Spectral Sails: The S.S. Ourang Medan

I thought it'd be a challenge to find another ghost ship to write about. That was, however, before I remembered a particularly creepy tale; the story of the S.S. Ourang Medan.

I don't know how long this one will be, but I hope you enjoy it.

The Ourang Medan

The Ourang Medan is a maritime urban legend - of sorts - from the 1940s that has seen a couple of variations over the years. Stories about the ship circulated for years and have captured the imaginations of audiences ever since.

The Stories of the Ourang Medan

Okay, so for now; let's go through a basic rundown of the story.

A ship intercepts a series of mysterious communications and goes to investigate. The investigating ship locates a derelict vessel, and makes a grisly discovery. The derelict's crew - every member - is dead; their faces contorted in expressions of horror. There are a couple of versions of the story:

Version #1: 1940

A distress signal is transmitted somewhere South of the Solomon Islands:

"SOS from the steamship Ourang Medan. Beg ships with shortwave wireless get touch doctor. Urgent.”

It sounded bad, and the second transmission was even more serious.

“Probable second officer dead. Other members crew also killed. Disregard medical consultation. SOS urgent assistance warship.”

Now, I'm not sure what the 'warship' part of the transmission means, but the fact that the crew is apparently dead and potential rescuers were being told to disregard or bypass medical consultations (presumably an important aspect of rescue back then), paints quite a picture. So far, this seems like horror movie stuff, doesn't it? The distressed vessel sent its position and then fell silent for a while. The final transmission from the Ourang Medan was an incomplete statement:

"Crew has..."

There were no further transmissions from the Ourang Medan after that. Rescue ships approached, and those who boarded her, discovered the crew dead at their posts, with their faces contorted in expressions of shock and horror. Before anything major could happen, the rescuers heard explosions and had to evacuate. As they bail, the ship catches fire and sinks to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Version #2: 1948

The 1948 version of the story is probably the more well-known one.

Two American ships, the Silver Star and City of Baltimore, are sailing in the Straits of Malacca when they receive a series of desperate SOS calls from a Dutch merchant ship called the Ourang Medan.

"S.O.S. from Ourang Medan. We Float. All officers including the captain, dead in the chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead."

This transmission was followed later by a shorter, but far more ominous message.

"I die."

There was nothing more after that, any transmissions sent to the Ourang Medan went unanswered.

Silver Star found the Ourang Medan in apparently good shape, and boarded her to attempt a rescue. The ship's crew was dead, their bodies were found on their backs, with their faces contorted in expressions of shock and horror. There were no survivors. The Silver Star's attempt to tow the Ourang Medan was thwarted when a fire broke out in the cargo hold and Silver Star's crew had to evacuate. As they made a run for it, and got back to their own vessel, the Ourang Medan exploded and sank into the sea.

What Happened to the Ourang Medan?

Something important to note about the Ourang Medan's story is that all attempts to locate any record of the vessel have been unsuccessful - this is something that I'll come back to in a bit. With that said, what happened to the S.S. Ourang Medan?

There are two main theories about what happened.

Theory #1 - Unsecured, and Dangerous Cargo

The first theory was that the ship was carrying a dangerous cargo of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin.

This theory posits that seawater got into the ship's cargo hold and reacted with the cyanide to release toxic fumes into the ship. The fumes would've spread throughout the vessel leading to asphyxiation. If you don't know what asphyxiation is, it's where you can't get enough oxygen into your body. Unless you get help quickly, you basically suffocate.

Later on, the nitroglycerin reacted to the seawater and caused the explosions that sank the ship. Now, I don't know how nitroglycerin works - beyond the fact that it's used in explosives and is highly volatile.

Another cargo option is that the S.S. Ourang Medan was carrying a nerve gas - keeping in mind that this is set in a post-WWII period - which got loose while being transferred to the U.S. military. This nerve agent somehow got loose and, well, poisoned the crew.

Theory #2 - Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon Monoxide is odourless, tasteless, and colourless, it's also flammable and poisonous.

The theory goes that there was a fire or equipment malfunction in the ship's boiler system and that it spread toxic carbon monoxide fumes. Of course, the fumes being tasteless and odourless would've gone undetected (given that they didn't have carbon monoxide detectors at the time).

Was the Ourang Medan Unregistered?

As I said before, all attempts to verify the existence of the ship through records have been unsuccessful. Understandably, this has led to skepticism regarding whether ship was real or not. There is, however, one possibility that MIGHT explain why there's no record of the ship. Maybe it wasn't registered at all.

This ties into the whole nerve agent theory. The story here starts a few years after WWII. When the war ended, the Japanese had to disband their weapons and such. One weapon they had was a nerve gas that was stashed in China. In 1947 or 48, they were set to retrieve that gas and transfer it to the U.S. military. Since using a U.S. fleet ship would've left a paper trail, and nobody was meant to know about it, the gas was loaded onto an unregistered vessel - the Ourang Medan.

If the Ourang Medan was unregistered, then it's highly unlikely that anything - maintenance, payments, and so on - done to the ship would've happened on the record. An unregistered ship would've caused a LOT of trouble, so it's more likely everything would've been done off the books.

An Unsolved Mystery

Odds are this mystery will never be solved. The lack of records, and the different theories around the ship's fate have made it so that finding the ship - in any way - unlikely, if not impossible.