Survival at Sea

Poon Lim On 10th November 1942 the SS Benlomond left Cape Town bound for Surinam. Sailing in the South Atlantic at that time was notoriously dangerous, so with hindsight, it would have come as no surprise that the slow tramp steamer would be easy ‘prey’ for a U-boat. That scenario was played out 13 days after departure when a German submarine launched two torpedoes at the SS Benlomond. Both found their target. On board the merchant navy vessel there were 53 crew, including the Master. Such was the damage caused by the German weaponry that it took less than 2 minutes for the stricken ship to sink, leaving only 6 survivors from the blast being able to abandon ship. Among them was Poon Lim, who managed to grab a life jacket and jump into the sea before the boilers exploded. He lost contact with the other initial survivors and spent a lonely two hours in the frigid water before he came across a wooden raft. The raft, which was 8 square ft (0.74m2), had a partial canvas cover. There were no navigational aids and no method of propulsion, but there were provisions. These, which were intended to last for 30 days, comprised tinned biscuits, nearly 9 gallons of water, chocolate, a kind of beef jerky, long lasting crackers, sugar, malted milk tablets and lime juice. Additionally, there were two smoke pots, a flashlight and some rope. Drifting in the South Atlantic, Poon Lim made his rations last for as long as possible. He also tied his wrist to the raft so that if he fell off, he would not be separated from it – a fear he had because he was not a strong swimmer. As his supplies began to dwindle, he realized that he would have to make use of the resources around him. He did this by collecting rainwater in his life jacket and fishing with strands of hemp from the rope for the line and a hook made from wire he took from the flashlight. He used the crackers as bait. When his cast was successful and he had landed a fish, he cut it up with the metal from the biscuit tin that he had shaped into the form of a knife. He then dried the fish on a hemp line. Although Poon Lim had managed to sustain himself, he was no nearer to being rescued. Indeed, he had a major setback when a storm destroyed his dried fish stock and contaminated his supply of drinking water. In desperation, he set a trap with fish to lure in birds. It worked and he was able to catch a seabird and drink its blood. He repeated this ruse several times, but knew he needed to target larger prey. So, he removed a nail from the raft, attached it to some rope and bent it to form a hook to which he added bait in the form of bird remains. His target was a shark.

Before casting his line, Poon Lim wrapped his hands in canvas in preparation for the struggle he would face with any shark he managed to catch. It was not long before one took the bait. Poon Lim dragged it onto his craft before striking it repeatedly with a jug half full of seawater. Eventually, he prevailed, cut open the creature and drank the blood from its liver. He then cut up the fins and left them to dry. After catching the shark, he saw some vessels but not one of them picked him up. His greatest chance of rescue came when US patrol planes spotted him and dropped a marker buoy. However, a storm caused him to be swept away from the location of the buoy and he was lost again, but fortunately, not for long. On 5th April 1943, after 133 days aboard the life raft, Poon Lim was rescued near a river inlet by three Brazilian fishermen. During his ordeal he had lost 20lb (9.1kg), but could walk unaided. He was relatively unscathed, but was hospitalized for four weeks before returning to Britain, where he received the British Empire Medal. Of the Poon Lim six initial survivors from the SS Ben Lomond, Poon Lim was the only one who did not Source: https://en.wikipedia. org/w/index.php?curid=12372728 perish. His record of surviving for 133 days on a raft still holds as does his story, which has become incorporated into manuals of survival techniques. His story also became widely known on the other side of the Atlantic. This helped him to emigrate from Britain to America, where at the behest of the US Navy and President Truman, he assisted in the reconstruction of the raft he had survived on. He died in Brooklyn on 4th January 1991 at the age of 72, but his adventure lives on, serving as a

Poon Lim sitting on a timeless reminder of how fundamental resourcefulness and resilience are in reconstruction of his raft times of adversity. Source: www.offgridweb.com Sources: en.wikipedia.org www.youtube.com, www.cgtn.com www.thevintagenews.com, www.offgridweb.com

SS Ben Lomond Source: www.photoship.co.uk