His cargo ship sank in two minutes. For him, the story was only beginning.

The *Benlomond* disappears in about two minutes. Poon Lim spends nearly two hours in the water before reaching a raft.

On 23 November 1942, the Chinese sailor is working as second steward aboard the British cargo ship when a German submarine torpedoes it in the Atlantic. Far from land, he manages to climb out of the water and finds supplies that will help him wait for rescue.

The raft carries food and a reserve of drinking water. The provisions could last around fifty days. After the sinking, he has something to think about beyond the next few hours.

Now someone has to find him.

The cargo ship keeps going

After the first week, Poon Lim spots a ship. In an account he gives in 1978, he describes setting off smoke signals to attract its attention.

The ship does not pick him up. Did its crew recognise him? Poon Lim cannot know. The vessel carries on, leaving him on the raft.

He still has provisions, but before they run out he begins preparing another way to feed himself. To catch the fish around him, he first needs to make some tackle.

Among his supplies is a flashlight.

Inside the flashlight

Poon Lim will later describe taking its spring and turning it into a fishhook. He also improvises a line. For bait, he uses a piece of biscuit from his provisions.

The first fish he catches are small. He uses them in turn to catch larger ones. His catches provide fresh bait, so he no longer has to rely entirely on the biscuits aboard the raft.

The fish need preparing. In the same interview, he describes making a knife from the metal of a tin. He cuts the larger fish into strips and leaves them to dry in the sun.

Birds also land on the raft. He catches and eats them.

His supply of drinking water, however, eventually runs out.

Five days without water

The official account of his survival records five days without water before he can collect enough rain.

Poon Lim uses what he has to catch it. The official notice mentions the covering of his life jacket. In his interview, he also describes arranging a tarpaulin with one side lower than the other to channel water into a container.

He can drink again. November has passed, and then the year has changed. The *Benlomond* sank in 1942; Poon Lim is still at sea in 1943.

The boat that stops

On 5 April 1943, a Brazilian fishing boat finds him. This time, he is taken aboard.

Poon Lim has spent 133 days alone on his raft, more than four months since his ship was torpedoed.

On 8 April, he lands at Belém, Brazil. He has left the raft behind, but still needs to establish who he is and which ship he served on.

In his 1978 account, he describes asking for the British consul. He gives his name and that of the *Benlomond*. The consul checks the records.

After 133 days alone at sea, Poon Lim learns that he was not simply separated from the other sailors.

No other man from the *Benlomond* has returned.