The mystery of the death of the ship “Ourang-Medan”

People have been sailing on the oceans for thousands of years, and therefore it goes without saying that of the countless millions of ocean voyages that have been undertaken, some have ended in failure. Ships sink, get lost, crash during storms, and in some cases, throughout history, the fate of the voyage turned out to be an eternal mystery.

Sometimes, for example, ships were found in an unexplained state, for example, the entire crew died, and there was no real explanation for what happened. The maritime industry has even given such vessels a name: “ghost ships.”

And despite the fact that legends about ghost ships appeared many centuries ago before modern technology helped make sailing a safer activity with a more likely outcome, such vessels began to appear in marine magazines surprisingly recently.

One of these cases, the case of the ship Ourang Medan, occurred just a couple of years after the Second World War. Not only did everyone on the ship die, but it also exploded a few seconds after the search team left the ship after the terrible discovery.

In 1947, the crew of the Silver Star (as well as the crews of several other ships on the seas off the coast of Indonesia) received a distress signal from the Dutch cargo ship Ourang Medan.

“All the officers, including the captain, are dead, lying in the control room and on the bridge. Perhaps the entire crew is dead,” read the distress call, followed by something similar to “I’m dying.”

The crew of the Silver Star found the lost vessel and boarded it but made a terrifying discovery: all the crew members were dead, even the dog, and their faces were frozen in a cry of pain.

There were no signs of violence or injuries. After smelling the smoke, the rescuers left the ship, and a few seconds later, Ourang Medan exploded.