Yes, absolutely! A cursory answer to tide you over until true experts appear:

Keep in mind that by WWII, the range and proliferation of aircraft would be incredibly high. Long-range flying boats routinely conducted S&R sweeps, Antisumbarine-Warfare (ASW) sweeps and long-range presence and weather patrols.

In the Pacific, the open waters to the north of the Bismarck sea were rarely the sight of any significant combat action between ships. Regardless of this fact, many classes of ship at this point in history had some sort of air presence. Crusiers, heavy cruisers and even some destroyers and battleships had seaplanes that could be launched via catapult. Ostensibly these seaplanes were used first and foremost for helping the ships calculate firing solutions and help with identifying targets. They were also frequently used for ASW patrols and more general presence patrols. This meant that they could be and were used in S&R roles. The rapid dispatch of fast ships such as Destroyers would be an appropriate response for a ship in distress.

The advent of 'Escort Carriers' allowed for the seaplanes and flying boats to conduct S&R operations in areas well beyond the range of land based aeroplanes as seen in the dreaded 'Atlantic Air-Gap' linked. The gap was prime hunting grounds for U-Boats because of its inability to be reached by land-based ASW planes. As a result the situation you are asking about in your question had a high possibility of occurring - especially as it made more tactical sense for other ships in the convoy to ignore struck ships and maintain speed. Escort Carriers would launch flying boats or planes to re-establish contact with the distressed ship and could render help in the form of sending any other convoy or escort within radio contact to go pick-up survivors.

If you'll forgive a slight shift in focus, it wasn't just sailors who could be adrift on the ocean, especially during World War II; aircrew forced to bail out over water or ditch at sea would, if lucky, have a dinghy, or if slightly less lucky, be left floating in a life preserver (the least fortunate didn't survive the landing). There certainly were search and rescue attempts; I'm most familiar with the British operations centred around the RAF, which took a depressingly long time to become adequate.

The problem first became obvious during the Battle of Britain, with fighting over the English Channel. Hardly the most terrifying body of water; it's possible to swim from one side to the other, after all (or indeed make the journey in a 1996 Nissan pick-up with a couple of welded on oil drums), but even during the summer a downed pilot could only survive for about four hours. Luftwaffe aircrew at least had a decent yellow life jacket, inflated by CO2 bottle, and fluorescent dye to mark their location; the standard early RAF 'Mae West' life jacket had to be manually inflated (not easy after landing by parachute or escaping from a ditched aircraft, especially if wounded), and was dark green, pretty much the same colour as the Channel. RAF aircrew also initially lacked a means of indicating their position or attracting attention. As if that all wasn't bad enough, the collar of the standard issue officer's shirt shrank in contact with sea water, throttling the wearer. (Details from Convoy Peewit by Andy Saunders and Most Dangerous Enemy by Stephen Bungay.)

Compounding the problems with equipment, bizarrely, for an island nation, there was no dedicated RAF search and rescue organisation at the start of the Battle of Britain, whereas the Luftwaffe Seenotdienst (sea rescue service) had been established in 1935, and operated both boats and Heinkel He 59 seaplanes. Almost 200 RAF pilots, one third of RAF casualties during the Battle, were posted as missing, the vast majority lost over the sea. Survival equipment issued to aircrew greatly improved over the war, and a Directorate of Air/Sea Rescue was established in February 1941, with dedicated ASR squadrons. These generally flew hand-me-down aircraft no longer required for other duties, such as the Westland Lysander and Boulton Paul Defiant, which would search for survivors floating in the water, drop survival equipment such as a dinghy, mark the location with a smoke bomb and summon either a boat or seaplane such as the Supermarine Walrus (affectionately known as the Shagbat). The dedicated squadrons could also be joined by impromptu search missions, especially from comrades of missing crew. By 1943 there were eight ASR squadrons around the UK; those that operated in potentially contested areas such as the Channel flew [old Spitfires with minor modifications to drop survival packs and smoke bombs] (http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210423), but still armed; 277 Squadron even shot down five V-1 flying bombs in 1944. For longer range operations there were Lockheed Hudsons and Avro Ansons, and from late 1943 Vickers Warwicks, originally designed as bombers but not used in that role; the Warwick had long range, good endurance, several pairs of eyes for spotting, and rather than inflatable dinghies it could carry and drop by parachute the Mk IA Airborne Lifeboat, a 10m wooden boat with engines. Very long range rescues could also be effected by the large Sunderland and Catalina flying boats of Coastal Command; in July 1944, a Catalina of 210 Squadron rescued six survivors from a Liberator who had been in the sea for two days, 540 miles north of the Shetlands.

A club was even formed in 1942, [The Goldfish Club] (http://www.thegoldfishclub.co.uk/index.php/history-of-the-goldfishclub), for aircrew who survived ditching at sea, and at least a couple of books include some of the more remarkable tales of survival: Down in the Drink by Ralph Barker and The Goldfish Club by Danny Danziger. Of course a great many sailors and airmen were lost at sea, but the Goldfish Club had 9,000 members by the end of World War II, so a survivor shouldn't have been completely without hope.

I'd like to mention a specific case where help was not immediately available. It was the case of the USS Indianapolis, which is notable for delivering critical parts for the first atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. After the delivery, it was torpedoed by a IJN submarine and many crew members survived by clinging to life and awaiting rescue, which did not come until days later. Initially, no one took seriously that the USS Indy could have been damaged or sunk when it failed to report in on time. Survivors were later spotted by aerial recon and saved. You should read the book In Harms Way by Doug Stanton. Great look at the ordeal of the survivors and the last Captain, who survived the incident.