Poon Lim BEM (; 8 March 1918 – 4 January 1991) was a Chinese sailor who survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic. Lim worked as second steward on , a British merchant ship that was sunk by , a German U-boat, on 23 November 1942. He soon found an wooden raft with supplies. When the supplies ran low, Lim resorted to fishing, catching seabirds, and rain collection. On 5 April 1943, Lim was rescued by three Brazilian fishermen as he neared the coast of Brazil. After his return to the United Kingdom, Lim was awarded a British Empire Medal by King George VI. After the war, Lim emigrated to the United States. World War II Lim was born on China's Hainan Island on 8 March 1918. In 1942, during World War II, he was working as second steward on the British armed merchant ship , which was on its way from Cape Town to Paramaribo and New York. The ship was armed but slow moving and was sailing alone instead of in a convoy. On 23 November, , a German U-boat, intercepted and hit the Benlomond with two torpedoes in position , some east of Belém, Brazil, where Lim ultimately landed. The ship sank from the nearest land to the South, but ocean currents took him west to Belém. As the ship was sinking, he took a life jacket and jumped overboard before the ship's boilers exploded. Benlomond sank in approximately two minutes, allowing only six survivors, including Lim, to abandon ship. After approximately two hours in the water, Lim found and climbed aboard a wooden raft. The raft had several tins of biscuits, a jug of water, some chocolate, a bag of sugar lumps, some flares, two smoke pots, and a flashlight. Lim was ultimately the only survivor of the sinking. 53 of the crew of 54 were lost at sea, including the master, John Maul, 44 crew, and eight gunners. Lim 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 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 flashlight and made it into a fishhook, and used hemp rope as a fishing line. He