On April 5, 1943, the epic of a Chinese sailor who spent several months alone in the open ocean ended.
In early April 1943, three Brazilian sailors on the high seas stumbled upon a strange-looking raft with a single passenger. From the condition of the raft and the appearance of the man, it was possible to understand that the voyage lasted quite a long time. It was not possible to understand how long it took - the strange navigator did not speak Portuguese.
Only when the fishermen brought the man to the mouth of the Amazon, to the Maraja Bay, with the help of an interpreter, did they find out that the unknown was a sailor from the British merchant ship Ben Lomond, which was destroyed by a submarine.
Last day of transport "Ben Lomond"
Pan Lian, or Pun Lim, as he is called in English-speaking sources, was born on the Chinese island of Hainan in March 1918. Many people in Hainan became fishermen or sailors, and Poon Lim was no exception. A sailor's craft in 1942 brought him to the British merchant ship Ben Lomond, on which he served as second steward.
Maritime lines were unsafe during the war, but the job paid well. In November 1942, the ship, converted into a military transport, was flying from Cape Town to South America.
On the third day of sailing, Ben Lomond was attacked by the German submarine U-172. The ship struck by the torpedo began to sink rapidly to the bottom. Poon Lim was among the few who managed to put on a life jacket and leave the dying ship.
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Poon Lim.
On a small raft
After sailing some distance from the sinking ship, the steward saw five crew members on the liferaft. He desperately called for help, but they did not hear him. The raft was quickly blown away by the wind.
After a while Poon Lim saw another liferaft from the Ben Lomond. He managed to swim to him, but none of the crew members were on board.
A 2.5 square meter wooden liferaft was equipped with an awning designed to save sailors from the scorching sun. On board there was an emergency two-day supply of fresh water and food for 25 people: fresh water in steel cylinders, biscuits, cans with ham, condensed milk, chocolate.
This supply should have been enough to wait for help - after all, the ship sank in the area of active navigation, and the sailor believed that it would be quickly discovered.
Gotta survive
However, the raft was rapidly blown away from the shipping lane. A few days later, Poon Lim, dividing his stocks by month, realized that he might have been too optimistic.
Time passed, the reserves were melting. Fleeing from the intolerable heat of the day, the sailor, tied himself with a line (thin ship's cable), sailed into the sea. It helped fight the swelling of the legs caused by prolonged immobility.
During one of these swims, he found a shark nearby, miraculously not becoming its prey.
Soon he realized that if he did not come up with a way to get food and water, then he would not be able to survive. Poon Lim began collecting rainwater from the tent. Disassembling the flashlight found on the raft, he pulled out a spring from it, making fishhooks out of it. Instead of fishing line, the sailor used an unbraided line. I made a bait from the remains of canned ham and after three days of experiments I caught the first fish.
Fight with "delicacy"
Pun Lim sucked juice from his prey, and dried pieces in the sun. He ate some of them, and used some as new bait.
The longer the voyage lasted, the more cunning and resourceful he became. He made a "nest" out of an old tin can and stuffed it with seaweed from the bottom of the raft. Poon Lim put pieces of dried fish next to the nest. One of the seagulls circling near the raft coveted for a treat and was instantly captured by a Chinese. Poon Lim drank the blood of a bird, ate some of the meat raw, and left the rest to dry in the sun.
Pulling out one of the nails that held the raft, he managed to turn it into a knife. The sailor made the second pulled out nail with a large fishing hook. Now sharks did not frighten him - he decided that he would turn predators into prey.
Poon Lim used the newly caught seagull as bait, and the one and a half meter shark pecked at it. The Chinese pulled the predator aboard, but an angry shark nearly grabbed him. Then Pun Lim stunned the shark with blows of a steel cylinder from under the fresh water, and then finished it off with a knife.
He used the shark's blood for drinking, and wilted his fins in the sun. In their native Hainan, shark fins were considered a delicacy.
They did this because I am Chinese."
At first, Poon Lim tried to count days, then weeks, and in the end he began to count only months, focusing on the full moon.
Sometimes American planes flew over it, but the pilots did not notice him. Once an American ship tried to help him, but at that moment a storm began, and he was lost sight of.
Several times German submarines surfaced nearby, but in these cases Poon Lim himself preferred to remain unnoticed.
One case sunk into his soul for life. A passing ship noticed him, came closer, but then changed course. "They did this because I am Chinese," said Poon Lim.
Neither this incident, nor the storm, nor the sweltering heat, nor the endless loneliness drove him mad. A few days before meeting with the fishermen, he realized that he was approaching land - the color of the water had changed, and the seagulls were now circling around his raft without ceasing.
I hope no one has to break the record
He went ashore without assistance. He was taken to hospital, where doctors established that there was no threat to his life. The skin was chapped and coarse, it had sunburn, but these were mere trifles.
When, through the British Consul in Brazil, the identity of the sailor was verified, establishing all the circumstances of his story, it turned out that his wanderings in the ocean lasted 133 days. Surprisingly, during this time he lost only 9 kilograms.
Of the 55 members of the Ben Lomond crew, only ten managed to escape. Poon Lim, who was considered dead for several months, became the eleventh.
The sailor's story became widely known, and the English king George VI invited him to London, where he presented the medal of the British Empire.
After the end of World War II, Poon Lim decided to leave for the United States, where his brother was already living, but did not receive permission. But his fame helped - Senator Warren Magnuson stood up for the hero, and Poon Lim was allowed to live and work in the United States.
He continued to work in the US Navy. Chief Steward Poon Lim retired in 1983.
Journalists loved to talk with Poon Lim and often reminded him that no one but him, after being shipwrecked, managed to survive alone in the ocean for 133 days. “I hope that no one will ever have to break this record,” a wise Chinese once replied.
Andrey Sidorchik