THE BOAT THAT REFUSED TO BE BURNT PART 3

( What has happened so far... God saves the boat; only the gasoline and some of the rigging burn. The natives take the boat to a creek and dismantle it)

For almost three years the Japanese controlled the Morovo lagoon but despite careful patrol of the lagoon's waters, they did not discover the boat hidden in the creek. The Japanese hoped to use this lagoon and its outlet to the ocean as a path to supply their troops in Guadalcanal. Allied bombers thwarted their efforts dealing death and destruction to Japanese battleships and transports as they endeavored to traverse the lagoon on their way to the sea. The creek where the Portal was hidden lay in the path of the bombers but despite almost constant bombardment not once did a bomb find its way to the schooner.

The Japanese made the Seventh day Adventist's Christian mission station located at Batuna their headquarters. When the Allies regained the Solomon Islands from the Japanese in 1945, Pastor Norman Ferris, who had worked as a missionary to this area for over twenty years, was flown into Batuna by American forces. After the shouting and hugs had subsided, Pastor Ferris saw some of the men launch a canoe at the beach.