the expedition. The caption reads “Undertow through gap in side of Wreck.” It RG: Did the people in the village have any is possible to make out what appear to be the pieces? same objects on the reef which appear in the ES: No. 1937 photo. RG: You saw none of the other parts of the Neither of these photos has been altered plane. The aluminum, the shiny parts? or enhanced in any way, but even from these ES: No, all gone. Nothing. “raw” images it is apparent that there was something where Emily says there was air- Fortunately we have a number of photo- plane wreckage. graphs taken between the date of the Earhart/ The objects in the photos are not there now Noonan disappearance and Emily’s departure but forensic examination of better copies of from Nikumaroro which include the specific these and other photos might provide more location she describes. If Emily could see the information about what they were and where wreckage, we should be able to see it too. And they went. Of course, we can’t tell from the we can, or at least we can see something that black and white photos what color the objects fits her general description of what she saw in were, but we should be able to get some idea the place where she says she saw it. Photo courtesy E. Bevington

Photo courtesy Wigram Air Force Museum, New Zealand. Photo #1 (above) is a copy photo of a photograph taken by Eric Bevington in October of how big they were by scaling them to Nor- 1937 during the first British evaluation of the wich City whose dimensions we have. Could island for future settlement. It shows the west- the airplane pieces have been, in fact, merely ern shoreline of Nikumaroro and the northern debris from the shipwreck? That doesn’t seem side of the wreck of SS Norwich City which is, very likely. At the time the photos were taken at that time, largely intact. The sea is quite the ship had not yet started to break up and calm and a line of low breakers delineates the when it did, the debris field scattered pre- outer edge of the reef. Just north of the ship- dominantly southeastward toward the shore wreck and just behind the line of breakers two and the main lagoon passage. Gales and high objects are clearly visible. seas hit Nikumaroro almost exclusively from Photo #2 (right) is a photograph taken in the northwest. December 1938 by the New Zealand survey With photographic confirmation that there party which was on the island at that time. The was something there, and in the absence of camera is looking out through a hole in the a good alternative explanation for what it north side of the SS Norwich City and shows might be, it makes sense to accept Emily’s

Volume 15 p. 33 second-hand identification of it as a working these must have been the bones of those hypothesis. If further photographic research who were in the plane when it crashed. can establish that the material which is present These were under the plane, near the in Bevington’s October 1937 photo (a contem- plane. This was near the top end of the poraneous, primary source document) is from steel. an aircraft, the implications are obvious. Air RG: Did you see the bones? traffic over the remote reaches of the Central ES: I didn’t see them. We were forbidden, Pacific prior to October 1937 was extremely but my father told us. rare and is very easy to catalog. Only one air- RG: Were the bones found while you were on plane from this period is missing: Earhart’s. the island or did this happen before? ES: These bones were found when we had The Bones from the Plane already arrived on the island. These Gilbertese came and found bones and But what about the bones? Emily quite reported to Teng Koata. Then Teng clearly talks about two different groups of Koata took them to the European. So it bones—one set which she associates with the was arranged for a box to be made for airplane wreckage and other bones which the bones and the bones were brought. she associates with the shipwreck. Of the There were not many bones. former she said in the first interview with RG: Were any other bones ever found on Tom King: Niku? TK: Did you see the plane fall? ES: Only these few bones they found. They ES: No, it was already there when I came. do a search around that area but they ...The steel of the plane was there some- found no other bones. Only these big time before we got there. [asked specifcally bones that they found. I do not know about aluminium, she says no] Fishermen how many. My father knew. found the bones. They were frightened Aside from where she says the bones were and they brought the story of them to the found, her account actually tracks fairly well Onotoa man. with the known facts. A Gilbertese work party TK: What did Koata do? found a skull which Koata knew about. The ES: He sent people to bring the bones. People European (Gallagher) did find out about the were frightened. Only people working skull and conducted a search. Not many bones for the government received the bones. were found (a total of 13) and most of these My father had to look at the bones. Mr. were relatively large. Gallagher had a box Gallagher asked my father to make the made for the bones. In short, it does seem that box. the bones Emily associates with the airplane wreck are the bones that were actually found And in the second interview: elsewhere on the island. RG: What can you tell us about the bones that For another opinion see “Where Were The were found? Bones” by Dr. Tom King on page 38. ES: Some Gilbertese went to fish, they saw in the shallows some pools, at the place where the plane crashed, some bones, ☞ and they knew these were human bones because of the skull bone. They went and reported to Teng Koata, there were bones. So from that they assumed that

TIGHAR Tracks p. 34 Too Many Bones

Sorting out the bones associated with the found bones at the other end of the atoll.” shipwreck is more difficult. Emily told Tom Mr. Tikana marked a map showing that King of “Maybe 10 different people whose bones were found on shore near the ship- bones were found along that area” (near the wreck, but to show where the “other bones” shipwreck). She is quite clear that these bones were found he could only circle the entire were found on land: southeast portion of the island. “You would come up on the reef, then the We know that there were eleven men lost beach comes up where the island shrubs in Norwich City wreck in 1929 and that three start to grow. That is where the bones were bodies washed up and were buried by the found.” survivors. If the burials were not very deep Emily’s account is consistent with the rec- and were on or close to the beach, it seems ollections of Gallagher’s clerk, Bauro Tikana, possible that they may have been uncovered who wrote in 1991, “When we first arrived I by storms in the ensuing ten years or so. It’s saw the ship wreck and asked Mr. Gallagher also possible that other bodies from the wreck about it. He told me that it was Norwich City. washed up after the survivors were rescued. Later when the laborers were cleaning (clear- However, if a body from the airplane wreck ing) the land they told me that they found (Noonan?) also washed up or was buried on bones near the ship. I do not know if Mr. Gal- that same beach it could be indistinguishable lagher knew about the bones as I did not tell from the shipwreck bones. him about it. The laborers also told me they

Answers and Questions

Emily Sikuli’s story, supported by historical The association of the bones with taboo documents and photographs, offers some airplane wreckage is something that we’ve long-sought answers to the riddle of the heard before. Tapania Taiki, in 1997, told us Earhart/Noonan disappearance. Whether or of seeing pieces of an airplane on the reef and not they are the correct answers remains to be in the shoreline vegetation when she was a seen. They do, however permit us to adjust child on Nikumaroro in the late 1950s: and refine the hypothesis we are attempting “The older people said they saw the skel- to test. etons of a man and woman, one each. The But as answers to old questions are offered, elders said, ‘Do not new questions arise. Why does Emily associate go where the plane the bones so strongly with the airplane wreck? is. There are ghosts

And why did Koata put the area off limits? It is there.’ They were Photo courtesy K. Spading. apparent that this was done before Gallagher trying to scare us to arrived and found the other bones and the keep us away from artifacts. Why did the finding of just a skull there.” on a different part of the island cause Koata to put the airplane wreck off limits? And why didn’t Koata , or anybody else, tell Gallagher about the plane? Tapania Taiki

Volume 15 p. 35 pean house” made of lumber rather than Debris Field native materials. But Tapania’s plane parts were not seen In 1989 TIGHAR finds an aluminum air- in the same place Emily describes. Over the craft component near the shore of the main years we have come across a number of an- passage in the abandoned village (map ref- ecdotal accounts of aircraft wreckage seen at erence 5). The “dado,” an interior feature Nikumaroro; and we have ourselves found a usually found in the cabins of small civil- few pieces of aircraft debris which we suspect ian aircraft including the Lockheed Model might be from the Electra. Are these real and 10, is a complete assembly still bearing a rumored airplane parts random and contra- fragment of the quarter-inch kapok insula- dictory? Or do they all fit together to form a tion which once covered one side. Quar- logical sequence of events? ter-inch kapok insulation was standard on the Lockheed 10. Unlike military parts, the On two occasions between January 1940 dado is stamped with no part number. and November 1941 Emily Sikuli sees rusted structures, said to be the wreckage In 1991 TIGHAR finds a section of alumi- of an airplane, on the reef near the ocean num aircraft skin on the island’s south- just north of the shipwreck (map reference western shore in the wash-up from a recent 1). Emily does not see the wreck up close severe storm (map reference 6). Although and no aluminum is visible from shore, exhaustive research has not yet been able but fisherman have been to the plane. to match the rivet pattern to any aircraft, the general features of the skin (type of Sometime in late 1944 or early 1945, U.S. aluminum, thickness, rivet type, size and Navy PBY pilot John Mims is shown an air- spacing) are typical of the Lockheed 10. craft control cable being used as a heavy- The damage to the skin indicates that it duty fishing line leader by Gilbertese fish- was blown outward by a tremendous fluid ermen on Nikumaroro. When asked where force, such as wave action. it came from one of the islanders replies that when the Gilbertese people first came In 1996 TIGHAR finds a fragment of to the island there was an airplane here. Plexiglas in the abandoned village which When asked where the plane is now, he matches in material, thickness, color and just shrugs. curvature the specification for Lockheed Part Number 40552, the cabin windows of Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the Lockheed 10 (map reference 7). Also the schoolmaster on Nikumaroro, Pulekai found are two lengths of what appears to Songivalu, sees aircraft wreckage along the be pre-war American radio cable with con- lagoon shore just opposite the main pas- nectors of a type used in aviation applica- sage (map reference 2). tions. These were found near the shore of During roughly the same time period, his the main passage in the remains of what daughter Tapania sees a “piece of a wing” was once the shop of the island carpenter, in the water on the reef off the shore of Temou Samuela (map reference 8). Nutiran not far from the main passage. Aerial photographs taken in 1953 indicate These seem to suggest that the aircraft ar- the presence of anomalous light-colored, rived at or near the place where Emily saw reflective material on the reef in this same wreckage (map reference 1) and was quickly, area (map reference 3). Tapania also sees perhaps within days, destroyed by the violent “airplane parts” in the shoreline vegetation surf. In the ensuing years, storms further scat- (map reference 4). not far from a “Euro- tered the wreckage along the natural lines of

TIGHAR Tracks p. 36 force. Buoyant material would travel farthest It is important to remember that, by itself, and may account for Pulekai’s sighting of Emily’s anecdotal recollections do not prove wreckage on the lagoon shore (map reference anything, but just as garbled anecdotal ac- 2). Some non-buoyant wreckage might even- counts of bones being found on Nikumaroro tually be pulled back out over the reef edge eventually led us to archival sources which but most of the aluminum should be scattered documented a fascinating but forgotten chap- southeastward along the flat, as is indicated by ter in the Earhart puzzle, so Emily’s tale has Tapania’s piece of a wing and the 1953 photos set us on a trail that may lead us to whatever (map reference 3). Storms could drive pieces is left of NR16020. of the wreck ashore anywhere to the leeward of its starting place where they might be found and used by the locals.

Direction of flow

Nutiran Nikumaroro S.S. Norwich City aground 1 November 30, 1929 4

2 3 Tatiman Passage A 5 8 ukaraime (nor

Ritiati Village th) 1938–1963 7 6 Lagoon Channel blasted Noriti through reef, 1963 Kanawa Point Bauareke Passage

Tekibeia

Reef flat Aukaraime (south)

One nautical mile

USCG Loran Ameriki station July 1944– December 1945

Volume 15 p. 37 Where Were the Bones? by Thomas F. King, Ph.D., SOPA

Although TIGHAR’s Executive Director Ric Gillespie attributes the differences between Emily’s and Gallagher’s descriptions of where the bones were found to a misimpression Emily may have had at the time (see “The Bones from the Plane,” page 34), that is certainly not the only possible interpretation. TIGHAR’s Senior Archaeologist Dr. Tom King offers another view of what may have happened.

There are two major discrepancies between 1. Gallagher was keeping things from his su- the 1940-41 correspondence surrounding the periors, and deliberately misleading them discovery of human remains on Nikumaroro, as to the location of the discovery. Related and the 1999 testimony of Emily Sikuli. possibilities include some sort of dyslexic 1. In the 1940–41 correspondence, on two confusion of northwest with southeast, separate occasions Gerald Gallagher says and a collective effort by Gallagher and his the discovery site was on the southeast end colleagues to avoid recording the wreck or of the island. Mrs. Sikuli describes bones expunge references to it from the record. found on the northwest end. 2. Mrs. Sikuli is misremembering, or delib- 2. Gallagher makes no mention of an airplane erately seeking to mislead. wreck; Mrs. Sikuli does. 3. The two accounts refer to two separate There are three major ways I can think of bones discoveries. to account for these discrepancies: Let’s look at each of these possibilities in turn:

Gallagher Isn’t Telling the Truth.

