In the other to mid-20th 100 , there were quite a few ways to become famous . But one sure style was to fail under terrific and mysterious circumstances on a ship in the middle of theocean . That ’s how the work party of the SS Ourang Medan ( and their frump ) become notorious , with widely - open eye and mouths twisted in horror . No one knows what happened to this shade ship because shortly after it was discovered by a deliverance boat , it blew up . At least , that was the story .
In 2019 , the release of the Namco Entertainment TV game , " Man of Medan , " reignited interest in the horrifying mystery of the Ourang Medan , but the taradiddle of this trace ship have been in circulation for 80 years .
" I remember first reading about the Ourang Medan floor many years ago as a child . Still , it never seemed to be one of the enceinte mysteries that always got get across , " says history and true law-breaking author Michael East . mass love ocean whodunit , he say , and that explains why the outcome surrounding the loss of the Ourang Medan have been told and retell with unlike detail in each retell , every time ending in the horrifying death of her crew .
Final Words From the Crew
The more popular and entertainingversionsof the story commence in 1947 or 1948 when a Dutch bottom named the Ourang Medan send off a desperateSOS . The radiocommunication programme was picked up by nearby ships including an American ship , the Silver Star , in the Straits of Malacca , between Indonesia , Malaysia and Singapore . The message said , simply :
When the Silver Star make it , the Ourang Medan was spookily still . Nosteambillowed from her engine , no shouts for aid could be heard . The search company boarded the ship and found the bodies of the crew . Their faces were contort in reverence , mouth stretched in eternal shrieking and their heart were open wide as if turned to Lucy Stone by Medusa herself . Even the ship ’s dog die mid - tangle . Whatever terrorized the gang to destruction was gone without a trace .
There was no time to investigate the death or go back the bodies because shortly after the deliverance crew arrive on gameboard , smoke was understand rising from the loading clutch of the Ourang Medan . With seconds to spare , the rescue crew made it back to the Silver Star before the Ourang Medan exploded , leaving nothing but a story for the newspapers .
Where Truth Ends and Myth Begins
Variations on the story of the fate of the Ourang Medan circulate for years and so , like other mysteries of the sea , it ’s unclear where the truth begin , and where it ends . The first problem with the narrative is that there is no evidence that a shipnamedthe Ourang Medan ever subsist , says East . " There is no shipping record of a vessel under that name . Nobody ever come frontward to say they be intimate the ship or had serve up on her , " he add . " evenly , the inconsistent dates constantly brook out , as does the changing location . "
Some tarradiddle report the ship was near the Solomon Islands , while others placed it in the Marshall Islands . The earliest recognize mention of the sinking of the Ourang Medan was found by researcherEstelle Hargraves . She discovered quotes from British marine officer in 1940 issue in British national paper duringWorld War II . These articles delineate a distraint call from the ship requesting helper from a medic and a warship . In this version , however , it ’s a British merchandiser ship , not an American one , that came to the delivery of the Ourang Medan and find oneself only the numb crewmen ( no dog in this version ) . The only consistency in this notification compared to later version is that the ship did irrupt , and nothing was recovered .
Where Did the Story go Wrong?
eastern United States level out that the pivotal theatrical role , a reporter named Silvio Scherli , may excuse where the truth went sideways , " The [ original ] reports became prettify by others , principally Silvio Scherli , who was look to benefit from the story . "
In 1948 , a Dutch - Indonesian newspaper , De locomotief , draw the Ourang Medan sailing from a Chinese port to Costa Rica in an endeavor to keep its illegal consignment a secret . This covert operationwas divulgedby the only persist survivor of the ship , a German , who was found by a missionary wash up on Taongi Atoll in the Marshall Islands . The German finally succumbed to his injuries , but not before let on the ship was carry sulfuric acid . The loading , he said , was mishandled andfumesescaped their containers silently killing the crew , and ultimately causing the ship to explode . The Italian missionary who discovered the survivor tell this story to none other than the author , Silvio Scherli .
What ’s interesting is that Scherli was based in Trieste in 1940 , the place where the original 1940 report was made . No one can be certain that it was Scherli who made the 1940 report card , reporting on it again in 1948 , but if you trust in ghostwriter ships , you’re able to believe in humankind ’s capableness to deceive .
The Ghost Ship That Never Was?
Over time , the story of the Ourang Medan was ingeminate and new storytellers embellished dissimilar inside information . Dates , location and even the luck of the crew eddy and turn with each Modern telling . Did serious chemicals belt down the gang ? Was there a subsister ? What ’s more potential , says East , is the Ourang Medan never actually existed except in the imagination of the storytellers and their eager audience .
" I believe a ship bury in cryptical fate , but it was likely during the Second World War as per the 1940 study . However , it was likely never named Ourang Medan , and the journalist Silvio Scherli father hold of the write up , fill in the gaps in what he ’d get wind with his own entertaining embellishments , " say East . " There is often a trueness hidden deeply in most myth , but people ’s penury to severalise a effective story takes over , mean the truth is lost . "
