WITHOUT THE COCONUT, THE REST WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE
Cross Island (JFK+50) On August 6, 1943, Lt. John F. Kennedy along with two friendly natives, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, canoed to Cross Island to pick up Ensign Barney Ross. JFK found a coconut and with his knife, carved a message on it and asked the natives to take it to the coast watcher on Wana Wana.
The message reads...
"Nauro Isl - Commander - Native Knows Posit - He Can Pilot - 11 Alive - Need Small Boat - Kennedy"
The natives canoed to Rendova Harbor 38 miles away with the coconut message...soon help would be on the way to rescue the survivors of PT109.
After the rescue, JFK managed to retrieve the coconut and later had it encased in wood and plastic. According to the JFK Library, "history does not record" how JFK got the coconut back. It was displayed on his desk in the Oval Office at the White House and today it is on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
Dave Powers, JFK's Presidential assistant and later curator, said that it was the most important object in the library because without it all the rest would have never been possible.
SOURCES
"Coconut shell paperweight with PT109 rescue message," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/
"11 ALIVE...NEED SMALL BOAT...KENNEDY," Letters of Note, April 20, 2011, www.lettersofnote.com/
"PT 109, John F. Kennedy in WWII," by Robert J. Donovan, McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, 1961, 2001.
"Why JFK kept a Coconut Shell in the Oval Office," by Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine, August 2, 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/
Cross Island (JFK+50) On August 6, 1943, Lt. John F. Kennedy along with two friendly natives, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, canoed to Cross Island to pick up Ensign Barney Ross. JFK found a coconut and with his knife, carved a message on it and asked the natives to take it to the coast watcher on Wana Wana.
The message reads...
"Nauro Isl - Commander - Native Knows Posit - He Can Pilot - 11 Alive - Need Small Boat - Kennedy"
The natives canoed to Rendova Harbor 38 miles away with the coconut message...soon help would be on the way to rescue the survivors of PT109.
After the rescue, JFK managed to retrieve the coconut and later had it encased in wood and plastic. According to the JFK Library, "history does not record" how JFK got the coconut back. It was displayed on his desk in the Oval Office at the White House and today it is on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
Dave Powers, JFK's Presidential assistant and later curator, said that it was the most important object in the library because without it all the rest would have never been possible.
SOURCES
"Coconut shell paperweight with PT109 rescue message," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/
"11 ALIVE...NEED SMALL BOAT...KENNEDY," Letters of Note, April 20, 2011, www.lettersofnote.com/
"PT 109, John F. Kennedy in WWII," by Robert J. Donovan, McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, 1961, 2001.
"Why JFK kept a Coconut Shell in the Oval Office," by Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine, August 2, 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/
JFK's Coconut Message Paperweight
JFK Library Photo