It is difficult to imagine what motive Gal- back together in the seamless form we now lagher would have for keeping information find it to have. As for dyslexia, we have no about the discovery from his superiors, and if evidence that Gallagher suffered from such he did want to keep information from them, a syndrome, which would, one would think, why keep only some of it? Why report the have been hard to miss in someone who trav- bones and cook up a fairy story about where eled a good deal over the ocean and super- they were found? Why not simply let the vised the subdivision of land. The only piece dead lie, and report nothing? Besides, the of evidence suggesting that something might correspondence surrounding the bones and have been going on concerning the bones that their transport to Fiji is so rich in detail, and so is not represented in the documents is a refer- internally consistent, that it would have taken ence by Isaac, the medical officer in Tarawa, a considerable effort to construct it artificially, to a “guillotine conversation” with Gallagher or to take it apart, remove pieces, and put it (see “The Tarawa File,” TIGHAR Tracks Vol.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 38 13, Nos. 1&2, page 30). At the time, Isaac had according to all accounts was the only radio confiscated the bones and quarantined the link between Tarawa and Nikumaroro? We Tarawa harbor; he was coming under a good don’t know, but this small mystery would be a deal of pressure from his superiors to change lot to build a whole conspiracy theory upon. his stance, and one can imagine some refer- In short, based on current evidence there ence to a guillotine in a conversation among is no reasonable basis for thinking that the the parties involved (“You are putting your 1940–41 documents contain anything other head under the guillotine, Isaac.”). But how than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing could Isaac and Gallagher have conversed, un- but the truth as understood at the time by the less there was some means of communication parties involved. other than the key-operated wireless, which Mrs. Sikuli is Mis-remembering or Lying

Misremembering is certainly plausible. We manner that suggested to any of us that she all misremember from time to time, and it is was being anything but entirely forthright in particularly easy to misremember things that recounting her recollections. This is not proof, we don’t talk about often. Mrs. Sikuli says of course, but we have no reason to suspect that she has not talked about the bones or the the accuracy of her account – as an account of airplane with Mrs. O’Brian in all the years events as she remembers them. they have lived in Fiji, and it was apparent Another reason for believing Mrs. Sikuli is that she had not discussed them with Mr. To- the independent testimony, eight years earlier, figa. Her daughter says that the bones/wreck by Bauro Tikana, Gallagher’s clerk. Mr. Tikana story was not among those she recounted to said he had been told by the laborers on the her children when remembering Nikumaroro. island about the discovery of bones near the But she is so positive in her assertions, and wreck of the Norwich City. provides so much detail (found near the wreck In summary: it is certainly possible, even by fishermen, turned over to Koata; the area likely, that Mrs. Sikuli’s recollections aren’t restricted by Koata; the bones turned over to entirely clear and accurate reflections of what Gallagher; put in the box, etc.) that one has to really happened in 1940, but there is good rea- conclude there is something real upon which son to think that she is reliable in reporting her memory is based. As for a deliberate effort the discovery of bones somewhere near the to mislead: Mrs. Sikuli has no known motive Norwich City. for doing so, and there was nothing in her The Stories are About Different Bones In addition to the bones near the Norwich been on the wrecked ship.” In the same set of City, Mr. Tikana reported bones found on interviews, Dr. Teinamati Mereki reported the the southeast end of the island. Similarly, discovery of skeletons of “white people wear- Rev. Aberaam Abera, who said he was born ing shoes,” and identified the discovery site on Nikumaroro in 1940, reported that “the as the lee ocean side of the island toward its older people told a story about finding bones southeast end. Thus there is reason to believe of white people – two white people – on that there were two sets of bones found on the Gardner,” going on to say that “some people island – one near the Norwich City, the other said those bones were from people who had somewhere on the southeast end.

Volume 15 p. 39 But Mrs. Sikuli identified the Nutiran a traditional elder and leader of the group, bones as those that were put into the kanawa had taken it upon himself to bury the skull wood box and given to Gallagher. How do in some safe place known only to him). we account for this, if the Nutiran bones are 2. Gallagher goes to Fiji. While he is away, not the ones referred to in the 1940–41 docu- fishermen find more bones, on Nutiran ments? near a pile of wreckage on the reef. They “Memory,” says ethnohistorian Jan report this to Koata. Having learned from Vansina, “reorganizes the data it contains,” Gallagher about Earhart’s flight, Koata as- going on to note that “in the reordering of sociates the wreckage with the airplane, topics accounts from a later period are placed declares the area off limits, and holds the with those of earlier times and vice versa.” bones somewhere pending Gallagher’s Vansina’s focus is on long-developing oral return. tradition—though he alludes to one case in 3. Gallagher returns and promptly dies. Koa- which “a major personage in Lugbara cre- ta and his colleagues, for whatever reason ation (traditions) is a British District Officer (one can imagine several) don’t report the from the tern of the century”—but we have bones to anybody else, and quietly dispose all probably experienced the compression of of them. multiple memories into one, and its converse. In reviewing my own field notes from the 1989 4. Mrs. Sikuli, remembering all this almost expedition to Nikumaroro, I’ve been surprised sixty years later, compresses the two dis- at the number of times that events I recall as coveries into one. being more or less coincident were substan- This proposition has advantages. It re- tially separated in time, and at the number of solves the conflict between Mrs. Sikuli’s and events I had thought were quite separate that Gallagher’s accounts, and it accounts for in fact happened almost coincidentally. Who Gallagher’s failure to say anything about the can recall on precisely which Christmas they airplane wreck. It is consistent with the reports received a particular gift? of two bones discoveries. It doesn’t require So what may have happened on Nikuma- anybody to be lying, and it is plausible in the roro?—and I confess that I’m attracted to this context of the way memory tends to work. It hypothesis because it accounts for so many is, of course, also entirely hypothetical. things. It also leaves some questions unanswered. 1. The laborers find the first skull some- Were the bones on Nutiran those of Norwich where on the southeast end of the island. City casualties, or those of somebody else? In They bury the skull, and Koata takes the her interview with Barb Norris, Kris Tague Benedictine bottle. Gallagher arrives and and me, Mrs.Sikuli seemed pretty clearly to Koata sails for Tarawa. Gallagher learns indicate that there were two different sets of about the skull and bottle, telegraphs bones on Nutiran—one group of perhaps ten Tarawa to get the latter back from Koata, people on the shore, and one set in the water and searches the site, finding the rest of near the airplane wreck. In her interview with the bones, the sextant box, and the shoe Ric and his colleagues, she had much less to parts, but of course not finding the airplane say about the on-shore bones; it was almost wreck because it’s not there. He has the as if she had further consulted her memory box built and the bones shipped to Fiji. By and concluded that she wasn’t so sure about this time Koata has returned from hospital them. But in any event, we know that people (indeed, it may be that Gallagher’s delay in died in the water around the Norwich City, that exhuming the skull resulted from the need some were buried, and that others may have to await Koata’s return; perhaps Koata, as washed up on shore. The shipwreck seems the

TIGHAR Tracks p. 40 most plausible source for the bones found near son, Teunaia, who probably would have been the plane wreck, though clearly this was not around ten at the time of the bones discovery. what Mrs. Sikuli—and presumably the adults If we can find Teunaia, he may have some- who told her about them—thought. We don’t thing to tell us. An ethnographer in Norway, know why they thought the bones were from Dr. Sidsel Roalkvam, worked with Teunaia someone other than a Norwich City casualty, in the 1950s; TIGHAR’s resident in Norway, except for their putative association with the Lonnie Schorer, is looking up Dr. Roalkvam. plane wreck. But this association is suspect; Another person who might have been it is very difficult to imagine human bones able to discriminate between airplane and surviving in the active environment of the Norwich City wreckage would have been Em- reef edge. ily Sikuli’s uncle, Jack Kima Petro, a skilled Going through this exercise also highlights mechanic and builder with wide experience another issue: was what Mrs. Sikuli saw on the throughout the area. One of Mr. Petro’s sons reef really the remains of an airplane wreck? is a senior elected official in the government of If the “just so” story I’ve posited above is any- the Republic of the Marshall Islands; we tried thing like accurate, then it would have been to contact him some years ago, but not with Koata—or perhaps other colonists—who any great urgency since we had no reason to identified the pieces of metal as parts of an think that Mr. Petro was a particularly key airplane. It would not have been anyone with figure in the Earhart story. He may not be; extensive knowledge of what an airplane we do not know whether he was even on the wreck might look like. So was the wreckage island when the bones discovery (or either of really that of an airplane, or was it something the bones discoveries) was made. But we need off the shipwreck that was misinterpreted by to look further into this, and we need to try the colonists, who perhaps were feeling a little harder to contact his son. sensitive about having failed to report the first bones discovery to Gallagher? As usual, all this hypothecating leads me References around in a circle, but it does point to a couple of lines of research—one of which we’re al- Dirk A. Ballendorf and Jul Hoehl: The Waghena Island Con- ready pursuing, the other one that we haven’t nection. MS, TIGHAR, February 1996, p. 11A. seriously considered in the past. Op cit, p. 9. Clearly Koata is an important player in Jan Vansina: Oral Tradition as History. University of whatever happened with bones in 1940–41. Wisconsin Press 1985, pp. 176-7. Koata is dead, but as of the 1950s he had a Ibid.

Volume 15 p. 41 Gallagher’s Clues Niku IIIIP

Whether or not there were bones found other than the partial skeleton collected by Gerald Gallagher is still a matter of debate. 2 What is not in dispute is that the young Co- On October 17, 1940 in response to a lonial Service officer found human remains question from the Secretary of the High that possibly, even probably, were those of Commission as to where the bones were Amelia Earhart. If we can pinpoint where on found, Gallagher says: the island Gallagher’s discovery was made we “Bones were found on South East corner can conduct a thorough search and perhaps of island about 100 feet above ordinary find more material. But that is easier said than high water springs...” done. As far as we know, Gallagher never marked The problem here is figuring out how a map or provided a detailed description of broadly he is defining the “South East corner” exactly where he found the bones. Instead, of the island. he made passing references in various correspondence from which we must assemble our treasure map. 3 In the same communication Gallagher 1 says: On October 6, 1940 in response to a ques- “Body had obviously been lying under tion from the Resident Commissioner as a “ren” tree and remains of fire, turtle and to how far from shore the bones were dead birds appear to indicate life.” found, Gallagher says: “100 feet from high water ordinary “Ren” refers to Tournefortia argentia, a springs” smallish tree that now grows pretty much all over the island, so that’s not much help. Birds, His reference here is to “spring tides” likewise, are not unique to any one part of the which have nothing to do with the season of atoll but their principle nesting grounds tend the year. Spring tides occur twice each month, to be along the northern and southern shore just after full and new moon, and are ordi- (see map). We’ve seen turtle tracks most often narily the highest tides of the month. Tidal on the ocean beach along the northern shore excursions slowly diminish over the follow- but also occasionally on the southern shore. ing week to neap tides, when the tides are typically at their lowest. Other references (see below) make it clear the Gallagher is talking about the lagoon shore rather than the ocean beach.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 42 4 8 In the same communication Gallagher In the same letter Gallagher says: says: “... something may come to hand during “All small bones have been removed the course of the next few months when by giant coconut crabs which have also the area in question will be again thor- damaged larger ones.” oughly examined during the course of planting operations, which will involve a certain amount of digging in the vicin- Whether or not the scattering was actually ity” done by coconut crabs, Gallagher obviously thought that there were crabs in the area. Birgus latro much prefers the shady forests to Clearly, the area in question was sched- the harsher, more open parts of the island–but uled to be planted. Whether those plans were then, logically, so would a castaway. ever carried out is another question. 9 5 In the same letter Gallagher says: In the same communication Gallagher “... the coffin in which the remains are says: contained is made from a local wood “... this part of island is not yet known as “kanawa” and the tree was, cleared” until a year ago, growing on the edge of the lagoon, not very far from the spot where the deceased was found.” From aerial photos and official reports we have good information about what parts of the island were cleared and planted, and This would seem to place the site quite when (see map). definitely near the lagoon shore. 6 10 In Gallagher’s letter that accompanied In a note to the file in Fiji on July 3, 1941 the bones and artifacts to Fiji, dated De- Gallagher wrote: cember 27, 1940 he says: “There was no evidence of any attempt “... found on the South Eastern shore of to dig a well and the wretched man pre- Gardner Island” sumably died of thirst. Less than two miles away there is a small grove of co- Again, that’s a pretty broad statement. conut trees which would have been suf- ficient to keep him alive if he had only found it. He was separated from those 7 trees, however, by an impenetrable belt In the same letter Gallagher says: of bush. “...the skull has been buried in damp ground for nearly a year” This could be a pretty good clue, de- pending upon how literally we want to take Gallagher’s estimate of distance. In 1941 there This would seem to be another indication were five groves of mature coconut trees on that the site was in a shady forest area. the island (see map).

