This Chinese sailor survived 133 days lost at sea.
His survival techniques were so impressive that:
• The King awarded him the British Empire Medal
• The Royal Navy rewrote their manual
• Congress made a special exception for his citizenship
Here's his unbelievable story:
April 5th, 1943:
Three Brazilian fishermen spotted something unusual on the horizon.
Through their binoculars, they saw a man waving frantically.
What they discovered would rewrite naval history forever...
1942: The world was at war.
German U-boats prowled the Atlantic, hunting for Allied ships.
One of those ships was the Benlomond - a 420-foot, 5,400-ton armed trader.
Among its crew was a young Chinese steward named Poon Lim...
Born in 1918 on China's Hainan Island, Lim grew up fishing in the Beibu Gulf.
His family lived peacefully until Japan's invasion threatened in the late 1920s.
Fearing conscription, Lim's father moved the family to Malaysia:
They returned to fishing, but young Lim wanted more.
He joined Britain's Merchant Navy, where he faced harsh realities:
Asian crew members endured constant discrimination and the lowest-paying jobs.
By 1937, Lim had enough:
He worked as a mechanic in Hong Kong before joining the Benlomond in 1942.
The ship was making its final voyage from Cape Town to Suriname.
Despite being armed, they were painfully vulnerable:
The Benlomond was slow, its ballast tanks full of seawater.
Worse still, they were traveling alone on a known German patrol route.
At 2 PM, a 250-foot submarine spotted them.
Disaster was imminent:
Two massive torpedoes struck below the waterline.
In moments, 53 of the 54 crew members were killed or went down with the ship.
Only Lim managed to grab a life jacket and swim away from the sinking vessel:
Hours of treading water left him exhausted and ready to give up.
Then he spotted salvation: an 8x8 wooden raft.
It carried essential supplies that would determine his fate:
The raft contained:
• A flare gun
• Two cooking pots
• A broken flashlight
• Chocolate bars
• Sugar cubes
• An 11-gallon water jug
250 miles from land, trapped in a westerly current.
Lim knew rescue might never come in wartime.
His fisherman's training became his lifeline:
• Made hooks from nails
• Created lines from copper wire
• Used biscuit crumbs as bait
His ingenuity grew with each passing day:
• Filleted fish with sharpened tin lids
• Dried meat in the sun for storage
• Used fish remains as bait
• Collected rainwater religiously
But nature tested him relentlessly:
• Storms washed supplies overboard
• Winds blew away his dried fish
• Waves threatened to capsize him
When fish vanished, he adapted again:
He began catching seagulls circling his raft.
Made jerky from their meat to preserve it.
Used the remains to catch sharks.
But the cruelest tests were yet to come...
Three times, salvation appeared - only to vanish:
1. A freighter saw him but sailed past
(U-boats often used fake survivors as bait)
2. US Navy planes dropped a buoy, lost in a storm
3. A German U-boat crew watched him drift by.
The isolation was becoming unbearable...
After months at sea, his body was failing:
• Lost 20 pounds
• Severe dehydration
• Constant seasickness
• Horrible sunburns
Then something changed in the water...
The ocean turned greener, more opaque.
From his fishing days, Lim knew what this meant:
Shallower water. Land was near.
Hope returned to his weary spirit...
On April 5, 1943 - after 133 days adrift - Brazilian fishermen found him.
He was nine miles from shore, dancing and waving a tattered shirt.
A month in the hospital restored his health:
His survival techniques were so remarkable, they rewrote naval manuals.
King George VI awarded him the British Empire Medal.
But when he sought US citizenship, he faced another challenge:
The Chinese immigration quota was full.
But his story moved Senator Warren Magnuson to action.
Congress passed a special act, increasing the quota by one.
Just for him:
His 133 days remains the longest survival on a raft in history.
"That is a record I hope no one will break," he said humbly.
He lived quietly in Brooklyn until 1991, passing at 72:
Lim's story isn't just about survival.
It's about the power of systems and preparation.
His techniques became naval training manuals - helping countless others survive.
This reveals something profound:
The best systems come from real experience.
Not theory. Not guesswork.
But tested, proven strategies that work in the real world.
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