Hell on High Seas by Rob Mundle

Author:Rob Mundle [SHERYLE BAGWELL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730449973
Publisher: HarperCollins

CHAPTER 7

TORPEDOED INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS

Poon Lim was little more than a skeleton with skin and near death when he was dragged from a disintegrating raft in the Atlantic, but his mind was still strong enough for him to know he held an unenviable record, one he hoped no one would ever break.

The 25-year-old seaman from Hainan Island, in China, had survived an incredible 133 days aboard the raft after SS Benlomond, on which he was a steward, was blasted out of the water by a torpedo fired from a Nazi U-boat. It was 23 November 1942 and World War II was at its height. Benlomond, with 55 crew aboard, was at the time some 750 miles to the east of the Amazon en route from Cape Town to Dutch Guyana when it came into the sights of the prowling U-boat.

The ship was a sitting duck as it was not under naval escort on this passage. The German crew lined it up, fired a torpedo, and just seconds later a direct hit decided Benlomond’s fate. The massive explosion that tore the hull apart was so severe that the ship sank in no time, giving the few crew who survived the blast little opportunity to escape.

Poon Lim managed to grab a life jacket and tie it around himself before leaping overboard. He knew he had to swim fast and as far away from the ship as possible because once the boilers in the engine room came into contact with the cool waters of the Atlantic the ensuing blast would bring another volcano-like eruption. As he swam away he could hear the desperate cries from shipmates who were trapped amid the wreckage. At one stage he saw five others clinging to a Carley float, which was the only form of liferaft in that era, but it drifted away so rapidly he was unable to reach it. He came to realise those five sailors were the only other survivors, but they were never to be seen again.

Immediately after Benlomond disappeared below the sea surface in a burst of massive bubbles, Poon Lim began swimming among the flotsam in the desperate hope he could find something that had broken free from the ship and was large enough to give him support. As he rose over the crest of each wave he would frantically scan the area around him, but it wasn’t until almost two hours later that his prayers were answered in the best possible way. He spotted a Carley float only 30 metres away, swam to it and dragged himself aboard.

Carley floats were constructed from a length of copper or steel tubing between 30 and 50 centimetres in diameter which was formed into an airtight oval ring. This ring was sheathed, usually using cork, and then covered with a layer of canvas which was made waterproof using paint or a doping liquid. The floor of the raft comprised a grating made from either wooden slats or webbing.

For Poon Lim this float was truly

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