Volume 15 p. 43 From these and a few other sparse clues but not in others. Perhaps one of them is the we have come up with three possible sites. right place or maybe none of them is. Here are Each fits Gallagher’s formula in some ways, the arguments pro and con for each one.

Nikumaroro 1949

Village Two Nautical Miles

1939/40

1941 1941 Kanawa Point Aukeraime Site 1941 Cocos in bearing, 1941 Cleared and planted areas, with year

Kanawa Point 1996 Site Pro: Kanawa (Cordia subcordata) is a rare and first Native Magistrate, Teng Koata, with the valuable hardwood that once grew on Niku- atoll’s guardian spirit Nei Manganibuka (see maroro but is apparently now extinct, hav- “Kanawa Point” in TIGHAR Tracks Vol. 14, ing been harvested out early in the colonial Nos. 1&2). period. The specific mention of a kanawa Con: tree growing on the lagoon shore close to the castaway’s campsite (No. 9 above) raises the By no stretch of the imagination is Kanawa suspicion that the site was on the one place on Point on the south east corner (Point 2 above) the island where we know that kanawa trees or the south east shore of Nikumaroro (Point 6 once grew in abundance. A small peninsula above). Also, Kanawa Point was never planted along the atoll’s southern shoreline appears to coconuts (see Point 8 above) and is within as “Kanawa Point” on the map made by the one mile, not two, of the nearest stand of 1938/39 New Zealand survey party for that coconut trees that were present in 1941 (see reason. It was also said to be the scene of a Point 10 above). strange encounter by the wife of the island’s

TIGHAR Tracks p. 44 Summary: Con: Favoring Kanawa Point: Points 5, 9. Although on the southeastern shore, the Against Kanawa Point: Points 2, 6, 8, 10. Aukeraime site is nowhere near the southeast Assessment: “corner” of the island (Point 2). Another more speculative argument against this site is that TIGHAR has found no artifacts on Kanawa the width of the land mass between lagoon Point but neither have we conducted any kind shore and ocean beach is about 400 meters of real search there. Although it was probably and, presuming that the turtle was caught once open and quite pleasant, it is now thickly on the ocean beach, it is difficult to imagine a overgrown with dense scaevola underbrush. castaway dragging a several hundred pound An organized inspection of Kanawa Point turtle that far (Point 3). would be a labor intensive and time consuming enterprise. With so little going for it, a Summary: search of Kanawa Point now seems to be a Favoring the Aukeraime Site: Points 1, low priority. 6, 8, 9, 10. Against the Aukeraime Site: Points 2, 3.

The Aukeraime Site Pro: This is the location where, in 1991, TIGHAR found the heel, fragmented sole, and one brass shoelace eyelet from what appears to have been a shoe identical in type, vintage, and size to those worn by Earhart on her final flight. Nearby was the heel from a different pair of shoes. Given that Gallagher also found Work in progress at the Aukaraime Site, 1997. TIGHAR the partial sole of a “woman’s stoutish walk- photo by P. Thrasher. ing shoe” and some portion of a man’s shoe, Assessment: this would seem to be a strong indication that we’re in the right neighborhood. The place Because the Aukeraime Site has ap- where we found the shoe parts is near the peared to be so promising as the place where lagoon shore and it is certainly possible that the bones may have been originally found, a kanawa tree once grew there (Point 9). Our TIGHAR devoted a considerable amount of find was made a bit more than 100 feet above time to detailed searches of the area during the usual high tide line; however, it’s also clear Niku II in 1991 and Niku III in 1997. Results that we found shoes that Gallagher didn’t find, have been disappointing. Aside from the shoe so the site of his discovery could be a bit closer parts found in 1991, the only object of interest to the lagoon (Point 1). The Aukeraime site is was a partially burned fragment of a paper can on the southeastern part of the island (Point label found in the ashes and charcoal of a small 6) and we know that the area was cleared for fire uncovered in 1997. Subsequent analysis of planting by June of 1941 (Point 8). The near- the fragment has reliably dated it to relatively est stand of cocos in 1941 was just under two modern times and we now suspect that it, and miles away (Point 10). the fire it was in, may be from a 1978 survey of the island by Kiribati authorities. A further examination of the Aukeraime Site would mean

Volume 15 p. 45 expanding the search area into the surround- at the 1996 Site. We had noted that by the ing coconut jungle–a difficult prospect given time the bones and artifacts reached Fiji in the carpet of fallen nuts, some rotted, some the spring of 1941, a few items were present rooted, which covers much of the ground. which had not been mentioned by Gallagher in his original notification in September of 1940 (namely, parts of a man’s shoe, “corks with brass chains” thought to have come from The 1996 Site a “small cask,” and an “inverting eyepiece” for a sextant that was subsequently “thrown away TIGHAR’s attention was first drawn to by the finder”). It is, of course, possible that this area in 1990 by anecdotal accounts from Gallagher merely neglected to mention these Coast Guard veterans who told of coming items in his original report but that seems rath- upon an abandoned “water collection de- er unlikely given his apparent thoroughness. vice” while out exploring along the island’s The other possibility is that the additional northern shore. The device was said to consist items were found later during further search of a tank , possibly metal, with a covering of operations. In a posting to TIGHAR’s Earhart some kind rigged above it on poles so that Forum email research group, Tom King put rainwater would drain into it. There was said it this way: to be a pile of bird bones and feathers nearby and a place where there had been a small fire. • Gallagher, newly arrived on Niku, first re- We speculated that this could be a survival ports the bones discovery on 23rd September camp with a cistern fabricated from one of 1940. He reports the skull, other bones, the the aircraft’s fuel tanks and, during Niku II shoe, and the sextant box, but not the in- in 1991 we made a concerted but unsuccessful verting eyepiece or the corks on chains. effort to find it. • On 6th October, when he provides amplified Late in 1995, at TIGHAR’s request, Photek details, he still doesn’t mention them (but .(Inc. of Hood River, Oregon performed a foren- he’s responding to specifc questions sic imaging analysis of aerial photographs of • On 17th October he still doesn’t mention the area taken in 1941. The process revealed them, though by now he says “we” have the presence of man-made objects in a particu- “searched carefully.” He opines that an “or- lar spot within the suspect area. Guided by ganized search” would take several weeks. the enhanced photos, a short ( 4 days on the • On 26th October Vaskess (Secretary of the island) expedition to Nikumaroro in Febru- High Commission) directs him to make an ary 1996 succeeded in locating the site but we “organized search.” were disappointed to find that the tank and several other artifacts nearby were clearly as- • According to Gallagher’s quarterly progress sociated with the British colonial settlement, report for this period, “[t]he second half of the quarter was marked by severe and al- not an aircraft. Detailed measurements were most continuous North-Westerly gales, made and the objects and features found were which did considerable damage to houses, photographed and videotaped. Five artifacts coconut trees, and newly planted lands.” were collected (see below). It appeared that The second half of this quarter would have the expedition had disproved the hypothesis been November-December. Hard to make an that the site had been an Earhart/Noonan sur- organized search. vival camp. (See TIGHAR Tracks Vol. 12, No. 1 “The Niku III Preliminary Expedition.”) • On 27th December, however, he acknowl- edges the 26th October telegram and says Recently, however, TIGHAR Senior Ar- that the bones and sextant box have been chaeologist Dr. Tom King suggested another packaged for shipment to Fiji. The latter, he possible explanation for the material found

TIGHAR Tracks p. 46 says, also “contains all the other pieces of tank had not been watertight for a long time. evidence which were found in the proximity The top was open, apparently rusted away, of the body.” and in the bottom lay a steel ring which had So one wonders, was there a further, clearly once been the fitting for a heavy round organized search during the second half of steel hatch that lay on the ground nearby with the last quarter of 1940, during breaks in the words “Baldwins Ltd.–Tank Makers–Lon- the storms, which produced (perhaps among don” molded into it. In the bottom of the tank other things) the corks on chains? And if so, were six coconut shell halves which had ap- who did the searching? All the colonists? parently been used as drinking cups. There Some smaller group? Gallagher by himself? were no coconut trees in the area. And does this suggest anything to us about On the ground beside the tank were three where the search might have taken place? It wooden poles, each roughly two meters long, would seem to argue against anyplace very far a few very rusted scraps of corrugated metal, from the village—hard to travel very far in the and the base of an unusual-looking light heavy weather—unless one equipped oneself bulb (which we collected as Artifact 2-3-W- to go and stay for awhile. Which makes one 3). About three meters from the tank was a wonder about the “house built for Gallagher” small Ren tree at the base of which was a that Laxton (an administrator who visited the scattering of very dry bird bones (see photo island in 1949) places on the southeast end of next page). the island, and that is apparently represented by the water catcher seen by the Coast Guard and re-located by TIGHAR in 1996.——Tom King. This interesting hypothesis has prompted a re-examination of the data collected in Feb- ruary 1996. The site is located on the northern coastline of the atoll about 1,000 meters from the extreme southeastern tip. In this area the ribbon of land surrounding the lagoon is at its narrowest, spanning only a little over 100 meters from lagoon shore to ocean beach.

Today the region is solid scaevola (“te Mao”) The water tank; note pole beside tank. TIGHAR photo by P. Thrasher. with scattered tournefortia (“Ren”) but aerial About seven meters from the tank, on photos show that in June 1941 there was a the side away from the bird bones, was a band of Pisonia grandis (“Buka”) behind the depression in the ground roughly 3 meters beachfront bulwark of scaevola. The presence across by less than a meter deep. The coral of many old fallen Buka trunks today confirms rubble in the bottom of the hole was quite that the area was once open forest such as still loose, suggesting that the hole had once been predominates just a few hundred meters fur- deeper but the sides had slid down. At the ther along the coastline to the northwest. time, we speculated that the hole represented This is what we found in 1996: an abortive attempt to dig a well. Lying amid About 25 meters into the bush from the the loose coral rubble in the bottom of the hole vegetation line along the lagoon shore was a was a spent .30 caliber rifle cartridge with the steel tank measuring 3 feet square by 4 feet number “43” on its base (collected as Artifact high. It was painted white with the words “Po- 2-3-W-4). This is consistent with the M-1 car- lice” and “Tarawa” dimly legible in blue. The bines carried by the Coast Guard and report- corners and bottom were very rusty and the edly used to shoot at birds.

Volume 15 p. 47 an irregularly shaped sheet of asbestos (?) roughly 18 inches square by 1/4 inch thick (fragment collected as 2-3-W-2). the rusted remains of a steel barrel or drum. a broken shard from a white porcelain plate near the plate shard were two holes in the ground about two meters apart which

The bird bones with six inch scale in foreground. TIGHAR gave the impression of having once held photo by P. Thrasher. poles upright, although no poles were in evidence. (See map of site, next page.) Beginning about 15 meters from the tank, Considering the hypothesis that the site, going toward the ocean beach, and scattered as surveyed in 1996, represents the original over the next 24 meters were: 1940 bone discovery site with an overlay of three small pieces of very fine copper later material brought there to support the screening. ( Sample collected as 2-3-W-1) “organized search” ordered by the Western a dark brown four-hole button 15 mm (a Pacific High Commission, we can subject the little over a half inch) in diameter. Material site to the same evaluation process we’ve used uncertain. (Collected as 2-3-W-5) on the other two candidate sites. a broken finished wooden stake approxi- Pro: mately 1 inch square in cross section and The 1996 Site is within a kilometer of the perhaps 18 inches long. southeastern tip of the island and so would seem to match Gallagher’s description of being at the south east corner (Point 2) and on the south east shore (Point 6) of the island. An

A half-dug well? examination and comparison of aerial photos Or the place taken in 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1941 shows that where the skull the site remained uncleared (Point 5) until was dug up? 1941 when clearing operations became evident on the ocean side but, curiously, not on the lagoon side. It appears that planting was contemplated (Point 8) but was never carried out, possibly as a consequence of Gallagher’s death in September 1941. The narrowness of the land mass at this point means that the site is both close to the TIGHAR photo by P. Thrasher. lagoon shore (Point 9) and close to the ocean beach where turtles come ashore to lay their an empty, very rusted can about the size eggs (Point 3). The presence of bird bones and shape of a can of car wax. at the site also fits Gallagher’s description but there is no way, at present, to determine a flattened roll of tar paper with green roof whether the bird bones are the same ones seen shingle material on one side. by Gallagher and later the Coast Guardsmen,

TIGHAR Tracks p. 48 or may even be the bones of a bird shot with the bullet from the carbine shell casing found nearby. However, the presence of a Ren tree and the fact that the site is roughly 100 feet above the lagoon high tide line (Point 1) are interesting.

