Poon Lim was born in China in 1918, and during world war 2 he started working on-board an armed British merchant ship, the SS Ben Lomond. It was on a routine trip from Cape town on its way to the capital of Suriname, on the north coast of south America.
On November 23rd, 1942, the ship was ambushed by the German U-boat U-172 who made direct hits with 2 torpedo’s. There was a crew of 55 on-board the Lomond, 44 crew, 8 gunners, the captain and Poon Lim, and in the initial explosion all but 6 of them died.
The ship sank in no more than 2 minutes, with the surviving crewmen running around frantically looking for the emergency rafts. Lim managed to grab a life jacket before jumping off the ship and trying to get far enough away from it so it didn’t suck him under.
He stayed afloat in the sea, some 750 miles off the coast of South America for 2 hours before he spotted a raft floating amongst the debris. Climbing aboard his new 8 foot square wooden raft he found various supplies, including a 40 litres jug of water, some food and a few pieces of equipment.
After he got onto the raft he recalls knowing at that point he was the only survivor, the other 5 people who didn’t die in the initial explosion seemed to have already drowned.
He survived drinking his 40 litre jug and topping it up with rainwater using a canvas life jacket covering he fashioned into a rain catcher. Since the flashlight he found in the rafts equipment didn’t work anymore, he took a wire out to use as a fish hook, also making a larger hook for bigger fish out of a nail he pulled out of the rafts board.
He used some hemp cord he found on the raft to use as fishing line, and also to make a drying line were he would dry fish jerky in the sun over his raft. He recalls how one time a storm hit unexpectedly and it ruined his dried fish and splashed sea water into his drinking supply.
He managed to catch a bird the next day and drank its blood to stay alive. He even used some of it as bait to catch a small shark which he drank the blood straight from its liver and dried its fins on his hemp drying line for later.
He saw several ships over the next few weeks but all but one appeared to miss him. He recalls how one ship, a large freighter were watching him shouting and jumping up and down, but did nothing help or even signal him. He believes the reason is because they may have thought he was Japanese and there for an enemy, or perhaps believing it to be a trap from a nearby waiting U-boat.
One day after well over 100 days at sea, Lim noticed the colour of the water had changed from a dark blue suggesting very deep water, to a lighter colour, giving him hope that he was nearing land. A few days later on April 5th, 1943 after being alone in a wooden raft for 133 days, 3 Brazilian fishermen rescued him on the mouth of a river inlet he had floated to.
Despite losing 20lbs, which is actually pretty good considering, he was still able to walk and was taken to hospital were he spent 4 weeks recovering. He was awarded the British Empire Medal by King George VI and his story was added to the Royal navy’s manual of survival techniques.