Уран Медан

SS ( Ourang Medan был предполагаемым кораблем-призраком , который, по разным источникам, потерпел кораблекрушение в Голландской Ост-Индии современная Индонезия) в водах Малаккского пролива или в другом месте после того, как весь его экипаж погиб при подозрительных обстоятельствах, либо в 1940, 1947 или 1948 год, в зависимости от газетного источника. Некоторые утверждают, что история « Оранга Медана» — городская легенда , поскольку никогда не было записей о корабле под названием « Оран Медан» .

Тайна SS Ourang Medan

Одна английская ссылка на корабль и инцидент была опубликована в майском 1952 году в выпуске Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council , изданном Береговой охраной США . Более ранняя ссылка на английском языке была опубликована 10 октября 1948 года в газете The Albany Times из Олбани, штат Нью-Йорк , и ссылается на первоначальный источник как Elsevier's Weekly . Слово Ourang (также пишется Orang ) на малайском или индонезийском языке означает «мужчина» или «человек». тогда как Медан - крупнейший город на индонезийском острове Суматра , что дает приблизительный перевод «Человек Медана» . Сообщения о катастрофе корабля появились в различных книгах и журналах, в основном о Фортеане . Однако их фактическая точность и даже существование корабля не подтверждены, а детали конструкции и истории судна, если таковые имеются, остаются неизвестными. Поиски какой-либо официальной регистрации или зарегистрированного расследования несчастного случая оказались безуспешными.

The story's first appearance was a series of three articles in the Dutch-Indonesian newspaper De locomotief: Samarangsch handels- en advertentie-blad (February 3, 1948, with two photographs, February 28, 1948, and March 13, 1948). Название корабля, нашедшего « Уран Медан», никогда не упоминается, но место встречи описывается как 400 морских миль (740 км; 460 миль) к юго-востоку от Маршалловых островов . Во второй и третьей статьях описываются переживания единственного выжившего из экипажа «Оранг Медан» , которого нашли итальянский миссионер и туземцы на атолле Таонги на Маршалловых островах. Мужчина, прежде чем погибнуть, рассказывает миссионеру, что корабль перевозил плохо уложенный груз купороса и что большая часть экипажа погибла из-за ядовитых паров, вырывавшихся из разбитых контейнеров. Согласно версии, « Оран Медан» шел из неназванного небольшого китайского порта в Коста-Рику и намеренно избегал встречи с властями. Выживший, неназванный немец, умер после того, как рассказал свою историю миссионеру, который рассказал ее автору Сильвио Шерли из Триеста , Италия . Голландская газета завершает заявление об отказе от ответственности:

"This is the last part of our story about the mystery of the Ourang Medan. We must repeat that we don't have any other data on this 'mystery of the sea'. Nor can we answer the many unanswered questions in the story. It may seem obvious that the entire story is a fantasy, a thrilling romance of the sea. On the other hand, the author, Silvio Scherli, assures us of the authenticity of the story."

Silvio Scherli is said to have produced a report on Trieste "Export Trade" on September 28, 1959.

New evidence found by The Skittish Library shows there were 1940 newspaper reports of the incident taken from the Associated Press in British newspapers the Daily Mirror and the Yorkshire Evening Post. Again, there were differences in the story: the location being the Solomon Islands, and the SOS messages different from later reports. The story still appears to originate with Silvio Scherli in Trieste.

Circumstances

According to the story, at some point of time in or around June 1947 (Gaddis and others list the approximate date as early February 1948), two American vessels navigating the Straits of Malacca, the City of Baltimore and the Silver Star, among others passing by, picked up several distress messages from the nearby Dutch merchant ship Ourang Medan. A radio operator aboard the troubled vessel sent the following message in Morse code: "S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * We float. All officers including the captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *." After a few more incoherent dots and dashes, the words "I die." were received. After this message, there was nothing more heard of. When the Silver Star crew eventually located and boarded the apparently-undamaged Ourang Medan in an attempt at a rescue, the ship was found littered with corpses (including the carcass of a dog) everywhere, with the dead bodies found sprawled on their backs, the frozen (and allegedly badly-frightened) faces of the deceased upturned to the sun above with mouths gaping open and eyes staring straight ahead, with the corpses resembling horrible caricatures. No survivors were located and no visible signs of injuries on the dead bodies were observed. Just as the ship was to be prepared for a tow by the Silver Star to a nearby port, a fire then suddenly broke out in the ship's No. 4 cargo-hold, forcing the boarding party to hastily evacuate the doomed Dutch freighter, thus preventing any further investigations to be carried out. Soon after, the Ourang Medan was witnessed exploding before finally sinking.

Theories

Unsecured hazardous materials cargo

Bainton and others hypothesize that Ourang Medan might have been involved in smuggling operations of chemical substances such as a combination of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin or even wartime stocks of nerve agents. According to these theories, sea water would have entered the ship's hold, reacting with the cargo to release toxic gases, which then caused the crew to succumb to asphyxia and/or poisoning. Later, the sea water would have reacted with the nitroglycerin, causing the reported fire and explosion.

Another theory is that the ship was transporting nerve gas which the Japanese military had been storing in China during the war, and which was handed over to the U.S. military at the end of the war. No U.S. ship could transport it as it would leave a paper trail. It was therefore loaded onto a non-registered ship for transport to the U.S. or an island in the Pacific.

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning

Gaddis puts forward the theory that an undetected smouldering fire or malfunction in the ship's boiler system might have been responsible for the shipwreck. Escaping carbon monoxide would have caused the deaths of all aboard, with the fire slowly spreading out of control, leading to the vessel's ultimate destruction.

Skepticism

Several authors note their inability to find any mention of the case in Lloyd's Shipping Register. Furthermore, no registration records for a ship by the name of Ourang Medan could be located in various countries, including the Netherlands. While author Roy Bainton states that the identity of the Silver Star, reported to have been involved in the failed rescue attempt, has been established with high probability, the complete lack of information on the sunken ship itself has given rise to suspicion about the origins and credibility of the account. Ships logs for the Silver Star did not show a record of any such rescue attempt. Bainton and others have put forward the possibility that accounts of, among others, the date, location, names of the ships involved, and circumstances of the accident might have been inaccurate or exaggerated, or that the story might be completely fictitious.

One British researcher has found the story of the Ourang Medan, transposed to the Solomon Islands, but also with a Trieste connection, in two British newspapers in 1940 (The Yorkshire Evening Post for 21 November 1940 and The Daily Mirror for 22 November 1940), both quoting AP (The Associated Press) news agency.

External links

• An in-depth look at the 75+ Year Old Legend of The SS Ourang Medan
• An episode of the Thinking Sideways podcast about the ghost ship, featuring an interview with Roy Bainton.
• The Death Ship SS Ourang Medan. Modern research shows the story is almost certainly fictional.
• PRAMUKA4D.