“SOS from Ourang Medan…we float. All officers including the captain dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead…. [indistinguishable] …I die.”
Not exactly the most cheerful message to receive in the middle of the ocean. The details of the Dutch ship SS Ourang Medan are murky at best, but the generally accepted story is that sometime around 1947 or 1948, two American ships picked up the above distress call from the nearby SS Ourang Medan and rushed to find a ghost ship awaited them.
The Silver Star was closer than its companion ship and hurried to the ship’s aid. Oddly, the crew of the Silver Star could see no visible damage to the ship when they arrived. A boarding party was sent across to investigate, and sure enough the message was true. The crew of the SS Ourang Medan was discovered dead, chillingly with their mouths and eyes still wide open. When the party reached the communications room, the comms officer was found sitting at his post with his finger still resting on the telegraph operator.
The Silver Star’s crew moved throughout the ship, becoming more concerned at each moment. They claimed to experience an “extreme chill” when moving below decks, despite the fact that it was a 110℉ day. The captain of the Silver Star was naturally disturbed and had just resolved to tow the ship to shore when smoke began pouring from the cargo hold. Just as the boarding party returned to the safety of the Silver Star, the Ourang Medan exploded and sank into the ocean, taking the bodies of her crew with.
The story supposedly made its way to the public through a chain of people. Somehow one man had escaped the gruesome fate of his shipmates and swam to an island. Once there, a game of telephone ensued. The man told his story to a missionary who in turn told a native of Trieste, Silvio Scherli, who then gave the story to the papers. The crew member explained the ship had been carrying an illicit load of sulphuric acid and the fumes killed everyone, but is this really all there was to it?
One popular theory is that posited by author and historian Roy Bainton. Bainton, like many other curious minds, began with shipping records from the years surrounding the supposed sinking. Eventually, Bainton came across a German booklet written by a man named Otto Mielke which just so happened to have too much information about the Ourang Medan to be a coincidence. The information contained included the ship’s route, tonnage, engine power, and, of course, its illicit cargo.
Mielke wrote that the ship was secretly carrying smuggled nerve gas from the Japanese scientific faction Unit 731. Unit 731 was colloquially referred to as the “den of cannibals”; a bit of a misnomer considering the group’s one and only purpose was to create deadly chemical and biological weapons, not eat people. Shiro Ishii founded the group in 1932 and nobody was exempt from his cruelty. They conducted horrifying experiments on humans, including women and infants, such as exposing them to sub-zero temps and forcing them to endure vivisection.
Obviously all of the above was horrible, but with the arms race against the Soviets about to kick into high gear, the US secretly granted immunity to the group in exchange for their research. Bainton speculated that the US may have wanted to transport their samples using a ship of a lesser, unassuming country (sorry to the Netherlands!). These substances, such as nitroglycerin and potassium cyanide, could have reacted with seawater in the event of a breach to form poisonous gas. The saltwater would then further react with the nitroglycerin to create the deafening explosion the crew of the Silver Star witnessed.
Records on the Ourang Medan aren’t the easiest to find, which could certainly suggest a cover-up. By this time, the Geneva Protocol to the Hague Conventions had banned the use and production of chemical and biological weapons. If Bainton is correct in stating the Ourang Medan was carrying such a cargo, it would be a direct breach of the Geneva Protocol, something no country would want to own up to, and certainly not something they’d bother keeping extensive records of.
Another, simpler, theory suggests a more natural cause for the death of the crew. Some believe that methane bubbles could have suddenly escaped from a fissure on the seafloor and poisoned the sailors. There’s no doubt that methane is dangerous, however this doesn’t account for all of the details provided by the crew of the Silver Star. Asphyxiation due to methane gas occurs when methane gas displaces the surrounding oxygen until there isn’t enough for us to properly function. Personally I find it hard to believe that *everyone* was in a space small enough for this to happen. Additionally, though methane is highly flammable, the crew of the Silver Star claimed they saw smoke coming from the cargo hold and had time to evacuate; the explosion from igniting the gas should have been immediate.
Another theory comes from author Vincent Gaddis. Gaddis believed that an unobserved fire or failure in the ship’s boiler system might have been responsible. Many ships ran on coal at the time, producing large amounts of carbon monoxide. Such a malfunction would cause carbon monoxide to be released, and silently asphyxiate the crew and result in the ultimate explosion of the ship as the fire spread and reached flashover.
Some who’ve looked into the fate of the ghost ship have taken the paranormal moniker literally. Authors Robert V. Hulse and Frank Edwards wrote that they believe something supernatural may have been involved in the deaths of the Ourang Medan’s crew. The pair have cited many entities from sea wraiths to ghost pirates. Their evidence is the evident lack of natural cause, the odd, contorted expressions of the crew, and the unnatural chill felt by the rescue party. Additionally, the crew had no visible wounds, which has led many to believe something paranormal was involved.
Our final theory isn’t exactly a theory about what happened, but rather what didn’t. An original publication regarding the fate of the Ourang Medan first cited the date of June 1947 and claimed the events took place around the Marshall Islands. However, other accounts claim it was actually February 1948 and the ship was in Indonesian waters in the Straits of Malacca. Beyond this, there is little to no record of a ship called the SS Ourang Medan. (However, don’t forget there could have been a coverup).
Additionally, there are varying accounts as to whether the Silver Star was still called the Silver Star at this point in time. The rescue ship was eventually renamed, and no connecting paper trail exists between the SS Ourang Medan and the Silver Star, or any of its other names.
Supposedly the first mention of the story in English was 1952. However, this long held belief was actually refuted by historian and ameatuer sleuth Estelle. Estelle found newspaper articles in the British Newspaper Archive with tellings of the story as early as 1940. The story is roughly the same as the later ones, with some key differences. The eerie description of the crew is missing, the ship is a steamship not a freighter, and the location has changed once again, this time to the Solomon Islands.
The biggest difference is the message. In the 1940 version it reads “SOS from the steamship Ourang Medan. Beg ships with shortwave wireless get touch doctor. Urgent.” A second message followed saying “Probable second officer dead. Other members crew also killed. Disregard medical consultation. SOS urgent assistance warship.” Finally, the series of messages was ended by the words “crew has…”
The story in this case comes from an officer of the rescuing ship, but once again hails from Trieste. Estelle theorizes that Silvio Scherli did in fact share the story with newspapers. However, she goes on to argue he tried to sell the story to the papers in 1940, but due to the war didn’t receive the notoriety he was looking for. He tried again later, this time embellishing the story; the papers accepted the story as we know it today. While this is a compelling theory, evidence like Bainton’s German booklet indicate that at least some truth may lie in the story of the SS Ourang Medan.
Many people have tried to solve the mystery of what happened aboard the SS Ourang Medan. Several theories have been produced over the years ranging from plausible to imaginative. Whichever you believe, it’s certainly been aptly dubbed a ghost ship by its followers. Sometimes there’s an explanation…but in this case there’s not.
Sources
Most of us will be familiar with the story of the Jamestown settlement, be it the factual or fictional version, from history classes and movies . . .
“Time is the best killer” – Agatha Christie You’ve probably heard of her. Over 80 books, close to 2 billion copies sold worldwide, and one . . .
