The specific history of Ben Line’s relationship with its Chinese employees during the wartime period, and the company’s response to the casualties among its Chinese crew members — including on the Benlomond — is not fully elaborated in the sources consulted for this article. The gold wristwatch presented to Poon Lim by the Ben Line is documented; what the company did, if anything, for the families of the fifty-three men who died when the ship went down is not available in the accessible record.
## The British Empire Medal: Context and Significance
The British Empire Medal that Poon Lim received in 1943 was, as noted earlier, the lowest grade of the Order of the British Empire — a system of honors that had been created by King George V in 1917, partly in response to the need to recognize the contributions of civilians and non-combatants to the First World War effort in ways that the existing honor systems did not accommodate.
The Order of the British Empire comprises five grades: Knight or Dame Grand Cross (GBE), Knight or Dame Commander (KBE or DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). The British Empire Medal sits below the Member grade — it is not technically a grade of the Order of the British Empire but a related medal, awarded by the Crown for meritorious service. In the wartime period, it was awarded to civilians and to military personnel below officer rank.
The award of the British Empire Medal to Poon Lim rather than a higher grade of recognition is, in retrospect, a subject that the secondary accounts of his story sometimes treat with some ambiguity. The 133-day survival record, the sole survivor status, the documented incorporation of his techniques into Royal Navy training — these are achievements that might, in a different social context, have warranted a more significant recognition. Whether the specific grade of award reflected an assessment of his contribution relative to other wartime services, a reflection of his social position as a non-officer mess steward on a merchant vessel, or some combination of factors is not resolved in the available record.