The Haunted Ship : Ourang Medan

Ourang Medan

Variety of tales of ghost ships like the Flying Dutchman and the Mary Celeste have been passed down from one generation of seafarer to the next for centuries Arguably the most disturbing of all these legends is the shocking case of the S.S. Ourang Medan.

The word Ourang in Indonesian means "Man" and Medan is a city in Sumatra, Indonesia. So the approx translation of Ourang Medan is " Man  from  Medan "

According to widely circulated reports, in June of 1947 — or, according to other sources, February of 1948 — multiple ships surveying the trade routes of the straits of Malacca, which is located between the shores of Sumatra and Malaysia, claimed to have picked up a series of SOS distress signals. The unknown ship’s message was [ here ### means words which were heard very unclear , hence unknown ]

" ### we float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chart-room and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead ###. ( after a short pause) ### I die"

map showing strait ( waterway ) of Malacca

The frightening distress call was received by two American ships as well as British and Dutch listening posts. These people, managed to deduced that they were likely originating from a Dutch freighter known as the S.S. Ourang Medan, which was navigating the straits of Malacca.

An American merchant ship called the Silver Star was closest to the presumed location of the Ourang Medan.

Noting the terrified urgency in the message that came, the Captain and crew of the Silver Star wasted no time in changing their course in an effort to assist the possibly wrecked ship. Within hours, the Silver Star caught sight of the Ourang Medan rising and falling in the wavey waters of the Malacca Strait.

As the merchant craft approached Ourang Medan, the crew noticed that there was no sign of life on the deck. The crew attempted to hail the Dutch crew to no avail. That’s when the Captain of the Silver Star decided to gather some people with him to the ship. As they left the safe haven of the Silver Star, these unfortunate people had no idea that they were about to walk into a living nightmare.

As soon as they boarded the Ourang Medan, the men clearly realized that the distress calls were not an exaggeration. The decks of the vessel were littered with the corpses of the Dutch crew; their eyes wide, their arms grasping at unseen "attackers", their faces twisted in horror. Even the ship’s dog was dead.

The boarding party found the Captain’s remains on the bridge, while his officers’ dead bodies were strewn about the wheelhouse and chart-room. The communications officer was still at his post, dead, his fingertips resting on the telegraph. All of the corpses, according to reports, bore the same terrified, wide-eyed expressions as the crew on deck.

Below deck, search party members found team of corpses in the boiler room, but almost as disturbing as this grim find was the fact that the American crew members claimed to have felt an extreme chill in thelowest floor, even though the temperature outside was around 45°C ( 113°F) . While the search team could see clear evidence that the crew of the Ourang Medan suffered badly at the moment of their deaths, they could find no clear evidence of injury or foul play on the corpses. Nor could they notice any damage to the ship.

The Captain of the Silver Star decided that they would rope themselves to the Ourang Medan and tow it back to port, but as soon as the crew attached the tow line to the Dutch ship, a shocking incident happened.

The Ourang Medan exploded with such tremendous force that it “lifted herself from the water and quickly sank.” The crew watched the Dutch vessel disappear beneath the ocean depths.

There are certain theories which tell the reason of the horrific deaths of the people sailing in Ourang Medan, but none could clearly explain their wide-eyed face expression before death.

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