Poon Lim - the greatest survivor

Mr. Poon Lim is my favorite survivor of all time, his epic story of survival on the Atlantic ocean in a Carley float life raft is unmatched. His ability to survive naked with virtually no equipment really impresses me.

Lim used some survival skills and showed clever use of available materials by using the spring from the rafts flashlight to make a fish hook, then untwisted some rope to get smaller strands to retwist into a fishing line.

He fashioned another larger hook from a nail he extracted from the life raft by pulling it out with his teeth! Pretty amazing. He used the lids from the ration cans on the raft to make knives to cut up his fish and any sea birds he was able to capture.

There was another guy in 2002; Mr. Richard Van Pham, 62 – a Vietnamese immigrant to the USA; was sailing his small sail boat off of Catalina Island in California when he encountered a storm and damaged the mast on his boat. He subsequently drifted in his boat for 4 ½ months and survived on fish and birds, he fashioned a grill to cook his food, collected rain water in a plastic bucket etc.

He was defiantly a survivor but to me I think Mr. Lim’s ordeal was much more difficult due to the lack of shelter, clothing and equipment.

I have attached some information on both Mr. Lim and Mr. Van Pham, you can read it and decide for yourselves who is the greatest survivor.

Tomahawk – Scouts out!

Poon Lim or Lim Poon BEM (March 8, 1918 – January 4, 1991) was a Chinese sailor who survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic.Poon Lim was born in Hainan, China . In 1942, during World War II, he was working as second steward on the British merchant ship SS Ben Lomond, which was on its way from Cape Town to Dutch Guiana. The ship was armed but slow moving and was sailing alone instead of being in a convoy.

On November 23, the German U-boat U-172 intercepted and torpedoed the ship in position 0°18′N 38°27′W00.30°N 38.45°W, some 750 miles east of the Amazon. As the ship was sinking, Poon Lim took a life jacket and jumped overboard before the ship's boilers exploded. Of a crew of 54, only he survived.

After approximately two hours in the water, he found an empty Carley float liferaft and climbed into it. The raft had several tins of biscuits, a forty litre jug of water, some chocolate, a bag of sugar lumps, some flares, two smoke pots and an electric torch.

Poon Lim initially kept himself alive by drinking the water and eating the food on the raft, but later resorted to catching rainwater in a canvas tarp and fishing. He could not swim very well and often tied a rope from the boat to his wrist, in case he fell into the ocean. He took a wire from the electric torch and made it into a fishhook, and used hemp rope as a fishing line. He also dug a nail out of the boards on the wooden raft and bent it into a hook for larger fish.

When he captured a fish, he cut it open with a knife he fashioned out of a biscuit tin and dried the fish on a hemp line over the raft. 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.

On two occasions other vessels passed nearby: first a freighter, then a squad of United States Navy patrol planes. Poon contended that the freighter saw him but did not pick him up because he was Chinese. The Navy planes did see him, and one dropped a marker buoy in the water. Unfortunately for Poon, a large storm hit the area at the same time and he was lost again. He was also once spotted by a German U-boat, which had been doing gunnery drills by targeting seagulls.

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.
On April 5, 1943, Poon Lim reached land and a river inlet. A few days earlier, he had known that he was close to the land because the colour of the water had changed; it was no longer the oceanic deep blue. Three Brazilian fishermen rescued him and took him to Belém three days later.

During his ordeal, Poon Lim had lost 9kg, but was able to walk unaided upon being rescued. He spent two weeks in a Brazilian hospital and the British Consul arranged for him to return to Britain via Miami and New York.

King George VI bestowed a British Empire Medal (BEM) on him, and the Royal Navy incorporated his tale into manuals of survival techniques. After the war, Poon Lim decided to emigrate to the United States, but the quota for Chinese immigrants had been reached. However, because of his fame and the aid of Senator Warren Magnuson, he received a special dispensation and eventually gained citizenship.
Poon died in Brooklyn on January 4, 1991.

Richard Van Pham, 62 of Long Beach, Calif., was ashore for the first time in 3½ months after being rescued by a Navy warship on an anti-drug patrol more than 2,500 miles from his home, the San Diego Union-Tribune said Tuesday. He was believed to be arranging to get home with $800 collected by the crew of the USS McClusky.
"This is an amazing story of survival," Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Lance Jones told the newspaper Monday, a day after Van Pham was dropped off in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala by the frigate.

Van Pham was described as being in relatively good shape after surviving on rainwater, fish and sea birds, though he was 40 pounds lighter than he was in early June when he set sail from Long Beach harbor for what was supposed to be a routine 25-mile sail to Catalina Island.

"He's a tough old bird," Cmdr. Gary Parriott, the McClusky's skipper, told the Union-Tribune by satellite phone Monday. "I'm not sure I would have fared as well as he did."

Van Pham could not immediately be located in Guatemala, but members of the McClusky's crew told the newspaper that Van Pham survived on fish and sea turtles and used bits of their flesh to lure gulls and other birds that were added to the menu when they landed on the splintered mast.

When the McClusky pulled alongside the battered boat, which was first spotted by a Customs Service reconnaissance plane on Sept. 17, Van Pham was barbecuing a sea gull on a makeshift grill using some of the boat's wooden trim for a fire.


A Spanish-speaking petty officer hailed the castaway, and Van Pham shouted back that he spoke only English. After being brought aboard, the 26-foot Sea Breeze was scuttled in 8,700 feet of water while Van Pham was checked out in the sick bay.
"He waved goodbye to his sailboat," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Slaight. "He was upset and said he was going to miss it."

Although Catalina is generally visible from the Los Angeles County coast, a storm that moved through the area dismasted Van Pham's boat Sea Breeze. The boat's radio and engine also failed, leaving Van Pham at the mercy of the currents that carried him south past San Diego and the entire west coast of Mexico.

Van Pham was never reported missing by any of his friends, and he said he had no family, so a search for the Sea Breeze was never launched.
"It also shows the importance of filing a float plan with friends or family," said the Coast Guard's Jones.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.