Lin A'gen (Left), the last living Zhoushan fisherman who participated in the Lisbon Maru rescue 78 years ago in Zhoushan, East China’s Zhejiang province, passes away on Aug 6. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Lin A'gen, the last living Zhoushan fisherman who participated in the Lisbon Maru rescue 78 years ago in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, passed away on Aug 6, local media reported.

He once recalled that on a sunny Oct 2, 1942, when he was just 18 years old, he was working on a farm and heard a loud bang near the sea and then saw people and cargo floating in the water.

"A ship is sinking, we need to save these people!" Lin recalled shouting as he ran to get help from his brother-in-law, who pulled out a small wooden fishing boat and rushed to the shore with two friends.

Lin said that there were a lot of cloth and people floating atop the water. Some of them were struggling to grab hold of driftwood, while others had stopped breathing.

The ship was the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese transport ship, and it had just been torpedoed by a US submarine about three nautical miles off the coast of Qingbang during World War II.

In addition to 700 Japanese troops, almost 2,000 British servicemen that had been taken prisoner after the fall of Hong Kong were crammed below deck. As the ship sank, a Japanese officer gave the order to leave the captives to their fate.

That day, a total of 198 fishermen on the Qingbang and Miaozihu islands in Zhoushan carried out 65 rescue operations with 46 fishing-boats.

On Oct 2, 2019, Lin, along with 14 people from the United Kingdom, participated in a commemorative event for the 77th anniversary of the Lisbon Maru sinking held in Zhoushan.