In November 1942, the ocean swallowed the SS Benlomond in less than 120 seconds Amid the waves, a Chinese man named Poon Lim, second steward on board, managed to free himself from the wreckage and floated for hours until he found a wooden raft. It wasn't salvation, but limbo: biscuits, chocolate, sugar, a jug of water, a few flares, two funnels, and a flashlight. No company, no route, just the void of the Atlantic. The attack was the work of the German submarine U-172. Of the 54 crew members, only six managed to leave the ship. Lim was the only survivor. For 133 days, the sea was his only home. He caught birds, drank their blood, fished with improvised lines, faced a shark, hauled it aboard, killed it with a jug, and ate it. Every day was a pact with hunger, every night a duel with loneliness. When the Brazilian coast finally appeared on the horizon, Poon was a man, nine kilos lighter, but still able to walk. Local fishermen found him and helped him, but they didn't save him:...
William Leonard Hunt, widely known by his stage name "The Great Farini," holding his adopted daughter Krao Farini | 1883
William Leonard Hunt, widely known by his stage name "The Great Farini," holding his adopted daughter Krao Farini | 1883
Krao Farini was a prominent 19th-century sideshow performer who was born with hypertrichosis, a rare genetic condition characterized by an excessive amount of hair growth all over the body. In the Victorian era, she was commonly exhibited by promoters under the sensationalized moniker of "The Missing Link" between humans and apes. Despite how she was marketed, Krao was highly intelligent, highly educated, and became fluent in several languages. To escape public harassment, she routinely wore a thick veil whenever she traveled through city streets outside of the circus tent. Krao Farini spent over 40 years as a sideshow performer before dying of influenza in her Brooklyn home on April 16, 1926, at approximately 50 years old.
Krao was born in Southeast Asia—in what was then the northern Rattanakosin Kingdom (modern-day Laos / Thailand). She spent her earliest years here until she was about six years old, when she was taken by explorers and brought to Europe.
Photo credit: British celebrity photographer Robert Downey
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