Poon Lim was working as second steward on the British merchant ship SS Ben Lomond when it was sunk by a German U-boat on November 23, 1942 in the south Atlantic.
As the ship was sinking, Lim took a life jacketand jumped overboard.
After two hours in the water, he found and climbed aboard an 8' square wooden raft with limited supplies on it.
Initially kept himself alive by drinking the water and eating the food on the raft, but later resorted to fishing and catching rainwater in a canvas life jacket covering.
He took a wire from a flashlight and made it into a fishhook, and used hemp rope as a fishing line. He also dug a nail out of the boards and bent it into a hook for larger fish.
Once, a large storm hit and spoiled his fish and fouled his water. Poon, barely alive, caught a bird and drank its blood to survive.
He used the remnants of caught birds as bait to attract sharks with the hopes of catching one. He baited the first one bear him and pulled it on board and used a water jug half-filled with seawater as a weapon to bash him. After subduing the shark, he cut it open with a knife made from a biscuit tin and sucked the blood from its liver.
On several occasions he was passed by other vessels. At first, he counted the days by tying knots in a rope, but later decided that there was no point in counting the days and simply began counting full moons.
After 133 days at sea, he was rescued by Brazilian fishermen, having lost 20lbs and recovered after only 4 weeks.
When told no one had ever survived longer on a raft at sea, Poon Lim replied, "I hope no one will ever have to break that record." King George VI bestowed a British Empire Medal on him, and the Royal Navy incorporated his tale into manuals of survival techniques. #survivor #ww2 #stayzero #zerofoxtrot