1939

1941

Of particular note is the excavation which we originally dismissed as someone’s abortive attempt to dig a well. Upon reflec- tion, it bears little resemblance to known wells on the island and could, in fact, be where the skull which was buried by the work party that first found it, was later dug up at Gallagher’s direction (Point 7).

Volume 15 p. 49 Con: June may have been brought across the lagoon The only aspect of Gallagher’s description to Aukeraime. When Gallagher returned in of the bone discovery site that does not fit the late September he was gravely ill and died 1996 Site is that the nearest stand of cocos in within three days. 1941 is more than two miles away (Point 10). Further search operations at the 1996 Site will be difficult due to the remoteness of the Summary: area and the heavy scaevola growth, but we’re Favoring the 1996 Site: Points 1, 2, 3, 5, accustomed to dealing with those problems. 6, 7, 8, 9. One particularly attractive aspect of this site Against the 1996 site: Point 10. is that, unlike the other two candidate sites, it is remote from the settled part of the island Assessment: and appears to be relatively undisturbed since Based upon a straight quantification of the Gallagher’s time. If the excavation we found attributes described by Gallagher, the 1996 site there is, in fact, where the skull was exhumed, would seem to be the most promising of the the possibility exists that one or more teeth three candidate sites. But if the bones were may still be in the hole. Teeth can be an excel- originally found there, how did the shoes lent source of mitochondrial DNA. If DNA end up at the Aukeraime Site? Of course, any from a tooth found in that hole were matched answer is purely speculative, but because to that of Earhart’s living relatives we would we know that both sites were actively being have the conclusive proof we’ve been looking worked in 1941 it seems possible that mate- for, but for now it’s all just another hypothesis rial found after Gallagher’s departure in early to be tested when we return to Nikumaroro.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 50 The TIGHAR Niku IIIIP Hypothesis

In the course of twelve years of research, our impression of what happened to Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, and the Lockheed Electra in which they disappeared has changed and evolved many times as new information has been uncovered and old theories have been laid to rest. We fully expect that process to continue, but here is how the picture looks at this time.

At 08:43, twenty hours and thirteen minutes into the flight, and with somewhere between three and four hours of fuel remaining, Earhart and Noonan have been unable to make visual or two-way radio contact with Howland 1. Island. They implement the only procedure available to them which will minimize the chance of having to land the aircraft in the sea—they proceed southeastward on a heading of 157°.

Shortly before noon, the aircraft is landed successfully on the reef-flat at Gardner Island at low tide on the smooth stretch of coral just north of the S.S. 2. Norwich City, the ship that ran aground there eight years earlier.

That evening, the aircraft’s radio is used to send distress calls. Transmissions 3. continue for a few days.

By a week later, rougher seas and increased surf on the reef have forced Earhart and Noonan to abandon the aircraft which is now obscured from view at high tide. The castaways seek shelter from the sun in the dense bush inland and come upon a cache of provisions left behind by the rescuers of 4. the Norwich City survivors eight years earlier. When search planes from the USS Colorado are heard overhead on the morning of July 9th Earhart and Noonan are unable to reach the open beach in time to be seen. If anything of the airplane was visible through the surf, its proximity to the Norwich City led the searchers to dismiss it as debris from the shipwreck.

Volume 15 p. 51 Literally marooned on a desert island, Earhart and Noonan survive for a time but eventually succumb to any of a number of possible causes including injury and infection, food poisoning (some local fish are highly toxic), or simply thirst. Noonan dies not far from the site of their landing. 5. His bones are later found and buried by the island’s first settlers. Earhart dies at a small makeshift campsite near the lagoon shore on the island’s southeastern portion. Her remains are discovered there in 1940 by British authorities. The airplane on the reef is destroyed by surf action and the debris is scattered “downstream” across the reef-flat, along the shoreline, and into the lagoon. During the island’s period of habitation (1938—1963) the colonists 6. encounter, and in some cases recover and use, various bits of wreckage, but most of the debris is eventually swept through the main lagoon passage and deposited in the large sandy shoal just inside the passage. Those components recovered by the colonists are mostly consumed in local uses such as fishing tackle and decorative items.

Whatever now survives of NR16020 is either on the lagoon bottom or buried in the sandy shoal just inside the main passage. Some wreckage may have been pulled seaward from the original landing site and may rest on an offshore coral shelf. The apparent absence of wreckage in the shoreline vegetation at the west end of the island (as indicated by TIGHAR’s 1999 search) is probably due to earlier salvage activity by the colonists and the scouring action of signifcant weather events in subsequent years. Buoyant bits of wreckage may have washed up anywhere along the lagoon shore and may still survive deep in the dense shoreline vegetation. More scraps Today of salvaged material used by the islanders almost certainly survives in the abandoned and overgrown village. The portions of Earhart’s skeleton that were found on the island in 1940 (a skull and several arm and leg bones) and taken to Fiji for examination in 1941 may still exist. The bones that were not found (primarily the spine, ribs, half of the pelvis, hands and feet, one arm, and one lower leg) have probably now been consumed by the forces of nature. The bones that were recovered and examined may still exist but search efforts to date have been unsuccessful. Noonan’s remains may be buried in one of the graves found on the western end of the island.

GHA TM TI R

T H

E C E E J A O R R HART P

TIGHAR Tracks p. 52 The Evidence Here are the puzzle pieces that make up the picture described above. July 2, 1937 08:43 Local time

HYPOTHESIS 1 Twenty hours and thirteen minutes into • When last heard from at 08:43 (20 hours the flight, and with somewhere between three and 13 minutes into the flight) Earhart said and four hours of fuel remaining, Earhart and she was flying on a “157/337” line.(Radio Noonan have been unable to make visual or Log USCG Itasca, 2 July 1937.) two-way radio contact with Howland Island. She was not understood to say which di- They implement the only procedure available rection she was flying but U.S. Navy au- to them which will minimize the chance of thorities in 1937, Earhart’s husband George having to land the aircraft in the sea–they pro- Putnam, and her technical advisor Paul ceed southeastward on a heading of 157°. Mantz all agreed that the flight probably proceeded southeastward on the line in the SUPPORTING EVIDENCE hope of reaching land. (Report of Capt. W.L. • The aircraft’s known fuel load at departure Friedell, commanding officer USSColorado , and the power/fuel management recom- date 13 July 1937.) mendations given to Earhart by Lock- • Such a line passing through Howland heed engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, Island also passes within visual range of indicate that the aircraft should have had a Gardner Island (see map below, Nikuma- maximum endurance of roughly 24 hours. roro). (Report by Guinea Airways Manager Eric Chater dated 25 July 1937 and telegrams from Johnson to Earhart dated March 11 & North 13, 1937.) 337ϒ Gilbert 5ϒN Islands Howland Nauru Equator Baker Nukumanu Lae Nikumaroro 5ϒS Bougainville 157ϒ

150ϒE 160ϒE 170ϒE 175ϒE 180ϒ 175ϒW

Volume 15 p. 53 Secretary of State, Washington, D.C., report- July 2, 1937 ing transmission heard on Nauru.) Late Morning • The signals are heard on 6210 kilocycles, the frequency to which Earhart said she was switching in her 08:43 transmission. HYPOTHESIS 2 (Radio log USCG Itasca.) The aircraft is landed successfully on the • The unintelligibility of the voice message is reef-flat at Gardner Island at low tide on the attributed to “bad modulation or speaker smooth stretch of coral just north of the S.S. shouting into microphone.” (Message re- Norwich City, the ship that ran aground there ceived by USCG Itasca July 3, 1937.) eight years earlier. • While in Lae, New Guinea Earhart was SUPPORTING EVIDENCE advised to “pitch her voice higher to over- • Early settlers on Gardner Island (Niku- come distortion caused by rough carrier maroro) tell of an airplane wreck seen in wave” when using 6210 Kilocycles. (Report 1940,, long before any possibility of WWII by Guinea Airways Manager Eric Chater dated activity. The wreckage is said to have been 25 July 1937.) located on the reef near “where the waves • Experts at the time agree that for the air- break” and just north of the shipwreck. (In- plane to be sending radio transmissions terviews with former residents Emily Sikuli it must be on land and able to operate the and Otiria O’Brian in Fiji in July 1999.) starboard generator-equipped engine to • Photographic evidence confirms the pres- recharge its batteries. (Message received by ence of anomalous material in that loca- USCG Itasca on July 5, 1937.) tion as early as October 1937. (Photographs • Over the next few days further transmis- taken by Eric Bevington in October 1937 and sions heard by a variety of stations cause by New Zealand Pacific Aviation Expedition the Navy to concentrate its search on the in 1938/39.) islands of the Phoenix Group. (Official U.S. government message traffic July 2- 9, 1937.) • Analysis of the alleged post-loss messages July 2, 1937 using modern radio propagation software reveals many to be effectively impossible Evening but some, such as the transmission described above, appear to be highly credible. (Report by Robert Brandenburg, LCDR, HYPOTHESIS 3 USN [Ret.].) The aircraft’s radio is used to send distress calls. Transmissions continue for a few days. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE • On the evening of July 2nd, the radio station on the island of Nauru (which had heard Earhart’s in-flight transmissions the night before) hears “Fairly strong signals, speech not intelligible, no hum of plane ☞ in background, but voice similar to that emitted from plane in flight last night.” (Telegram dated 3 July 1937 addressed to U.S.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 54 • The description of the search by the Se- July 9, 1937 nior Aviator notes that “Here, signs of Morning recent habitation were clearly evident but repeated circling and zooming failed to elicit any answering wave from possible HYPOTHESIS 4 inhabitants and it was finally taken for Rougher seas and increased surf on the reef granted that none were there.” (Article have forced Earhart and Noonan to abandon entitled “Aircraft Search for Earhart Plane” the aircraft which is now obscured from view written for U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics at high tide. The castaways seek shelter from Weekly Newsletter by Lt. John O. Lambrecht, the sun in the dense bush inland and come Senior Aviator, USS Colorado.) upon a cache of provisions left behind by the • The only documented inhabitation of rescuers of the Norwich City survivors eight Gardner island prior to 1937 was a brief years earlier. When search planes from the USS stay by perhaps 20 laborers who planted Colorado are heard overhead on the morning coconut trees in 1892 for a few months. of July 9th Earhart and Noonan are unable (Lambrecht did not know the island was to reach the open beach in time to be seen. If uninhabited.) (British government report anything of the airplane was visible through “History of Gardner Island”, H.E. Maude.) the surf, its proximity to the Norwich City led the searchers to dismiss it as debris from the shipwreck. 1937/1938 SUPPORTING EVIDENCE • The captain of the S.S. Norwich City, res- HYPOTHESIS 5 cued from the island with the surviving Literally marooned on a desert island, Ear- members of his crew in 1929, wrote that: hart and Noonan survive for a time but even- “Before leaving camp all provisions, etc., tually succumb to any of a number of possible were placed in the shelter, but I sincerely causes including injury and infection, food hope that no one will ever be so unfor- poisoning (some local fish are highly toxic), tunate as to need them.” (Undated written or simply thirst. Noonan dies not far from the statement by Capt. Daniel Hamer, master, S.S. site of their landing. His bones are later found Norwich City.) and buried by the island’s first settlers. Ear- • A photograph of the Norwich City survi- hart dies at a small makeshift campsite near vors’ camp taken in 1938, shows the site to the lagoon shore on the island’s southeastern be in considerable disarray and may be an side. Her remains are discovered there in 1940 indication of later use. (Photo of “Wreck sur- by British authorities. vivors’ camp” taken by New Zealand Pacific Aviation Survey, December 1983/February SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 1939.) • In October 1937 a small British expedition • A photograph taken during the July 9, 1937 to Gardner Island noted unexplained aerial search for the Earhart plane shows “signs of previous habitation” along the that the tide was high and there was sig- southeastern lagoon shore. The site was nificant surf running on the reef at the time later described as looking “like someone of the Navy overflight. (Aerial photograph had bivouacked for the night.” (Diary of of Gardner Island dated July 9, 1937.) Eric R. Bevington, entry for October 13, 1937 and interview with Bevington in 1991.)

