By a raft, a man floated alone at sea for 133 days, nine dead. He was found twice, but no one saved him, and finally drifted to the beach to be saved. He is pan Lian, a Chinese seafarer.
First, it is difficult not to die.
In 1918, Pan Lian was born into a poor peasant family in Hainan. His father was a martial artist who made a living by collecting apprentices and selling art. When Pan Lian was 18 years old, because it was difficult to make a living in Hainan, his father asked a friend to take him to Hong Kong to be an apprentice on the "Tanda" merchant ship.
In the blink of an eye, Pan Lian spent 3 years of apprenticeship on the ship. At the outbreak of World War II, British steamships were recruiting seafarers in Hong Kong. As a result, Pan Lian, who was in need of a job, signed a labor contract with the British merchant ship "Belomon" and became a second-class waiter on board.
Although the Bellomon was a merchant ship, its main role in the Anglo-German War was to transport war supplies over the Atlantic.
On November 23, 1942, the Belomon, which was sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, was spotted by a German submarine, which subsequently sent it two torpedoes.
When the first torpedo hit the hull, Pan Lian was acutely aware of the danger. So without thinking, he put on his life jacket and jumped into the sea. Just as he jumped, a second torpedo blew up the merchant ship. The merchant ship quickly sank to the bottom of the sea with a huge suction force, dragging Pan Lian, who had jumped into the sea, to the depths of the seabed.
In the panic, Pan Lian grabbed a wooden plank. Leaning against the plank, Pan Lian finally surfaced.
However, he looked around, and on the vast and endless sea, he couldn't see anything, which made Pan Lian very desperate.
But the desire to survive made him lie on the board for a long time and did not want to let go of his hand, so after floating for about 2 hours, he suddenly found that not far away, there was a life raft slowly floating towards him.
Overjoyed, Pan Lian quickly swam over and climbed onto the life raft.
It was a square raft with a mast in all four corners. In the center of the raft is a groove 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. He also found that there was a compartment on each side of the raft, which contained two metal boxes filled with various biscuits, cans, chocolates, etc., and even 40 liters of fresh water. In addition, there were several flares and several flashlights.
After the ecstasy, Pan Lian calmed down and decided to take the food and water in a planned way.
2. PUBG.
When drifting at sea, the biggest problem is the lack of fresh water.
You know, in the tropical sea, the weather is unusually bad. Even if there is no wind and waves, the exposure of the sun can easily make people dehydrated and die.
Fortunately, there is an occasional shower at night. So Pan Lian leaned against the tent overhead to collect rainwater. When it had accumulated to a certain extent, he tilted the tent and used the empty can box to scoop the water into the tank little by little.
Because he did not know how long he would drift at sea, Pan Lian would use the knot rope to remember the day every day. In addition, in order to strengthen his body, Pan Lian would tie himself and the life raft together with a long rope every day, and then jump into the sea to swim.
As time passed, the limited food and fresh water finally reached the bottom. Pan Lian had to face the cruel problem of survival.
The clever Pan Lian took the spring from the flashlight that had run out of power and made it into a fish hook. I took the cable apart again and pulled out a strand of fishing line that was kneaded into a thin fishing line. Then, after putting on the hook, he began to fish.
At first, Pan Lian could only catch small fish. He survived by eating small fish raw. However, the number of small fish caught was limited, which made him often hungry. Coupled with the fact that the luck of the day is also different, sometimes even a small fish can not be caught. So, he decided to catch a bigger fish.
Pan Lian took a lot of effort to remove a nail from the raft and used it to make a large fish hook. Subsequently, Pan Lian used small fish as bait and hung on a large fish hook to fish.
Soon, he caught a big fish. The weight of the big fish was almost equivalent to fifty or sixty small fish, which made him very happy.
The meat of the big fish was very fishy to eat raw, so Pan Lian cut the big fish open, took out the internal organs, washed it, cut it into pieces of fish fillets, and hung them on the rope pulling the tent. It didn't take long for the fish pieces to be dried by the sun. This kind of dried fish is not only delicious, but also easy to preserve.
However, the days of wandering at sea are not smooth, and Pan Lian often encounters wind and waves.
