22 Facts About Poon Lim

Poon Lim survived on an eight-foot wooden raft with supplies.

In 1942 Poon Lim was Second Mess Steward on the Ben Line cargo ship Benlomond, which was en route from Suez to New York via Cape Town and Paramaribo.

Poon Lim's officers were British, but most of her crew was Chinese.

Poon Lim was defensively armed, but her voyage was unescorted.

Poon Lim, who was in his cabin, took his life jacket and went to his boat station, where two officers and a seaman were trying to launch one of the lifeboats.

The ship sank within about two minutes of being hit, and Poon Lim was dragged underwater.

Poon Lim was spotted by the crew of U-172 but instead of rescuing him, they laughed at him and waved him away.

Poon Lim thought they were some of the ship's DEMS gunners.

Poon Lim took a spring from the flashlight and made it into a fishhook, unravelled hemp rope to make a fishing line, and crushed pieces of hardtack to make bait.

Poon Lim dug a nail from the boards on the wooden raft to make a stronger fish hook.

Poon Lim improvised a knife from part of a pemmican can.

The water tank had an iron key, which Poon Lim used as a tool.

Poon Lim soaked their meat in seawater to salt it, then dried it on deck to make jerky.

When Poon Lim saw sharks, he caught one, using the remnants of gulls he had caught as bait.

Poon Lim had braided his fishing line to double thickness, and had wrapped his hands in canvas to give them a little protection.

Poon Lim cut it open and sucked the blood from its liver.

Poon Lim sliced off the fins and let them dry in the sun.

Poon Lim had lost all of his clothes except his shirt and vest.

Poon Lim made a skirt from a hessian bag that had contained the lime juice bottle.

Poon Lim was so weak that his rescuers had to lift him off his raft.

Poon Lim's application was declined because he had flat feet.

The writer Alfred Bester later stated that Poon Lim's ordeal was used in his novel The Stars My Destination, which opens with a man stranded in space.