Volume 15 p. 55 • Anecdotal accounts by former residents approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall (not a and an American serviceman tell of the bad description of Amelia Earhart). (Pa- remains of a man and a woman discovered per prepared by Dr. Karen Ramey Burns, Dr. on the island and, in some cases, associ- Richard Jantz, and Dr. Thomas F. King for the ated with the purported airplane wreck. annual meeting of the American Anthropologi- (San Diego Union interview with Coast Guard cal Association in 1998.) veteran Floyd Kilts in 1960; TIGHAR inter- • The remains of a shoe found on Nikuma- views with Dr. Teinamati Mereki and Rev- roro by TIGHAR in 1991, in the same part erend Aberaam Abera in the Solomon Islands of the island where tradition holds that the in 1995; with Tapania Taeke on Funafuti in bones were found in 1940, has been judged 1997; with Emily Sikuli and Otiria O’Brian to be of the same vintage, style and size in Fiji in 1999.) as the shoes worn by Earhart on her final • Extensive official British government flight. (Analysis by the BiltRite Corporation records confirm the discovery in 1940 of in 1992.) the partial skeleton of a castaway who Other bones are said to have been found perished while attempting to survive on near the shipwreck by the island’s first Nikumaroro sometime prior to the island’s settlers in 1939. TIGHAR has identified at settlement in 1939. The remains of a fire, least one, and possibly two, graves in that dead birds and a turtle were present. With area. (Correspondence with Bauro Tikana in the bones were found a sextant box bear- Tarawa in 1991; interview with Emily Sikuli ing a stencilled number that is similar to in Fiji in 1999; search operation conducted in a number written on a sextant box known 1999.) to have belonged to Fred Noonan, and the remains of a woman’s shoe and a man’s shoe. Also at the site were “corks with brass chains” thought to have been 1938–1963 from a small cask and may have come from the Norwich City supply cache. Simi- larly, a Benedictine bottle found with the HYPOTHESIS 6 remains may have been part of the cache. The airplane on the reef is destroyed by Although at first suspected of being the surf action and the debris is scattered “down- remains of Amelia Earhart, the possibility stream” across the reef-flat, along the shore- is later discounted by British authorities line, and into the lagoon. During the island’s after a doctor (with no forensic training) period of habitation (1938—1963) the colonists pronounces them to be the bones of a short, encounter, and in some cases recover and use, stocky male. (Records of the Western Pacific various bits of wreckage, but most of the de- High Commission.) bris is eventually swept through the main la- • Although, so far, the present location of goon passage and deposited in the large sand the bones themselves is not known, eval- shoal just inside the passage. Those compo- uation by modern forensic anthropologists nents recovered by the colonists are mostly of measurements taken in 1941 indicate consumed in local uses such as fishing tackle that the individual who died on Niku- and decorative items. maroro was most likely a white female of northern European extraction who stood

TIGHAR Tracks p. 56 SUPPORTING EVIDENCE • Anecdotal accounts of former residents de- All of the anecdotal and photographic scribe aircraft debris seen on the reef near evidence is chronologically and sequentially the main lagoon passage, in the shoreline consistent. vegetation, and along the lagoon shore just opposite the passage in the late 1950s. (In- • The earliest accounts and photos depict a terviews with Pulekai Songivalu and Tapania large body of wreckage on the reef-flat near Taeke on Funafuti in 1997.) the ocean. (Interview with former resident • Aircraft debris consistent with the Lock- Emily Sikuli in Fiji in July 1999. Photographs heed Model 10 and, to date, not identified of anomalous material in the alleged aircraft as consistent with any other aircraft type wreck location taken by Eric R. Bevington in known or suspected to have been in the and the New Zealand Pacifc Aviation region, has been found in and near the 1937 Survey in 1938.) abandoned village on the island. (Results • The anomalous material visible in the 1937 of TIGHAR expeditions in 1989, 1991, and and 1938 photos is no longer apparent in 1996.) photos taken after December 1940 when severe weather is known to have damaged the western end of the island. (Photographs taken by the U.S. Navy in 1941 and the U.S. Today Army Air Corps in 1942; Phoenix Islands Set- tlement Scheme Quarterly Report for fourth HYPOTHESIS 6 quarter 1940 by Gerald B. Gallagher, Officer in Charge.) Whatever now survives of NR16020 is either on the lagoon bottom or buried in the • An anecdotal account describes an aircraft sandy shoal just inside the main passage. control cable used as a heavy-duty fishing Some wreckage may have been pulled sea- line leader and a large fishhook fashioned ward from the original landing site and may from aluminum by residents of Nikuma- rest on an offshore coral shelf. The apparent roro in 1944. When queried, the locals said absence of wreckage in the shoreline vegeta- the material came from “an airplane that tion at the west end of the island (as indicated was here when our people first came.” by TIGHAR’s 1999 search) is probably due to When asked where the airplane is now earlier salvage activity by the colonists and the they just shrugged. Small wooden boxes scouring action of signifcant weather events made on the island are decorated with in subsequent years. Buoyant bits of wreck- inlaid 24ST aircraft aluminum. (Interview age may have washed up anywhere along the with former USN PBY pilot Dr. John Mims in lagoon shore and may still survive deep in 1995; souvenir boxes owned by Dr. Mims.) the dense shoreline vegetation. More scraps • Two 1953 aerial photos indicate the pres- of salvaged material used by the islanders ence of light colored metal debris on the almost certainly survives in the abandoned reef-flat near the main lagoon passage and overgrown village. “downstream” of the location of the The portions of Earhart’s skeleton that anomalous material seen in the 1937 and were found on the island in 1940 (a skull and 1938 photos. The Norwich City debris is several arm and leg bones) and taken to Fiji for uniformly dark in color. (Forensic imaging examination in 1941 may still exist. The bones of 1953 aerial mapping photo.) that were not found in 1940 (primarily the spine, ribs, half of the pelvis, hands and feet, one arm, and one lower leg) have probably

Volume 15 p. 57 now been consumed by the forces of nature. been unsuccessful. Noonan’s remains may The bones that were recovered and examined be buried in one of the graves found on the may still exist but search efforts to date have western end of the island. ing Test the H ypothesis

Pre-Expedition Research

Before returning to Nikumaroro, several Nauru on the evening of July 2nd to be highly research projects need to be completed so credible. that we can further validate (or, if need be, • Forensic imaging of historical photos. modify) the working hypothesis to maximize the expedition’s chances for success. This hi-tech project has the potential for producing a photographic “smoking gun.” • Re-evaluation of the aircraft’s range and If the anomalous material visible on the reef endurance. at Nikumaroro in the 1937 and 1938 photos New information has made possible a can be shown to be aircraft wreckage, there much more detailed evaluation of the aircraft’s is only one aircraft that it could be. Air traffic performance on its final flight. Especially in in the region prior to World War Two is easy the light of recently published speculation that to document and only one aircraft is miss- the aircraft ran out of fuel at the time of the ing—Earhart’s. final radio transmission heard by theItasca , it • Verification and further analysis of is important to establish what can and can not how the western end of Nikumaroro be said about the flight’s capabilities. TIGHAR “works.” is presently assembling a blue ribbon panel of independent experts to perform a new Only recently have we come to have an evaluation. understanding of how the shape of the main lagoon passage and the force of major weather • Propagation analysis of the post-loss events out of the west and northwest seem to radio signals. create a venturi effect that greatly influences Recent software advances make pos- the distribution of any material caught up in sible a detailed computer analysis of the it. We need to consult with experts in this field various transmissions suspected at the time to learn more about where we should look. as emanating from the lost aircraft. A team of • Continued analysis of artifacts recov- TIGHAR volunteers has compiled a compre- ered. hensive list of the recorded incidents which will be databased and evaluated. It should We still have many avenues of research be possible to know which alleged post-loss to follow in learning more from the artifacts transmissions are almost certainly bogus and we’ve recovered from the island. Only a few which are more credible. This technique has of the dozens of items collected have been already shown the transmission heard by conclusively identified.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 58 • Examination of archival records and tell (like the woman who says she was shown interview of former island residents in “the grave of a pilot”). Tarawa. • Further efforts to find the bones in Fiji. We know that there are official records in Tarawa that we’ve never seen, and we’ve There is much more that could be done to heard of former residents of Nikumaroro liv- try to find a paper trail that could lead us to ing in Tarawa who have interesting stories to Earhart’s bones.

Nik The u IIII Expedition

Assuming that on-going research con- A detailed examination of Norwich City tinues to support the current hypothesis, the wreckage on the reef-flat in search of air- following search operations are contemplated craft components that may have become for NIKU IIII. hung up in the shipwreck debris. A side-scan sonar and visual scuba search Ground Penetrating Radar examination of of the lagoon bottom just inside the main the known grave and suspected grave on lagoon passage. the island’s western end and excavation of A sub-bottom profiling sonar search of the the features if warranted. sandy shoal. Further archaeological survey of the aban- Excavation of sonar “hits” in the sandy doned village. shoal using an underwater archaeolog- Detailed examination of the 1996 Site. ical suction dredge. At this time, the NIKU IIII expedition is A hand-held metal detector and visual scheduled for the summer of 2001. scuba search of the offshore ledge north of the shipwreck.

Volume 15 p. 59 GHA TM TI R

T H

E C E E J A O R R HART P

(Frequently Asked Questions)

Isn’t it more logical Isn’t it possible that Earhart was captured that the Electra sim- by the Japanese? ply ran out of gas and crashed into the Possible? Yes. It is also possible that she ocean? was kidnapped by space aliens. There just Intuitive? Yes. It’s a big ocean and isn’t any evidence to suggest that either event Howland is a tiny island. Logical? No. occured. The trouble with all of the many Howland was by no means the only island eyewitness accounts of a woman thought within range and the aircraft should have to be Earhart being captured, imprisoned, had more than enough fuel to reach an al- executed, etc., by the Japanese is that there ternate destination. Certainly the crew was is little or no agreement about where or highly motivated to reach land and Noonan when or how this was supposed to have was probably the finest aerial navigator in happened. All the stories are different and the world. A means of finding land, even there is not the first shred of real evidence if they couldn’t find Howland, was avail- to support any of them. No documents, no able to them and Earhart said, in the last photographs, no artifacts, no human re- radio transmission heard by the Itasca, that mains—just stories. Various authors have they were following that very procedure: presented documents, photos, artifacts, and running along the 157/337 line of position. even human remains to support their claims, That call came at her regularly scheduled but in each and every case the evidence has transmission time. It was not a distress call proven to be false, misrepresented, or so and Earhart said nothing about running out vague as to be meaningless. of gas or landing at sea. She did say that What the historical record does show she was changing her radio to a different is that it was a physical impossibility for frequency. The Itasca had never heard her on the Earhart flight to have reached territory that frequency, and they never heard her af- controlled by Japan and, even if it had, there ter she switched. The extensive search which was nothing there to spy on in 1937, and no followed the flight’s disappearance found military to capture her for spying on some- no evidence that the plane went into the thing that wasn’t there. water and, to this day, there is none. There is, however, abundant evidence (but, as yet, no absolute proof) that the flight reached a logical alternate destination: Gardner Is- land, now known as Nikumaroro.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 60 view the northern portion of the reef edge How hard would it be to land the Electra where the aircraft wreckage is said to have on the reef at Nikumaroro? been located. In a photo taken during the Depends on where you try. Large stretch- visit, the material on the reef is visible but es of the reef flat are smooth enough to ride not recognizable as aircraft wreckage. There a bicycle on. Other parts are pitted and quite is no reason to suspect that it would appear jagged. Today, the area where former resi- differently to the eye than to the camera. It dents say they once saw airplane wreckage should also be noted that the two British is marginal. The Electra had nice big fat tires. Colonial service officers and nineteen Gil- I’d say that you’d probably blow the tires bertese delegates who made up the expe- but wouldn’t necessarily collapse the gear dition party probably had no knowledge or flip the airplane. What it was like in that of the Earhart disappearance at the time of area 60 years ago is anybody’s guess. their three-day visit to Gardner Island. Their purpose was to assess the island for future If the Electra was on the reef at Gardner settlement and their attention was focused Island when the search planes from the upon determining whether the island’s soil battleship Colorado flew over the island a was suitable for agriculture and upon dig- week later, why didn’t they see it? ging wells in search of potable water. On the southeastern side of the island they did This question troubled us for years until come across “signs of previous habitation” new information about exactly where the described as looking as if “someone had airplane was made the answer apparent. If bivouacked for the night.” the airplane was near the ocean side of the reef where former island resident Emily Why wasn’t the Electra found when a six- Sikuli says she saw wreckage, and where man survey party from New Zealand spent anomalous material on the reef is visible two months on the island in December in early photos, the airplane was hidden 1938/ January 1939? by the crashing surf. A photograph taken during the Navy search documents that, at Many of the same factors apply to the the time of the overflight, the tide was high New Zealand survey party as applied to the and the ocean was rough enough that the earlier but much briefer British visit. The seaward portion of the reef was completely New Zealanders, too, came ashore on the obscured by surf. south side of the shipwreck which masked the possible aircraft wreck site from view, Why wasn’t the Electra found when and the focus of their work was inland and a British exploratory expedition visited on the lagoon. Like their predecessors, they Gardner Island in October 1937, just three took a photo that shows the material on the months after the Earhart disappearance? reef. The photo was taken though a hole in It does seem highly unlikely that the air- the hull of the shipwreck looking northward craft was not seen, but several factors may along the reef at high tide and is captioned have contributed to the fact that it certainly “Undertow through gap in side of wreck.” was not recognized for what it was. Con- The suspect material on the reef is visible in temporaneous written accounts and photos the photo but seems to be submerged by the show that the party made their landing on high tide and certainly is not recognizable the reef just south of the wreck of the S.S. as aircraft wreckage. (The allegation that the Norwich City. At that time, the grounded material on the reef was from an airplane ship was still intact and thus masked from comes later in the island’s history when

