133 Days Stranded at Sea
By: Oskar Bogdanowicz
Tags: History, Survival, World War II, Travel, Life

133 Days Stranded at Sea

The incredible survival story of Poon Lim against the elements on his own in the Atlantic in 1942

At the onset of World War II (WWII), Poon Lim was 21 years old and was living in Hongkong, however, the war forced him into military action. In 1942 Poon was a sailor aboard the armoured merchant SS Benlomond, ferrying goods across the ocean. This was until U172 found them which set off a chain of events that would force Poon to fight for his life against the elements.

U172

In October 1942 the ship set sail from Cape Town to the Dutch Guiana. The journey was long and the first month went along without a hitch, however, this changed when U172 discovered the merchant vessel.

On the 23rd of October in the late hours of the night, U172 under the command of Carl Emmerman performed a torpedo attack on the Benlomond by firing two torpedoes into her side while about 750 miles east of the Amazon river. The impact made the ship lean to her side and several boilers in the engine room explode. The ship slipped between the waves in two minutes leaving only six of the fifty-four man crew floating on the surface.

Moments before the ship sank, Poon Lim managed to grab a life jacket and jump overboard, unfortunately, the group was not able to stick together as they floated aimlessly in the South Atlantic.

After approximately two hours Lim floated upon a wooden rescue raft from his ship, it was equipped with food, water, flares, smoke candles, and a flashlight. He had a chance of surviving this affair.

Poon was forced to survive under extreme circumstances, and to make matters worse, after a while his food supplies started to run low and he was forced to improvise. He started catching rainwater in his life vest, managed to create a fishing hook out of a wire in his flashlight and an even bigger hook for bigger fish from a nail from his raft. Once Poon caught a fish he would gut it with a knife he fashioned from a biscuit tin.

One day there was a particularly bad storm, Poon barely survived by tying himself to his vessel, unfortunately, the water swept away many of his supplies including his freshwater as well as the fish he had caught. In desperation to quench his thirst, he managed to catch and kill a bird which had landed on his raft. Poon drank its blood in order to satisfy his thirst.

The bird offered very little in terms of nutrition and Poon was feeling the early effects of starvation at this point so the best course of action came to mind, he needed to kill a shark. Using the bird as bait Poon managed to lure a shark onto his hook — which he made out of a nail — and haul the metre long beast onboard. Using a half-full jug of seawater he slammed it on the shark’s head a few times in order to subdue it. Then using a biscuit tin knife he cut open the beast and drank its blood straight from its liver to satisfy his thirst as it still had not rained since the storm that had washed his supplies away.

Unfortunately, the raft did not possess any navigational tools which could help Poon figure out where exactly he was. This prevented him from trying to navigate his vessel towards land. The only way in which he could survive his nightmare would be to get spotted and picked up by a ship.

Spotted but not saved

Poon had actually been spotted on a few occasions by passing vessels.

One day an unidentified freighter sailed past him and despite him shouting in English, waving, and jumping they did not help the sailor. Poon assumed that due to his Asian appearance the crew were afraid of this being a trap for a submarine attack and so the crew decided to just flee leaving Poon on his own.

The raft was spotted by United States (US) Navy patrol planes, one of which dropped a buoy to mark his location for pickup. Unfortunately, before help could arrive a storm hit Poon's location knocking his vessel too far away from the buoy for help to find him.

He also had an encounter with a German submarine, one identical to the sub which had sunk his, SS Benlomond. The ship was in the area conducting anti-aircraft drills by firing at seagulls. The crew spotted the stricken sailor, however, they didn't seem too concerned at a man alone in the middle of the ocean on a raft and shortly after finishing the drills, they left.

Hope for rescue

After four months of surviving on the ocean, Poon noticed that the water around him had changed colour. The dark blue which had surrounded him for the past few months had now become a lighter blue, this meant it was becoming shallower beneath him.

Even though he could not see land, suddenly, Poon had hope and got his oar to start paddling towards lighter blue water. He had to be quick in order to not catch another storm which would take him back out to sea.

On the 5th of April 1943, 133 days after his ship was torpedoed and sunk, Poon Lim stepped ashore in Brazil on the shore of a dense forest. It was dangerous but his chances for survival were certainly higher than in open water.

He was found by Brazilian fishermen who took him to the hospital where Poon told his story. The story became famous amongst military personnel and then the civilian population where he became a newspaper star.

Poon spent about four weeks in the hospital and even though he had spent four months at sea he had only lost about ten kilograms during the ordeal. He was dehydrated and tired, however, he was actually very stable with no immediate health problems. It turned out Poon had spent much time swimming during his isolation which helped him stop his muscles from rotting away, something that usually happens due to lack of movement for long periods of time. Thanks to this he didn't have any problems walking shortly after reaching land.

After leaving the hospital, Poon received transport to go to the United Kingdom, however, he stopped in the United States to share his story with some journalists.

He received the British Empire Medal from King George VI and the Royal Navy implemented some of his techniques into training manuals for their sailors.

Poon would later emigrate to the US and used his fame to gain citizenship with the aid from Senator Warren Magnuson. He was the only survivor of the SS Benlomond. He lived a calm life after the ordeal and died in 1991 in Brooklyn.