The length of his hospital stay is one of the minor discrepancies across the sources: some accounts say approximately two weeks, others say forty-five days or thirty-five days. The British Consul’s initial report to the Ministry of War Transport was filed within days of his arrival, suggesting that the authorities were quickly aware of who had survived and what he had endured. The details of his ordeal were communicated, and the chain of events that would lead to his formal recognition was already in motion.
He was able to eat. He was able to speak. He was able to give an account of what had happened to him — an account that would become the basis for the documentation of one of the most remarkable individual survival stories of the Second World War.
The specific aspects of his physical recovery that have been preserved in the accounts are limited: the weight loss, the capacity to walk, the hospital stay. What the sources don’t provide, and what this article will not fabricate, is a detailed account of his psychological state during recovery. People who survive extended isolation and extreme physical deprivation experience its aftermath differently. What is documented is that Poon Lim communicated clearly, gave a coherent account of his experience, and emerged from the ordeal without the kinds of severe incapacitation that would have prevented him from working again — as he subsequently did, for decades.
## Recognition and the British Empire Medal
On July 16, 1943, at the Seamen’s Church Institute in New York City, Poon Lim was formally informed that King George VI would award him the British Empire Medal. The Gazette entry that formalized this award was dated July 13, 1943. The Ben Line — the company that had owned the Benlomond and employed him — presented him with a gold wristwatch.