Volume 15 p. 61 Gilbertese fishermen had occasion to be up close to the wreckage while fishing along What about the Canton Engine? the reef edge.) An additional impediment The possibility that an engine of the same was the weather. November through March type as those used on the Earhart aircraft is the “westerly” season during which the was recovered from a reef in the Phoenix island is subject to heavy seas out of the west Group and taken by helicopter to Canton and northwest. Heavy westerly weather was Island in 1970 or 1971 remains an intriguing experienced by the survey party in the first question. A TIGHAR expedition to Canton part of January, 1939. (now Kanton) in 1998 established that the dump where the engine is said to have been Why wasn’t the Electra found when a deposited was subsequently bulldozed and U.S. Navy survey party from U.S.S. Bush- buried. Excavation is, at this time, prohibi- nell spent a week mapping the island in tively expensive. We have also been un- November 1939? able to find corroboration of the story of the As with the 1937 British visit and the engine’s recovery, despite having tracked 1938/39 New Zealand visit, the 1939 Navy down several people who were involved in survey was focused inland. The material on helicopter operations on Canton at the time. the reef was obscured by high tide at least Research continues. half of the time and, during periods of high seas, all of the time. When it was visible it was not recognizable from a distance.

H ow does this new information effect TIGHAR’s evaluation of the Wreck Photo? This puzzling photo of uncertain origin shows an extensively damaged aircraft in a tropical setting. A forensic analysis of the photo seems to suggest that the airplane is a Lockheed Electra with the large P&W R1340 engines of the C and E series of the Model 10. Is it a photo of NR16020 on Ni- kumaroro? For a while that looked like a reasonable possibility (see TIGHAR Tracks Vol. 14, No. 2 “The Wreck Photo), but Emily Sikuli’s recollections and the photographic confirmation that there was something out on the reef where she says she saw badly de- teriorated airplane wreckage, argue strongly against a largely intact body of wreckage in the shoreline vegetation as shown in the Wreck Photo. Earhart’s Electra on Nikumaroro? Probably not.

TIGHAR Tracks p. 62 TIGHAR TRACKS The First Fifteen Years

The International Group for Historic Air- By Volume 2, craft Recovery was officially born on January Number 3—the 18, 1985. The first issue ofTIGHAR Tracks was S u m m e r / F a l l newsletter TheI n t e r n a t i o n a l of Group of r H i s t o r i c Winter 1986 Aircraft Reco published later that month and was mailed very issue of 1986— © TIGHAR Vol. 2 No. to about a dozen charter members. Volume TIGHAR Tracks 1 1, Number 1 didn’t look much like the maga- had become a 12 zine you’re now reading. It consisted of one page booklet, still photocopied 11 x 17 sheet of paper folded photocopied, but into four pages. The text was typed and the ...THAT THEY MIGHT ESCAPE THE TEETH OF TIME AND stapled and with John Aubrey THE HANDS OF MISTAKEN ZEAL. 1660 W h e n p i o n e e r e x p r e s s i n g B r i t i s h a n t i q u a r i a n w h a t w a s J o h n artwork was done v a l u e , t h a t t h e y p r o v i d e u s w i t h a w i n dt o hw e no n t h e a p a sn t e wa n d , ai sd e sa u: A u b r e y w r o t e a heavier cover t h a t r e l i c s t h e s e w o r d s s t u d y . o f t h e i n 1 6 6 0 , T o d a y t h e p a s t h a v e w o r t h h e w a s m u s e u m s o f b e y o n d t h e i r Y e t w e i n t h e w o r l d s t a n d c h , m e r i t p r e s e r v a t i o n a n d p h y s i c a l t h e a v i a t i o n , w h i l e i n t e s t i m o n y l e s s o n s o f e n t h r a l l e d t o t h e w i s d o m with rub-on letters o r h i s t o r y . M a g n i f i c e n t w i t h t h e h e r i t a g e o f t h o s e on colored pa- r a r e a i r c r a f t m u s e u m s o f f l i g h t , p r i n c i p l e s . r o b b i n g . f r o m t h e f i e l d d i s p l a y g r e a t h a v e b e e n s l o w T h e r e s u l t i s t o o a i r c r a f t t o h e e d l o s e r s i s a v i c i o u s o f t e n r e m i n i s c e n t o f t h e p a s t , a r e f u t u r e s p i r a l o f t r e a s u r e b u t r e c o v e r y t e e t h o f t i m e . g e n e r a t i o n s o f t h e f t a n d h u n t i n g w h o w i l l n e v e r o f f i c i a l r e s t r i c t i o n a n d g r a v e and pasted-up line s e e t h e a r t i f a c t s i n w h i c h per. An ex- I t d o e s n o t w h i c h e v e n t u a l l y t h e r e a l s t o p t h e r e . c o n d i t i o n o n l y T o o o f t e n , s u c c u m b t o t h e of p i l o t t o b e d e s t r o y e d r a r e a n d h i s t o r i c newsletter very s u c h a i r c r a f t t h r o u g h n e g l i g e n t a i r c r a f t a r e craftReco n e e d l e s s l o s s o f i r r e p l a c e a b l e a i r c r a f t u t no d et rh se t ah na dn d s o f m i s t a k e n a n d i r r e s p o n s i b l e r e s t o r e d t o Air a n d r e s p e c t f l y i n g . a i r w o r t h y for Historic 1 drawings. There t h e i r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y O n l y w h e n oup Vol. 1 No. periment with T h i s i s w h a t t o h i s t o r y a l l w h o t h e c a u s e o f r e s p o n s i b l e a v i a t i o n a r c hT e Io Gl Ho Ag Ry , s o t h ai ts r a r ea l al n d w i l l w e The International Gr a b o u t : a z e a l . s t o p t h e © TIGHAR o v e r m i g h t e s c a p e f u l l - t i m e , i n t e r n a t i o n a l t h e t e e t h o f t i m e a n d t h e h a n d s o f m i s t a k e n z e a l . f o u n d a t i o n Winter 1985 were no photo- a real magazine h i s t o r i c a i r c r a f t t h e w o r l d d e d i c a t e d t o the involve air- opportunities many recovery While semi- graphs. to home, craft in woods, deserts, and closerjungles, there are format came with Volume 3, Number rare aircraft restoration many other to the e but inaccessible agaiambo last protected, are stored that the world’s aircraft confirmed swamp near community because of the intransigencethe of theirowner is has a grassy Classically, barn. The TIGHAR survives in to owners. a shed or t h r o u g h There were B-17E appears d in restorable The aircraft In a r e v a l u a b l e , 2 in the summer of 1987. Sixteen type-set pages disassemble the New Guinea. complete. t h a t t h e a i r c r a f t has kept Agaiambo, and o f t e n a w a r e or apathy, well preserved suspicion be remarkably that experience, can a possibility position, addition to being the lastthere surviving is example ofof the existence of the aircraftof itsconfidential. unique type, a member because its production was Pearl TIGHAR, nego- two more is- aircraft at particular that arrived are located, with two-color printing and high quality pho- this B-17s of devote the time and energyaircraft needed to track down flight of at the height when the historical famous out of fuel, rumors and, as an unbiased iden- unarmed and the owner that his Harbor, tiate with the owner TIG- Fortresses By assuring the December 7th attack. 12,700 Flying advocate. remain confidential, more than only a handful will and information Of the skies the tity and location sues of TIGHAR enemy E was photographs once darkened B-17E. The then bring Interested tos and graphics made for an attractive publi- that is a were HAR can community. Not one Only 512 restoration survive today. Forts. before the the big-tailed are brought first of collectors may submit bids whichway aircraft TIGHAR can re- be owner. In this otherwise built, but a few of the first off the line were They lay to the which would situation. the marketplace Tracks that first sent to the Pacific in late 1941 in response to into diplomatic In the weeks After months cation, but it proved to be too expensive and deteriorating expected. the hadn’t B-17s that lost to fire or buildingare encouraging.collapse. of driv- a welcome they the few results 1,000 miles got of Infamy and Initial and over a number the Day in Hawaii rumors, containing following onslaught rear guard of tracing been located the Japanese desperate barn has survived fought a ing, a Philippines year. Volume the serial number of antique aircraft never before brought to the in 1989 we went B-17E action until reinforcements23rd, 1942, could be sent. Australia restoration market. These include: February Townsville On to reach ran An OX-5 powered Curtiss Robin trying raid on Rabaul, — 41-2442, catch can The A Wright J-5 powered Curtiss Robin a catch as New Guinea. — after southeastern made A Wright J-6 powered Fairchild KR 34 fuel over swamplands — 1, Number 2 of out of the Agaiambo even the — An original Curtiss Junior back to news- grass left tall kunai landing that out An Aeronca C-3 Y soft forced crew walked — for a The earth, Two Waco UPF-7s nose uncracked. country on — Perspex most hostile termite A Fairchild PT-19 GROUP FOR HISTORIC AIRCRAFT RECOVER some of the snakes, — TIONAL through among the Agai- A Fairchild PT-23 generally remained become the — are was on slightly TION OF THE INTERNA but 41-2442 hornets to are disassembled, respectable A PUBLICA letter format and killer The aircraft a very mounds, most although in by the one of the and are endangered ambo E. potentially Late complete, they repose. aircraft is in history. of preservation, in which This recoveries on- state of the barn are avail- aviation conduct an condition Robin significant team will poor but the OX-5 fee to small TIGHAR restora- of all for a small heavier paper EARHART PROJECT a suitable TIC this year A prepa- Photographs members while retaining recovery evaluation. and recovery able to interested site will be selected TRACKS for RECEIVES DIPLOMA tion facility Watch TIGHAR cover costs. Call or write for details. will begin. AL rations APPROV update. and Number 3 The Republic of Kiribati has granted full- hart Pr oject’s Septem the magazine- approval for the Ear oceed. This was an Another key step in mounting the ber expedition to pr equisite to conduct- er expedition has been accomplished with absolutely essential pr the chartering of what is without doubt was a double Summer/Fall issue ing operations in the Phoenix Islands. The ch vessel in that part of esear ganization and ethics of the the finest r style lay out. r esearch, or ough U.S. State De- oject went thr the world. Pacific Nomad is a 115-foot entire pr esident Ier emia motor vessel operated by Marine Pacific partment channels to Pr e reviewed by the Ministry of Ltd. of Fiji. She has supported several with eight pages. The first photo appeared on T abai and wer ed scientific nment sponsor fairs in T arawa (the capital of U.S. gover e capability of Every issue Foreign Af projects and has the rar ficient Kiribati). It was a lengthy and, at times,e ocess, but in the end w serving as a completely self-suf nerve-wracking pr mission but a pledge of base for our 18 person team during the the cover of Volume 2, Number 1 in January of r eceived not just per nment of Kiribati. om the gover five weeks we’ll be at sea. featured a dif- assistance fr arawa also om T Final selection of the expedition team Official endorsement fr elease to TIGHAR of is now nearly complete, and notifica- clears the way for the r tions will go out soon to all who have 1986. It was a Japanese “Betty” bomber over- r ecent low altitude aerial photography of ed. In some ways dner Islands taken by asked to be consider ferent second McKean and Gar this is the toughest part of our job. Lockheed Orions of the Royalr Newemendous Zealand Assembling the most competent team Air For ce. These will be of cht of the islands possible is not necessarily the same as grown with tropical vines and it accompanied value in planning our sear ounding waters. choosing who wants to go the most. color (brown, and their surr hart Pr oject is on schedule The Ear esearch has and on budget. Sound r easonable hypothesis, and an editorial statement of TIGHAR’s philoso- produced a r we have assembled the tools and ap- green, blue, provals necessary to test it. All that remains is to complete the funding. The support of TIGHAR’s members has phy and purpose to save historic aircraft from oject this far and will, brought the pr e t c . ) u n t i l we’re sur e, help take it all the way to - the Phoenix Islands and back — per haps with the answer to the fate of “the teeth of time and the hands of mistaken hart. Amelia Ear 1 Vo l u m e 8 , Vol. 5 No.

zeal.” But TIGHAR Tracks was still an eight- May 1989 N u m b e r 1 page photocopied newsletter.

