The Forgotten Castaways of Tromelin Island

In 1761, the French ship Utile was illegally transporting Malagasy men, women, and children to be sold as slaves. The ship wrecked on a small sand bar in the Indian Ocean called the Isle of Sand, later renamed Tromelin Island. They were 280 miles from the coast of Madagascar. The crew and the Malagasy people spent the next two months building a smaller boat from the wreckage of the Utile. but when it came time to sail off, there was not room to take everyone. The 122 surviving French crew members sailed off and left 60 Malagasy men and women behind, promising to send a ship for them. 

But that never happened. Those left behind had no choice but to do the best they could while waiting for rescue. Fifteen years later, a ship managed to dock at Tromelin Island and found the survivors, seven women and a baby, still making do every day.