Sālote was six months pregnant when she became queen. Her first child arrived on 4 July 1918, born at the Royal Palace, Crown Prince Tupouto’a-Tungi. He was a 43rd-generation direct descendant of Aho’eitu, the first supreme ruler of Tonga, who lived in the 10th century. George would have a lifetime of various names and on his first trip to New Zealand, as a four-year-old, newspapers called him ‘George Wellington’.
On 12 November 1918, four months after 18-year-old Sālote had become queen and 18 weeks after the birth of her child, a New Zealand ship docked in Nuku’alofa. Talune was a 2087 ton passenger cargo ship that ran out of Auckland, serving Fiji, Sāmoa, Tonga and occasionally Niue and the Cook Islands. On her latest trip she had already discharged and picked up passengers and cargo in Suva, Āpia and the northern Tonga ports of Neiafu and Ha’apai. Never quarantined at any port, Talune also delivered a A/H1N1 virus, then known as Spanish influenza (a full account of its South Pacific disaster ‘There is sickness in this boat’). Talune had been anchored for 24 hours in Āpia with passengers, including a young mother and newborn daughter. Both survived and the mother became hotelier Aggie Grey. Two soldiers on board died of influenza and were buried at sea. Another made it to Auckland but died soon after. Talune stopped first at Neiafu in Vava’u on 10 November. Captain John Mawson declared he had sick passengers and was told in reply there was already influenza ashore so there was no point in quarantine. The next day the ship was at Ha’apai where there were no medical officials or checks. It sailed on to Nuku’alofa, arriving 12 November. An acting health officer and a customs officer boarded. Next day they were sick; a week later they were dead. On the ship 70 Fijian labourers, taken aboard to do cargo work, were lying on the deck, sweltering with fever and too ill to work. Seven of the ten sailors aboard were unfit to crew the vessel. Tevita Tualau, 21, was the first recorded Tongan fatality, dying on 15 November. With little outside contact, Tonga had no idea what fate had in store. When the virus hit, Tonga ceased to exist as a state for six weeks. Sālote showed no power or control. Forty years later, Sālote told Canadian anthropologist Elizabeth Bott Spillius: ‘Everything came to a standstill. There was no social life – people crept into their houses to die. Some died because they were too weak to get food. The Consul … organised a soup kitchen and handed out food to the people who were strong enough to come for it… People were buried like dogs – no ceremonies, just bundled into the graves….’ A man described as a lunatic, Fakafuli, worked at the palace and did not get influenza. He was the only one who could go out for food.
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