Volume 15 p. 63 & 2 in March of 1992 when we first used the 1990 Volume 6, Number 1 8 pages blue and silver format which has become a Volume 6, Number 2 6 pages Volume 6, Number 3 10 pages TIGHAR trademark. By 1992 the length of the Volume 6, Number 4 8 pages “shorter” newsletter was up to a dozen pages Volume 6, Number 5 10 pages and with Volume 8, Number 4 we adopted the magazine-style 1991 Volume 7, Number 1 8 pages cover and lay out Volume 7, Number 2 12 pages Volume 7, Number 3 10 pages CKS conventions now A Y Volume 7, Number 4 12 pages TR AFT RECOVER

GROUP FOR HISTORIC AIRCR in use. L TIGHARTIONA Volume 7, Number 5 10 pages OF THE INTERNA TION A PUBLICA Chronic short- ages of time and 1992 Volume 8, Number 1 & 2 12 pages money have Volume 8, Number 3 12 pages Volume 8, Number 4 16 pages meant a sporadic publication 1993 Volume 9, Number 1 16 pages schedule. This Volume 9, Number 2 16 pages was especially Volume 9, Number 3 16 pages true this past Volume 9, Number 4 16 pages year when two 1994 Volume 10, Number 1 16 pages simultaneous V o lume 8, Number 4 Volume 10, Number 2 16 pages © TIGHAR 1992 expeditions in the September 15, 1992 Pacifc and the lack of a sponsor for 1995 Volume 11, Number 1 24 pages the magazine’s productions costs meant put- Volume 11, Number 2 24 pages Volume 11, Number 3 24 pages ting all of 1999’s work into one giant issue. In Volume 11, Number 4 24 pages 2000 we plan to return to a more normal schedule but we still need to find a sponsor to cover 1996 Volume 12, Number 1 24 pages the $5,000 quarterly production costs. Volume 12, Number 2 & 3 48 pages For long-time members who are won- 1997 Volume 13, Number 1 & 2 40 pages dering if their collection of back issues is complete, here’s a listing of what has been 1998 Volume 14, Number 1 24 pages published: Volume 14, Number 2 24 pages

1985 Volume 1, Number 1 4 pages 1999 Volume 15, Number 1–4 72 pages Volume 1, Number 2 4 pages Volume 1, Number 3 8 pages All back issues of TIGHAR Tracks are now available as high-quality computer facsimiles 1986 Volume 2, Number 1 8 pages (including graphics, photos, and color where Volume 2, Number 2 10 pages Volume 2, Number 3 12 pages originally included) at a cost of $10 per issue. Most issues from Volume 8, Number 4 to the 1987 Volume 3, Number 1 16 pages present are available as original magazines at Volume 3, Number 2 16 pages a cost of $5 per issue. 1988 Volume 4, Number 1 20 pages Volume 4, Number 2 16 pages

1989 Volume 5, Number 1 4 pages Volume 5, Number 2 8 pages Volume 5, Number 3 4 pages 1989 Volume 5, Number 4 6 pages Volume 5, Number 5 6 pages

TIGHAR Tracks p. 64 Appendix: Interviews Consolidated Notes From Meeting/Interview With Emily Sikuli

No recording was made of Tom King’s interview of Emily Sikuli on July 15, 1999. The transcript reproduced here was compiled from the extensive notes taken by the researchers. Translations to and from the Tuvaluan by Mr. Tofiga have been omitted.

July 15, 1999 Location: Residence of Foua Tofiga

Tom King, Kristin Tague and Barbara Norris were there. [holds up hands in circle, appar- met with Mrs. Emily Sikuli, daughter of Temou ently indicating that the struts were round in Samuela (the bone box builder), at 11:00 a.m. cross-section, about 20 cm. in diameter] It for approximately one and a half hours. The was around that area were the bones were purpose of our meeting was to interview Emily found. Could be bones from the ship or the regarding time she spent on Nikumaroro, her airplane. During the westerlies, heavy swells experiences there, recollections of her father took the rest of the bones away. There were and Gallagher and the discovery/recovery of not many that we found. Maybe 10 different the bones suspected by Mr. Gallagher of being people whose bones were found along that those of American aviator, Amelia Earhart. area. There were some with leather bottles Emily began our meeting by agreeing that and a pipe. I used to accompany my father to Niku was indeed a beautiful place. She gave us fish. Some people would not go to that area to an opportunity to view photos of her mother fish because they were frightened. You would and father and later photograph and photocopy come up on the reef, then the beach comes up them. A pleasant, spry woman, approximately where the island shrubs start to grow. [with 72 years old, Emily answered questions posed to gestures and words, she and Foua indicated her by Dr. King and interpreted by Foua Tofiga. the storm surge line and first Scaevola line in TK: Your father is kind of a famous man to from the beach] That is where the bones were us, because we’re trying to find that box he found. built. TK: What kind of things did your father ES: [smiles, gets photocopies out of a folder] make? Here is his picture, and a picture of my mother. ES: My father made rings and combs, and [we examine, comment, Barb takes a pic- things with inlaid wood. He made rings out ture] of golden coins. He built things of wood. The TK: We are all interested about the bones in box he made for the bones was not as big as the box. Can you tell us something about the a usual coffin size. I don’t know what timber circumstances of that day? was used. [To demonstrate the box size, Tom used his hands to get an approximate mea- ES: The bones were found in the sea on Niku- surement of 12—15 inches deep and 24 inches maroro. There was a boat that was wrecked, in length.] I didn’t see the actual bones. I don’t but that boat belonged to New Zealand and know how many bones, but it must not have that part of the island was named for New been many or the box would have been bigger. Zealand. Where the boat was on the reef. Not Many planks were used. Boards were nailed, too far from there, is where the plane came stained and varnished. My father often worked down. [shown map at this point, she indicates with kanawa wood. area north of Norwich City on reef] [She walked clear around the island three [Up to this point the interviewers had not said times with her father, a great fisherman. This a word about an airplane, just the box, the came out in the context of discussing how bones, and her father. However, Foua Tofiga important her father was in the community, had talked with Emily, arranging for the in- both as carpenter and a fisherman, and how terview, and later recalled that he had men- close she was to him. She said she was raised tioned that we were interested in bones and like a man, because she was the oldest in her an airplane.] sibling set. TK: Where were the parts of the airplane? TK: Did you see the plane fall? ES: Not far from where the ship was. Not to- ES: No, it was already there when I came. ward the village but away from it. The struts I came in 1938-1939, when I was 11 years

Volume 15 p. 65 Appendix: Interviews

old. I left in December 1941. The steel of the ES: It was special, but there was no real rush plane was there sometime before we got there. to complete the job quickly. I don’t know when .asked specifcally about aluminum, she says the bones were removed from the island] no] Fishermen found the bones. They were TK: Please clarify about the bones. Were the frightened and they brought the story of them 10 skeletons/bodies separate from the bones to the Onotoa man. that were put in the box? TK: Was that Koata? ES: The bones of the 10 people were toward ES: [she smiles broadly as in recognition] the shoreline, but these bones [the bones in Yes. the box her father made] were found on the TK: What did Koata do? reef near the remaining parts of the plane. People decided these bones were from the ES: He sent people to bring the bones. People people from the plane. When I used to go to were frightened. Only people working for the the place, the bones of the 10 people were still government received the bones. My father had there. People who found the bones near the to look at the bones. Mr. Gallagher asked my plane were frightened to touch them. They told father to make the box. Teng Koata of the bones and he told Gallagher. TK: What other kinds of things did your father Koata had them collect the bones for Gallagher. make? Until I left the island, I hadn’t heard anything ES: My father had ceased making rings at that about what had happened to those bones. The time [not done in the Phoenix Islands]. He was government put restrictions that children were working for the government. He constructed not to frequent that area. houses, maintained the European houses, the TK: Did people use parts of the airplane? hospital and he went fishing. He helped with ES: I don’t know for sure. When we got there the ministry. He took the lead in the systematic only the steel frames were left, only the long planting of the coconut trees. He brought the pieces were there. We were frightened to coconut seedlings from my uncle from Manra, go close to the plane. Where the shipwreck in 1939. was—the remainder of the plane was not very TK: When did you get to Nikumaroro? far from there. The waves were washing it in ES: We had not been on Beru Island a year low tide. The 10 people had complete skel- when we were sent to Nikumaroro. Perhaps etons. Looking at those people, they could be 1938-39. In less than 3 years, I left Nikuma- tall people. They were very long. People were roro. afraid of all the bones in both places. TK: What caused your family to move to Niku- TK: With this map of Niku, can you find where maroro? you lived? ES: Instructions from the government to build ES: We lived at the point at the government houses and plant coconuts. Uncle Kemo went station. [She then confirmed the location of to Manra to build the hospital building and the carpenter’s house, the European house, water tank. the cook boy’s house, the police and the hospital.] TK: How old were you when your father built the box? TK: Any other parts of the island where people went regularly? ES: 14 years old, not yet 15. I had been around the island three times with my father. I fol- ES: Only where they intended to clear and plant lowed him and sometimes we would turn over coconut trees. The trees had been cleared to turtles. the SE end [gestures over map down past Aukauraime]. TK: Where were the turtles mostly? TK: Do you know of any graves away from the ES: On the weather side. The government used village? to send people across the lagoon to pick up the turtles. ES: Only those who died while we were there. [TK: it seemed to me she indicated that she [In an unrelated offering at this time, Emily didn’t know of any graves not in the village.] commented that Niku was a pleasant place to live because of knowing Mr. Gallagher and Jack TK: Where you there when Mr. Gallagher “Uncle Kemo” Pedro, who was also a singer died? and composer. Jack had three sons in the ES: No, I wasn’t. [she has a brief conversation Gilbertese and Marshall Islands, one son now with Mr. Tofiga] NO! I WAS there. When I was holding a senior position in the government of picked up [to go to Suva to attend nursing the Marshall Islands.] school] he had already died. It was Sunday TK: When your father was building the box was morning, we were getting ready for church, it special? December 7th, when I left. [Emily traveled to

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Suva with Tofiga who remembers that she cried still alive. She lives in Suva. all night long and he felt helpless to comfort TK: Any special areas the children were not her.] allowed to go to? TK: What was it like when Mr. Gallagher ES: I never felt frightened because I always died? followed my father. Restrictions were placed ES: The people were very sad. They did a lot to by Koata. show respect. The people gathered and made TK: Did you ever hear about a place on Niku- funeral arrangements. There was expression maroro called Niurabo, or about Nei Mangani- of respect because he was a good man. During buka? storms and westerlies, he would go around and check on people’s houses. He made sure we ES: [she gets rather stiff] We all were Chris- had food. My father built his tomb. Fasimata tians. O’Brian was the wireless operator then. He was TK: Where did kanawa trees grow? a ginger-haired man. ES: Here [points out location of Kanawa Point]. [At this point Sarah, Emily’s daughter, inter- They were quite large. jected, “When mum gets homesick she talks TK: Were there other places where they about her father. My mother wants my sons grew? to be like my grandfather. He cared about his family, was a good worker, a good provider. ES: [shakes her head] When he went fishing he would catch a lot and Emily said that when she left the island a then share with everyone. My grandmother canoe was sent through the surf near Kanawa died when she was 89. My grandfather when Point where she was picked up and taken out he was 72.”] to the ship. TK: Any other Nikumaroro residents on Fiji? Present with Mrs. Sikuli were Ric Gillespie, Kris Tague, Russ Matthews, Foua Tofiga, and ES: Nei O’Brian, the wireless operator’s wife is Emily’s daughter Sarah. Emily and Mr. Tofiga, Transcript of Videotaped Interview With Emily Sikuli

Ric Gillespie’s interview with Emily Sikuli on July 27, 1999 was videotaped by team member Russ Matthews and has been transcribed below. Ric, of course, had the benefit of having seen the notes of the earlier interview. Translations to and from the Tuvaluan by Mr. Tofiga have been omitted.

