###133 Days on a Raft
South Atlantic Ocean, 1942 — When a submarine sank his ship, a twenty-five-year-old steward turned a wooden raft into an unbelievable offshore survival camp.
On November 23, 1942, a German U-boat torpedoed the British ship the SS Benlomond. The only survivor was twenty-five-year-old steward Poon Lim. He managed to scramble aboard an eight-by-eight-foot wooden life raft in the middle of the South Atlantic, beginning a desperate battle against the ocean.
When his meager initial rations ran out, Lim got creative. He caught rainwater using the canvas cover of a life jacket and fashioned fishing hooks out of flashlight wires and nails. He even tethered himself to the raft for daily swims to keep his muscles from wasting away.
His fishing skills became legendary. Using seabird remains as bait, Lim actually hooked a small shark, hauled it onto the wooden raft, and subdued it using a water jug as a club. He drifted 750 miles before three Brazilian fishermen finally spotted his tiny vessel.
Lim had been entirely alone at sea for 133 days. When the rescue boat finally brought him to shore on April 5, 1943, he didn't even need a stretcher to get on land—he walked onto the beach completely unassisted.
133 Days on a Raft — South Atlantic Ocean, 1942