“The Man from Medan”. The Scary Riddle of the Strait of Malacca (4 photos)

Myths and legends have different origins. Sometimes it is just a tale that arose from a casually thrown phrase, sometimes an ancient, forgotten legend that once wandered among people, and sometimes even an invention of people greedy for sensations. It also happens that a story suddenly begins to live its own life and no longer depends on those who put their hands to it. However, it is almost always possible to find the source from which this or that sensation grew.





Strait of Malacca

The Strait of Malacca has always been a busy sea artery, with hundreds of different ships passing through it every day, and its history goes back far into the past, even before the European empires came to these places and founded their colonies. With such traffic, it is not surprising that from time to time something happened: both ordinary accidents and attacks by pirates, of which there were always many in these waters. However, what happened was by no means an ordinary event.

In June 1947, two American patrol ships in the Strait of Malacca received a distress signal. The same signal was also received by British and Dutch listening stations. One of the US Navy patrol ships, the Silver Star, immediately moved to the location of the signal. The haste was quite justified, because the text of the message read:

…"Captain and all officers dead lying in chartroom and on bridge. Probably whole crew dead." (English)…

This was followed by a series of incoherent signals, and then another phrase -

… "I die"...

After which the sender fell silent.

Upon arrival at the coordinates, the patrol ship discovered the S.S. Ourang Medan ("Man from Medan") drifting without a mover. The sailors who boarded the ship found the entire crew dead. Moreover, according to their testimony, even the ship's dog was dead. According to those who conducted the inspection, there were no injuries or signs of mutilation on the bodies of the dead, and it was unclear what everyone died of. However, they claimed that the faces of all the dead were distorted from horror or severe pain before death. The ship had no damage and was fully operational. However, when those who boarded tried to inspect the hold, it began to fill with smoke, which is why they hurried to evacuate, and, as it turned out, not in vain. A short time later, a strong explosion shook the hull of the Ourang Medan, after which the ship quickly disappeared under water. The sailors from the patrol ship also noted an unusual cold in the depths of the hold.

That's the short version of one of the most poorly documented and mysterious shipwrecks in the Strait of Malacca to date. The lack of precise facts about this allegedly Dutch cargo ship has given rise to a lot of speculation and assumptions.



USCGC Duane (WPG-33), 1967

One of the first official mentions of this incident is considered to be a text in the US Coast Guard (USCG) journal entitled "Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council", May 1952. It mentions the name of the ship, Ourang Medan, and the testimony of the Silver Star crew members who conducted the inspection. Here is a quote from one of the reports of a member of the inspection team:

… “Their frozen faces were upturned to the sun… staring, as if in fear… the mouths were gaping open and the eyes staring” …

(“Their frozen faces were upturned to the sun… staring, as if in fear… the mouths were gaping open and the eyes staring” (English))

However, the strange thing is that in some other documents this incident, and the ship itself, are not mentioned at all. Even the world's largest ship classification society, Lloyd's Register, does not have any comments about a ship named S.S. Ourang Medan. Researchers of this incident have found only a German-language brochure from 1954, which describes the incident in some detail: the time and date are confirmed, and the author is quoted as saying that he knew the name of the captain of this ship.

This small amount of information, as well as its dubious reliability, is why this story has become so popular among various ufologists and other seekers of mysticism. It is their "research", if one can even say so, that has given rise to many versions of this incident.

One of the most logical explanations of what happened seems to be the version based on the data from the same German-language brochure from 1954 by Otto Mielke (German). According to him, the Ourang Medan was carrying nitroglycerin and potassium cyanide. Perhaps, for some reason, these substances were depressurized on board and came into contact with sea water, which led to the poisoning of the entire crew. And nitroglycerin was the cause of the subsequent explosion. Some researchers also admit that there could have been contraband chemical weapons on board the ship, the leak of which could have led to what happened.

However, this quite logical version does not explain the death of people on the upper decks of the ship, who were in the open air. In addition, another of the most plausible versions of the death of the crew does not answer this question.

A more extravagant version is the version with the effect of infrasound. The theory of infrasound, or as it is also called in some sources, the "voice of the sea", has been known for a long time. Infrasound generated by the sea at certain frequencies can cause people to feel fear, panic, horror and even cardiac arrest. However, this does not explain the explosion of the ship and the rarity of its mentions in general.





Submarine of the XXI series, U-2540 in the city of Bremerhaven, today

An interesting version also suggests that the dry cargo ship was attacked by the German submarine U-2670. The story about it is a real legend or, rather, a sea myth. It tells that after the Second World War, the crew of this submarine decided to become pirates, for a long time were engaged in smuggling and attacked the transports of the powers that fought against Germany. However, a submarine with such an index did not exist.

There are also many mentions of aliens, sea monsters and other devilry, which were created in large quantities by lovers of otherworldly and mystical stories around the Ourang Medan. If we sum it up and collect only reliable facts, then, most likely, the whole story of the dry cargo ship S.S. Ourang Medan... is just a fake!

The fact that the ship is not in the Lloyd's register, as well as the complete absence of its mention in any Dutch sources and registers, gives serious reason to doubt the very fact of its existence. In this whole story, the US patrol ship Silver Star absolutely definitely existed. However, as some researchers claim, having received copies of the ship's logs, there is no mention of such an incident or even of ships with names similar to the mysterious cargo ship. Thus, the whole story from beginning to end is pure fiction, slightly embellished with the names of real ships, to give credibility to the legend.