Once, a strong wind overturned his life raft, knocking over all the fresh water and dried fish he had kept for a long time into the sea. Fortunately, he tried his best and finally turned over the life raft. Only after he climbed on the life raft, hunger, thirst and fatigue made him almost lose the motivation to live. But he still relied on tenacious perseverance, tried his best to catch a bird, and relied on drinking bird blood to slow down.
In order to save physical strength, Pan Lian later switched to fishing with the offal of fish. He found that fishing with the guts of fish could attract schools of fish. On one occasion, he even used birds as bait and caught a shark several feet long.
Due to the lack of fresh water, for a long time, Pan Lian could only survive by drinking fish blood and eating fish fillets.
In fact, Pan Lian had to face difficulties far more than solving the problem of hunger and drinking water, because his skin had been corroded by seawater for a long time, coupled with the long-term inability to eat vegetables, so his skin quickly ulcerated and sores, and his legs were also puffy and weak. The pain in his body often tormented him so much that he could not sleep. But he always gritted his teeth and persevered, and living became his strong belief.
Pan Lian had two chances of being rescued.
Once, Pan Lian saw a large merchant ship, so he desperately waved.
Seeing that the big merchant ship was getting closer and closer to him, he could even see the appearance of the people on the deck. As a result, the big merchant ship was very close to him, but suddenly turned around and left.
Pan Lian, who was greatly disappointed, believed that this was because the people on the ship discriminated against Chinese, so they refused to rescue him as a Chinese.
On another occasion, a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane saw him as it flew over the Atlantic. However, the reconnaissance plane did not save him, but only dropped a buoy for him to use as a marker.
But soon, a storm took the buoy away.
The experience of being discovered twice, but being abandoned, almost destroyed Pan Lian's will to survive. In addition, he not only suffers from physical pain every day, but also endures boring and boring long hours. As time went on, Pan Lian became more and more desperate.
Many times, Pan Lian fell into depression, thinking that his struggles were in vain. Coupled with physical weakness and often falling into a comatose state, this made Pan Lian almost give up. But the instinctive desire to survive forced him to pinch his thighs every time he wanted to fall asleep, lest he would never wake up.
3. Be saved and reborn.
At the same time that Pan Lian's physical strength had been seriously exhausted and his will was almost destroyed, Pan Lian suddenly found that the color of the sea water had become lighter. This greatly perked him, and with years of experience living at sea, he knew that he was about to dock. Soon after, he did see the beach not far away.
Finally, several kind fishermen found him and rescued him from the shore.
After giving Pan Lian a little food and water, the fishermen took Pan Lian to the nearest Belém City Hospital. Under the care of the doctor, Pan Lian finally got a good treatment.
Through exchanges, Pan Lian learned that when he was rescued, it was April 5, 1943. That is, after 133 days of wandering at sea, the life raft took him to Brazil. As a result, he also broke the world record of drifting at sea on a life raft.
Journalists from all over the world have interviewed and reported on Pan Lian, calling him "China's Robinson" (Chinese Robinson). Soon, his story spread around the world.
4. Heroic legends.
A month later, Pan Lian, who had regained his health, was sent back to England. By this time he had become a household name in England, and even King George VI of England personally received him and awarded him a Medal of the British Empire in recognition of his "rare courage, fortitude and resilience to overcome difficulties in the long, dangerous and difficult days of the raft". The Royal Navy has also compiled a maritime survival guide based on his experience at sea.
The Executive Yuan of the Republic of China also commended Pan Lian's tenacious spirit of survival.
The U.S. Wartime Shipping Bureau, also impressed by Pan Lian's "courage and fortitude", issued a special invitation to him. After Pan Lian arrived in the United States, the Americans specially awarded him the Medal of Honor for Battle. At the request of the U.S. Navy, he recounted in detail his methods of survival at sea. His valuable experience was eventually compiled and summarized by the U.S. Navy and incorporated into the U.S. Navy's operational textbooks.
At that time, Pan Lian had mixed feelings in his heart. Thinking of the experience of being abandoned twice, he could not help but sigh: the world is adding icing on the cake, and there are a few people who are willing to give charcoal in the snow!
However, Pan Lian did not say such a thing. Every time someone asked him why he was able to survive at sea, he said, I am Chinese, and no difficulty can defeat Chinese!
In 1952, Pan Lian settled in New York and married, and later raised 4 children.
In 1991, Pan Lian died of illness at his home in Brooklyn, USA, at the age of 73.