July 27, 1999 At Mrs. Sikuli’s home near Suva, Fiji

who served as translator, sat on a sofa facing the American company run by Mr. Allen. My father video camera operated by Russ. Ric sat on the was working there, 1923. floor beside the camera. Kris and Sarah sat to RG: What was your father’s name? the sides. The interview lasted for about an hour and a half from 10:30 a.m. to about noon. ES: Temou Samuela [pronounced Tim-Oh-oo Emily appears to understand English fairly well Sa-moo-AY-loo] but is hesitant to speak English herself. She fre- RG: What were you called? quently did not wait for Mr. Tofiga to translate ES: They called me Emily. That American man short, simple questions but always answered in called me Emily. her native Tuvaluan which was then translated by Mr. Tofiga. (Tuvaluan is the language of the RG: Any brothers or sisters? people of the island group formerly known as ES: Three brothers, I was the only girl. the Ellice Islands, now the independent nation RG: What did your father do? of Tuvalu. Mr. Tofiga and Mrs. Sikuli were both born in the Ellice Islands.) ES: He was a carpenter and did some engi- neering. Also, electrical, taught by Mr. Allen. RG: What year were you born? RG: How did your family come to Nikuma- ES: On Funafuti at the company station of an roro?

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ES: My father was then working for the gov- derstand. No plane arrived or crashed while ernment. The government posted him there to you were at the island. But, people said that build houses and also because he knew how before the people came a plane had crashed to plant coconut trees so they would grow fast there near the ship. And when you refer to the and bear quickly, in two years. ship you mean the ship that was on the reef, RG: Did the whole family come to Nikuma- that was aground. roro? ES: It is true. ES: Only three of us. Our eldest brother was RG: Did you ever see any part of that plane? at Tarawa. ES: Only the frame, a piece of steel. RG: Did your father ever work at building ca- [Mr. Tofiga offers clarification, “Uh, it’s not a noes? piece. The term she uses ‘afiti’, it could be ES: Yes, he used to build canoes. this long or this long.” Moves his hands close RG: Was that part of his job on Nikumaroro? together then far apart. “ But it’s steel. Only the framework.”] ES: Not while I was there. He did build small model canoes as presents. RG: And where was this piece? RG: Do you remember what ship brought the ES: Nearby that wrecked ship. It was not far family to Niku? from there. From about here to that house. [She points to a house across the road.] ES: It was the government ship, Kiakia. Not a big boat. RG: OK. That’s probably 100 meters. Was it on land or in the water? RG: Were there many people who came with you? ES: On the rocky part. It was not far from where the waves break. ES: A policeman and his family came also. RG: Let’s look at a map. If you could show us RG: Do you remember what year you arrived the shipwreck? at Niku? ES: Is this the part called Nutiran? [points to ES: The year we came off the island I had al- northwestern end of island] Maybe this is the ready spent two years there. place. [points to the small ship symbol on the RG: When you first came to Nikumaroro, were map] It was not very far from that place. there any Europeans living there? RG: [explaining map] This part here is the rock. ES: No. The waves of the ocean break out here. The RG: Who was in charge of things? Who was the beach with the sand is here. boss? ES: That means this is where that plane was. ES: In those days the leader of the Gilbertese It was not very far from the ocean where the was Teng Koata. waves break. That’s why the parts of the plane got carried away quickly. That frame was also RG: What kind of man was Teng Koata? very rusty. ES: Tall man, and big. RG: Could you put a mark on the map where RG: A happy man? a strict man? A jolly man? the plane was? ES: He doesn’t speak often. What he wants ES: [marks the map] It was here. done must be done. RG: And on the back of the map could you draw RG: Oh. A strong leader. a picture of what you saw? ES: Yes. ES: It was a long steel. [draws a line] There was RG: Were the people afraid of him? a round part of it. [adds a small solid circle at the end of the line] I do not know what part ES: They obeyed him because, as people of the plane it was. We were forbidden to go worked, he worked along with them. there. I was following my father. When I went RG: When Dr. King and Kris talked to you be- there my father stopped me. fore, you told them about an airplane wreck on RG: Did you go out on the rock or did you only Nikumaroro when you got there. I’d like you see it from where the sand is? to tell me what you know about that. I’d like to hear your story. ES: Only from the sandy part. ES: When we went there, no plane came dur- RG: How big was this piece? ing that time. Until we came off, no plane had ES: About four arm spans. [holds her arms come. We only heard that there was a plane out] that crashed near that ship. RG: So it might fit in this room? RG: Let me repeat this back to be sure I un- ES: Yes, barely. It was a big plane. [the room

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was perhaps twelve feet long] RG: But you do remember that Gallagher— RG: How did you know that this was part of an Kela— came to the island. airplane? ES: We had not been there one year when Kela ES: I heard it from those who were there before arrived. These were the war years. That’s when us that it was part of an airplane. the European came. We heard the news about the war. RG: So the people on the island said that this was part of an airplane. RG: When you lived on Nikumaroro did the people have any animals with them? ES: Yes. ES: No. RG: Did the people know anything about the people who were in the airplane? RG: No animals? ES: I didn’t hear a story in connection with ES: No. that. RG: No dogs? RG: Were there ever any bones found on Niku- ES: No. maroro? RG: No pigs? ES: Yes. ES: No. RG: What can you tell us about the bones that RG: No chickens? were found? ES: No. ES: Some Gilbertese went to fish, they saw in the shallows some pools, at the place where RG: You know Mrs. O’Brian. the plane crashed, some bones, and they knew ES: Yes. these were human bones because of the skull RG: Have you ever talked to her about Niku and bone. They went and reported to Teng Koata, living there? there were bones. So from that they assumed that these must have been the bones of those ES: Yes. Those years when Fasimata was still who were in the plane when it crashed. These alive we would talk about the good things of were under the plane, near the plane. This was Nikumaroro. Very difficult times, too. near the top end of the steel. RG: Did you ever talk to Mrs. O’Brian about the RG: Did you see the bones? airplane wreck on Niku? ES: I didn’t see them. We were forbidden, but ES: No. We did not discuss about the crashed my father told us. airplane but we all have heard, knew about this. We also all knew about these bones. RG: Were the bones found while you were on the island or did this happen before? RG: Were any other bones ever found on Niku? ES: These bones were found when we had already arrived on the island. These Gilber- ES: Only these few bones they found. They do tese came and found bones and reported to a search around that area but they found no Teng Koata. Then Teng Koata took them to other bones. Only these big bones that they the European. So it was arranged for a box found. I do not know how many. My father to be made for the bones and the bones were knew. brought. There were not many bones. RG: Do you know of any other people who are RG: And your father made the box? now alive who were there and may also know these stories? ES: Yes, it was he who built the box. ES: I don’t believe so. Otiria is still alive. I don’t RG: What kind of wood did he use? know of anyone who is still alive and living in ES: That I do not know because it was made Fiji. out of timber belonging to the government. RG: Anywhere else? RG: Do you remember when the European ES: The majority of the people were moved to magistrate, Mr. Gallagher—Mr. Kela— the Solomon Islands. ES: Yes, it was his time. RG: Did you ever know a man named Bauro RG: Do you remember when he first came to Tikana? the island? ES: He worked for the government? ES: I do not know. RG: Yes. RG: Was there ever a time when there were ES: I knew him. He was a clerk. They did not Europeans who came to the island to do have any children. things? RG: Did you know of a man named Kima Pet- ES: No. ro?

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ES: [big smile] Our uncle. He married my aun- ES: [shakes head] [show her map] The kanawa tie. my father found was somewhere around this RG: Was there a wireless on the island? side. Not many. [pointing to Kanawa Point] Not near the sea but right on the land. ES: Yes, there was. Fasimata O’Brian operated it. Right inside the European’s house was the RG: Not near the sea side. wireless. ES: No, on higher land. RG: Tell me about when you left Niku, when RG: When your father built the box for the you went away. How did that happen? bones, who asked him to do that? ES: That was the year we came away. It was ES: The European. the government that made that decision. Be- RG: Did the European speak the local lan- cause we sat a test and it was decided that it guage? was not practical to send us to Tarawa but to bring us to Suva. ES: A few words but he understood the Gilber- tese. RG: Was it your whole family or just you? RG: What did he look like? ES: It was I only. ES: The European? RG: So there was a test and you were selected because of this test? RG: Yes. ES: Yes. That is why I came. ES: He looked like him [pointing at Russ]. About his size or a little taller but he was slim. RG: Mr. Tofiga, I understand that you rememe- ber this. You were there at that time. Is that RG: Do you remember when the European right? died? FT: I was aboard the Viti. We travelled from ES: Yes, he had an operation before. Not very here in the late November or early December long thereafter he died. of 1941. I never forget the date because RG: So, you were still on the island at that we were at Nikumaroro when the Japanese time. bombed Pearl Harbor. ES: Yes. RG: Do you remember hearing about the bomb- RG: Do you know if the European knew about ing of Pearl Harbor? the airplane wreck? ES: Yes. ES: In that connection I really no not know. RG: So you left Nikumaroro at that time, the Perhaps. time the war in the Pacific began. Is that RG: But Koata knew about it? right? ES: Yes. The Gilbertese people because they ES: Yes. were there before. RG: Did you ever go back to Niku? RG: Was there ever a time when Koata left the ES: No. island? RG: Do you know of a kind of wood called ES: No. Also, when those people went there kanawa? the airplane had already crashed before. There ES: Yes, that is the one my father was seeking were no people there. after. RG: Do the Gilbertese people believe in RG: Did this kind of wood grow on Nikuma- ghosts? roro? ES: Oh yes [laughs] . They’re the ones who ES: There were many of the species called buka make black magic. bai and also the other tree called nonou, the RG: Were the Gilbertese afraid of ghosts? fruit of which is edible. And also kanawa and ES: Those who do such are the ones who do naisou and towsoon. These are the trees that not believe. They are frightened. Those who grow on the beach. believe are not frightened. RG: And your father was especially interested RG: Were there any stories about ghosts on in one kind of wood? Niku? ES: He wanted the kanawa because it is useful. ES: I haven’t heard any stories about that. He made tables out of it, and chairs. RG: So the people, for example, were not fright- RG: Did kanawa grow all over Nikumaroro? ened by the bones that were found. ES: No, not many. ES: Yes, they were frightened when they saw RG: Did it grow in one place or were there just the skull. They went straight to Koata. some trees...

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RG: When the European died, were they fright- ES: Yes, I was accompanying my father. ened by that? Did they associate that with any RG: And what was he doing there? stories about ghosts or bones? ES: Because he usually goes out to search out ES: No. They were not frightened. They were the various trees. The government only allows sad. him to go in. RG: Where was he buried? RG: Did you see the plane wreck just one time ES: Below the flag. It was my father who made or many times? the tomb. ES: Two times. When we passed that place I RG: What was the tomb made of? saw it. He wouldn’t let me go out to the wreck ES: Concrete. Directly under the flag. because of the government ban. RG: Was that done at the time or later? Russ: What color was the wreckage that you drew on the map? ES: Later. Maybe about a month or so after that. ES: It was very rusty. RG: Before you talked to Dr. King and to Kris, RG: What color rust? what did you know about what we’re doing, ES: Very red. When it is seen at low tide. Not our project? Did you know that we were look- observable at high tide. At low tide it could be ing for bones or an airplane on Nikumaroro? seen. Very rusty, bad, useless. ES: Perhaps he wanted to know the true story RG: Was there other wreckage or debris around of what happened? it or all by itself? FT: May I repeat the question? [repeats ques- ES: Nothing. tion in Tuvaluan] RG: Did the people in the village have any ES: In connection with that I do not know. pieces? RG: Do you know the name Amelia Earhart? ES: No. ES: What kind of person is she? Where does RG: You saw none of the other parts of the she come from? plane. The aluminum, the shiny parts? RG: America. ES: No, all gone. Nothing. ES: Is she alive? Kris: Are any of your brothers who lived on Niku Russ: You said there was a part of the island still living? that was forbidden. Why was it forbidden? ES: The younger one. ES: It was forbidden because of the bones of Kris: Where does he live? the New Zealanders who died on the ship- ES: Funafuti. wreck. They thought the government may send in people to look for the bones. Kris: When did the rest of the family leave Niku? RG: So there was a place where there were bones from people who died on the ship? ES: After the war. ES: I really don’t know that. There were people RG: What’s his name? who used to go on board the wrecked ship. ES: Taete. He is five years younger. My father also went there. No ordinary people Russ: When did you first see a working air- where allowed to go there. plane? RG: When you saw the piece of steel from ES: 1938. The warship Achilles came to Funa- the plane wreck, you were with your futi. Before the ship reached Funafuti father? GHA TM the airplane came over. TI R

T H

E C E E J A O R R HART P

Volume 15 p. 71 If you’ve read this far, you know that TIGHAR Tracks is not just an ordinary magazine. You’ve probably noticed there aren’t any ads, and that the standards of research, writing and presentation are very high.

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