Food for About 50 Days. He Lasted 133.

About the seventh day, a freighter passed within half a mile of a small wooden raft in the Atlantic and kept going. On the raft was Poon Lim, a 24-year-old ship's steward, with food for about fifty days. He lasted 133, by the British government's count. On 23 November 1942 the German submarine U-172 sank the British steamer Benlomond just north of the Equator. Poon Lim, the second steward, was the only one of more than fifty men aboard who lived. We follow the four kinds of record that survive from his own lifetime: the London Gazette citation for his British Empire Medal, two wire-service interviews from May 1943, US Navy photographs with captions, and a first-person interview from 1978. They show how a nail and a flashlight spring became fish hooks, and where the popular story goes beyond the record: the count of days (the 1943 American press said 131 and 132), the raft itself, and why the ship did not stop (the Associated Press said it passed within half a mile; he later said about a mile). Then the film follows him to Washington and the immigration law that stood in his way. In this film: Poon Lim · John Maul · Kapitänleutnant Carl Emmermann · Rear Adm. Julius A. Furer · Li Ling Ai · Leonard H. Leach · Warren G. Magnuson · SS Benlomond · U-172 · MV Zaandam · Hainan, China · Belém, Pará · Cape Town · Salinópolis, Pará · 23 November 1942 – early April 1943 CHAPTERS 0:00 The ship that didn't stop 2:38 Two minutes 6:33 Food for fifty days 9:43 A nail from the floor 12:27 Five days without water 15:39 The ugly answer 18:03 Land he could not reach 21:49 The Navy's case study 24:37 The wall 27:31 A hundred and thirty-three days SOURCES London Gazette No. 36091: British Empire Medal (Civil Division), Poon Lim — The London Gazette (13 July 1943) "Chinese Tells How He Lived During 131 Days On a Raft" — Associated Press (May 1943) "Naked Chinese Drifts 132 Days on a Raft" — John B. McDermott, United Press (25 May 1943) U.S. Navy photographs 80-G-42356 and 80-G-77014 — National Archives (1943) "Faith, Hope – and Survival" (interview with Lim Poon) — Margie Lew, Gum Saan Journal (1978) Benlomond; U-172; Carl Emmermann — Guðmundur Helgason, uboat.net Sole Survivor: A Story of Record Endurance at Sea — Ruthanne Lum McCunn (1985) Sole Survivors of the Sea — James E. Wise Jr., Naval Institute Press (1994) CREDITS Poon Lim with Rear Adm. Furer, and the signaling mirror (80-G-42356, 80-G-77014): official U.S. Navy photographs, National Archives / National Museum of the U.S. Navy Raft reenactment (staged for Navy survival training): National Geographic Magazine, 1945, p. 632, via Wikimedia Commons London Gazette No. 36091 (13 July 1943), p. 3169: The London Gazette, Open Government Licence v3.0 1943 newspaper pages and wire photo (International Soundphotos): Library of Congress, Chronicling America Furer portrait; U-172 photographs of 13 December 1943: U.S. Navy Carl Emmermann portrait: National Digital Archive, Poland (sygn. 2-12767) Life-saving equipment photographs (80-CF-827-3-1, -3-4, -3-10; 80-G-40696): US Navy photograph, NARA, via National Museum of the U.S. Navy Office of War Information photographs (Lot 11559-9, -18, -24, -40): National Museum of the U.S. Navy (NHHC/Flickr); Marjory Collins / OWI, Library of Congress Warren G. Magnuson, 1943: Associated Press, via Wikimedia Commons Zaandam raft survivors: Nationaal Archief, Fotocollectie Anefo, no. 935-0163, CC0 Pemmican tin (a polar expedition ration of 1910-13): Auckland War Memorial Museum, CC BY 4.0 British Empire Medal, obverse (another recipient's medal): Auckland War Memorial Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0 Relief Map of Brazil: NordNordWest / Виктор В, CC BY-SA 3.0 Lorient photographs: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101II-MW-4429-09 / Dietrich, and Bild 101II-MW-4019-10A / Tolle (Troller), CC-BY-SA 3.0 de Maps and charts: UK Hydrographic Office (Chart 5212, 1942); US Army Service Forces / David Rumsey Map Collection Documents: US National Archives (Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882; Public Law 78-199, 1943) Also: IPHAN (Belem); Metropolitan Postcard Company (Miami); Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress; Het Utrechts Archief / Nederlandse Spoorwegen, CC0; Kwangtung Provincial Bank note, via Wikimedia Commons Thumbnail artwork: AI-generated; one variant is based on U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-42356, colour-graded Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... — tracks: "Aftermath", "Anguish", "Clean Soul", "Dark Walk", "Deep Haze", "Dreamer", "Heartwarming", "Lightless Dawn", "Long Note Four", "Long Note One", "Long Note Three", "Long Note Two", "Ossuary 6 - Air", "Unanswered Questions" #PoonLim #WorldWar2 #SurvivalHistory