Originally Posted By: hikermor
... Consider an actual WWII survival story-Poon Lim adrift for 133 days in the S Atlantic in 1942. He was the sole occupant of a life raft with food and water for 50 days, but did the rest of his stint surviving in rainwater and fish. ..

I learned the Poon Lim story after spotting a photo of him being presented with one of the first engineered US signal mirrors by the head of the US agency responsible for developing equipment for safety of life at sea, the Committee on Emergency Rescue Equipment.

Poon Lim Signal Mirror Presentation, Aug 1943

This news story describes Poon's technique for catching seagulls:

Article on Poon Lim Ordeal, Nov. 1943

There's a pretty good overview on Wikipedia:

Poon Lim article on Wikipedia
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A signal mirror should backup a radio distress signal, like a 406 MHz PLB (ACR PLB) (Ocean Signal PLB)