That I Didn't Know

Myths, Legends, Folklore, Historical Oddities, Space, Supernatural and Other Tales

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Originally from the North of England. Growing up my mother had a huge leather bound book full of stories of ghosts, alien sightings, spontaneous combustion, fairies, ghouls and more. You name it, it was in there. And I was fascinated. I've often thought about that book. I'd love to ask my mother about it but alas, she is no longer with us. So I resolved to create this site. It's the closest thing to it I could get. I hope that some of the joy I had reading that book is passed on to you here today.

The Mystery of the Ourang Medan
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The Mystery of the Ourang Medan

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The SS Ourang Medan story is fascinating to me. It’s not even known to be true. The details are scarce and change with each retelling. But it just has too many juicy bits to not share.

Everybody’s Dead

Sometime in June 1947, there are two American vessels navigating the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra. The vessels, City of Baltimore and the Silver Star, pick up several distress signals from the Dutch merchant ship Ourang Medan.

The first message read:

We float. All officers including the captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead

Then there is a bunch of illegible nonsense before a second message:

I die.

Nothing more was heard from the ship.

Mystery of the Ourang Medan

The Silver Star is the first on the scene. The ship is undamaged, they board it. And are greeted with dead bodies. But not just dead. That would be bad enough. The faces of the bodies are all terrified, upturned to the sun with gaping mouths and eyes staring straight ahead. There are no survivors.

The Silver Star decides to tow the Ourang Medan back to port. Just then, a fire breaks out forcing them to evacuate. They can only watch as the Ourang Medan explodes and slips to its watery grave.

In the Press and a C.I.A. Connection

As far as can be ascertained, the story first appeared in a Dutch newspaper in 1948. Since then it has appeared in many other publications. But every time it’s recognizably the same story but with different characters and locations. It even made it into the Yorkshire Evening Post. A newspaper just published in the North of England.

In December 1959 C.H. Marck Jr of Scottsdale Arizona sent a private letter to the Director of the C.I.A. Allen Dulles. Within this letter he references an earlier letter he had written to ask if they believe that “something from the unknown” had been involved with the Ourang Medan.

He goes on to state that he feels sure the Ourang Medan tragedy holds the answer to many of the airplane accidents and unsolved mysteries of the sea.

The person he wrote to is redacted. You can read the full letter here: cia.gov/library.

Theories of what happened

Lots of theories abound but the most pervasive ones are to do with poisonous gasses and hazardous materials. Could there have been a carbon monoxide leak which killed the crew? Maybe the ship was transporting nerve gas for the Japanese military? After all, World War 2 has just finished so moving it discreetly is a good idea.

Doubts

It’s a compelling story. And the CIA and nerve gas adds a twist. But the Ourang Medan has never been found. Not just that, it has never even been confirmed to exist. It appears in no shipping records in any country. The Silver Star however, did exist. But that’s as far as we get. Everything else is pure speculation.

Sources:

Ourang Medan (wikipedia.org)

Cargo of Death (web.archive.org)

Image Header (pixabay.com)

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