Poon Lim, a Chinese seaman,
held the world’s record as a sea survivor after floating alone on a
life raft in the South Atlantic for 133 days. When told of the record,
he said, “ I hope no one will ever have to break it.”
A 25 year old seaman from
Hainan Island, off the
south coast of China, Poon Lim shipped out as a second steward on the
British merchant
ship Ben Lomond. The ill fated vessel left Cape Town carrying a
crew of 55. It was
torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat on November 23 1942. The ship was sinking
rapidly, so Poon Lim
leaped over the side. He had tied a life jacket around himself, so he
surfaced and swam as
quickly as he could away from the freighter and the futile calls for
help of his
shipmates.
When the ship's boilers
exploded, the Ben
Lomond sank below the surface of the Atlantic. Poon Lim paddled in
the water, holding
his head as high as he could above each wave in hope of spotting a life
raft. Poon Lim's first concern was simply
to stay alive. He gulped air when he
could and kept his head above the waves. After struggling for two hours
he saw a life raft
several hundred feet away. He swam to it and climbed aboard.
His raft was built of
timbers and was 8 ft.
square. Tied to it were some tins of British biscuits, a large water
jug, some flares, and
an electric torch. By allowing himself a few swallows of water and two
biscuits in the
morning and in the evening, he estimated that he should be able to stay
alive for at least
a month.
On two occasion rescue
seemed imminent,
once when a freighter passed within close range, and once when a U.S.
Navy patrol plane
buzzed his raft. But both times his frantic shouting was ignored. These
were the loneliest
times for Poon Lim, with help ,so near and yet so far away. He was also
spotted by a
German U-boat, which chose to leave him
to his fate rather
than kill him. He soon realised that he couldn’t expect help from
others and must
keep himself alive until he drifted to land.
To keep his body in shape, he
swam routinely
twice a day when the sea was quiet. He used the ocean swimmer's looping
stroke as he
circled the raft, always keeping his head above water, his eyes open
for sharks.
His skin got darker from the
sun, and he lost
weight, but not strength.. When his food and water supply ran low, he
formulated a new
plan for survival.
He used the canvas covering of
the life jacket as
a receptacle to catch rainwater. He also utilised other materials that
he had on board. He
took apart the electric torch to get a wire, which he made into a
fishhook. He spent days
shaping the metal, using the water jug as a hammer. The tough hemp rope
that held down his
almost exhausted supplies of food and water served as a fishing line.
He used a piece of biscuit for
bait. After
finally catching a fish, he cut it in half with the edge of the biscuit
tin and ate the
raw flesh, using the remains as bait to catch his next meal.
About the end of the second month on
the raft, he
spotted sea gulls. Hoping to catch one, he gathered seaweed from the
bottom of the raft,
matted it in bunches and moulded it into a form that resembled a bird’s
nest. By this
time he had caught several fish, which he baked in the sun to improve
their taste. Some he
ate and some he left next to the nest, so that they would rot and the
stench would attract
the gulls.
When he finally saw a gull flying towards
him, he lay still
so it would land. As the gull attacked the fish, Poon Lim grabbed it by
its neck. A fight
ensued, which he won, but only after he was the victim of deep cuts
from the bird's
beak and claws.
He pried a loose nail from the
raft's planking and used
it to tear up the empty ration tin to make a knife. He used his
shoe as a hammer to
pound the metal.. He quartered the bird, chewed its flesh, and sucked
out the blood and
the organs. He cut the rest of the bird into strips, which he chewed on
until he caught
the next bird or fish.
When he saw sharks, he
did not swim.
Instead he set out to catch one. He used the remnants of the next bird
he caught as bait.
The first shark to pick up the taste was only a few feet long. He
gulped the bait and hit
the line with full force, but in preparation Poon Lim had braided the
line so it would
have double thickness. He also had wrapped his hands in canvas to
enable him to make the
catch. But the shark attacked him after he brought it aboard the raft.
He used the water
jug half-filled with seawater as a weapon. After his victory, Pooh Lim
cut open the shark
and sucked its blood from its liver. Since it hadn't rained, he was out
of water and this
quenched his thirst. He sliced the fins end let them dry in the sun, a
Hainan delicacy.
Poon Lim counted the
days with notches on
the side of the raft, and he counted the nights with X’s. On the 131st
day, he
noticed that the water was pale green rather than black. Birds flew
overhead and seaweed
floated by. All of these were encouraging signs.
On the morning of the 133rd
day, April 5 1943, he
saw a small sail on the horizon. He had no flares left, so he waved his
shirt and jumped
up end down in an effort to attract the crew's attention. The craft
changed direction and
headed for him.
The three men in the boat, who
spoke Portuguese,
took him aboard. They gave him water and dried beans before starting up
their motor to
head west to Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. He had
crossed the
Atlantic.
Poon Lim was able to walk
unaided. His total
weight loss during the drift was 20 lb. He spent four weeks in a
hospital in Brazil and
then went to New York.
He received numerous honours.
King George VI
presented him personally with the British Empire Medal, the highest
civilian award. The
British Navy had booklets printed and placed in all life rafts,
describing his survival
techniques. His employers presented him with a gold watch. Senator
Warren Magnuson
introduced a bill, which was passed by the U.S senate and the House of
Representatives, to
issue an immigration visa to Poon Lim and to permit him to have
permanent residency in the
U.S.
Created 9June1998
Modified 31 July 2005