Mystery Of The Ourang Medan – What Happened To The Ship Of Horror?

Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – People often die under mysterious circumstances, but what happened to the Ourang Medan is truly bizarre.

What was the truth behind the cryptic and spooky SOS message the Dutch freighter S.S. Ourang Medan sent?

The mystery of the S.S. Ourang Medan remains unexplained. Credit: Public Domain

Who or what was responsible for the death of the ship's crew? The story of Ourang Medan has intrigued many researchers and people interested in unexplained mysteries. The tragic fate of the vessel is a maritime mystery that continues to baffle the world.

There has been no lack of speculations as to what killed the crew, and the ship's horrible fate has become a legend.

Was the S.S. Ourang Medan unknowingly part of a secret military experiment? Was the freighter attacked by UFOs or other paranormal forces unknown to us? Can the cargo shed light on the crew's horrible condition?

It's a strange story that presents us with plenty of conflicting information. To begin with, we don't even know with certainty what year the S.S. Ourang Medan became a shipwreck in Dutch East Indies waters. Depending on the newspaper source, it could have been in 1940, 1947, or 1948.

The S.S. Ourang Medan became a ship of death. Credit: YouTube screenshot

The world learned about the story for the first time in 1948 when a Dutch newspaper published a series of articles describing the incident. Later media reports were almost identical, and no new facts could be added.

The S.S. Ourang Medan was found adrift in the waters of Southeast Asia, a region where sailors had previously reported seeing strange underwater lights and many ships had vanished.

Obviously, something must have gone terribly wrong because radio operators picked up repeated SOS calls from the ship.

According to t a secret CIA memo, the last SOS from the S.S. Ourang Medan read: "All officers, including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on the bridge... probably whole crew dead."

After this, all contact with the S.S. Ourang Medan was lost. Rescue vessels sent to locate the S.S. Ourang Medan found the ship after a few hours. When the Dutch freighter was located it seemed to be in good condition, but there was no response to signals from the approaching vessels.

The rescue parties boarded the ship and found bodies of officers and crew members. The faces of the dead showed expressions of convulsive horror. What could possibly have happened?

The entire crew was frozen in fear, facing the sun with their eyes bulging. Credit: Adobe Stock - breakermaximus

Those who boarded the death ship could never forget the horrifying sight that awaited the rescue party.

"Not one man of the rescue parties would ever forget the boarding. An eerie stillness hung in the air as the first boarder, a British captain, climbed up the side and over the rail onto the deck.

"In all my years at sea, I've never seen the likes of that!", a British captain who set his foot on the deck recalled... "Stepping on deck, I stumbled over a body. His eyes stared at the sky, mouth agape. Gad! What a ghastly sight. Bodies of sailors, some officers, lay about the deck. I climbed the ladder to the bridge and found the sprawled body of the captain. And their faces! I shall never forget their faces!"

A doctor from a rescue ship conducted a quick examination. To everyone's surprise, the corpses had no wounds, and no signs of violence could be detected. No weapons were found, and no evidence of damage to the vessel was noticeable. There was nothing that could reveal what killed the crewmembers.

According to a memo written by C.H Marck Jr, assistant to the Director of the CIA Allen Dulles, in 1959, "there wasn't a living creature on the ship. The captain lay dead on the bridge. The bodies of the other officers sprawled in the wheelhouse, chartroom, and wardroom.

The faithful 'sparks' was slumped in a chair in the radio shack, his hand still on the sending key.

The bodies of the crew lay everywhere, in the rooms, in the passageways, on the decks. And on all the dead faces was a look of convulsive horror."

The CIA memo indicated whatever happened to the S.S. Ourang Medan could explain why other ships vanished in the same region. "I feel sure that the SS Ourang Medan holds the answer to many of these aeroplane accidents and unsolved mysteries of the sea," the author of the memo wrote.

A memo by C.H Marck Jr, assistant to the Director of the CIA Allen Dulles, in 1959.

The S.S. Ourang Medan was never properly examined. The boarding parties decided to the ship of death to a port and continue investigating, but, according to the memo, "at that very moment smoke and flames belched forth" from the hold.

They quickly abandoned the ship. Then there was an explosion, and the S.S. Ourang Medan sunk without a trace with all the dead crew, never to be seen again.

Many find it strange that the coast guard didn't report this incident until 1954. Those who favor conspiracy theories suggest several countries were involved in the coverup of the tragedy.

What killed the entire crew remains unknown, and there has been no shortage of speculations. Some think a noxious gas bubbled from the seabed, or an unknown disease may be responsible.

What mysterious force had swept over Ourang Medan, turning her into a ship of the dead? Why did the deceased crew members stare at the sky? Was the SS Ourang Medan deliberately set on fire to destroy all evidence?

There are many unanswered questions, and the lack of facts is why so little is known about the fate of the death ship. Much remains undetermined, and after all these years, it's unlikely more evidence will be brought to light. We can say with certainty that the enduring mystery of the SS Ourang Medan captivates the world.

Written by Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com Staff Writer

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