Poon Lim Survives 133 Days

In November 1942, Chinese seaman Poon Lim served as second mess steward on the British cargo ship SS Benlomond when a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the vessel in the South Atlantic. He escaped on an 8-foot wooden life raft stocked with limited food and water and then stayed alive for 133 days by fishing, catching seabirds, collecting rainwater, and even killing a shark with a water jug. Brazilian fishermen finally rescued him near the coast of Brazil on 5 April 1943, and King George VI later awarded him the British Empire Medal for his record-breaking survival ordeal.

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