Ourang Medan
The Ourang Medan was believed to be a steamship whose crew died in the open sea in 1947 and which then caught fire and sank. However, a suitable shipwreck is unknown. The mysterious and unexplained Ourang-Medan incident called ship accident is one of the great mysteries of modern maritime history. There are several theories on this, but only poor sources .
It shall be presumed that the Ourang Medan as a smuggling ship sulfuric acid , cyanide and nitroglycerin could have charged, through leaks and seepage of salt water into a cyanide poisoning may have caused. The transport of a chemical warfare agent of the Japanese unit 731 for one of the world powers in the beginning Cold War , camouflaged in an old steamship, was brought into play as a possible explanation.
swell
The first report on the accident appeared in February and March 1948 in a three-part series in the Dutch-East Indian daily De locomotief from Semarang (part one of the series as a facsimile under #Weblinks ). This in turn was likely to have been the main source of the German adventure author Otto Mielke , whose story steamer Ourang Medan - Das Totenschiff in der Südsee published the Anker booklet in 1954 .
Two years earlier, in May 1952, the American journal Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council had reported, but significantly dated the disaster in February 1948, the month of the first newspaper article, which in turn named June 1947, which later also Mielke reproduced this way and thus contradicted the US magazine. In addition, she located the accident quite differently from De locomotief in the only maximum 200 meters deep Strait of Malacca , instead of "400 nautical miles southeast of the Marshall Islands".
In addition to these ambiguities, the name Ourang Medan in particular has not yet been found in shipping registers, despite historical research. The same applies to the wreck, which may not have been searched for yet. Finally, there are no notes on the spectacular incident in the files of the US ship Silver Star, which allegedly was able to visit the wrecked ship on a rescue voyage before it caught fire and sank. Accordingly, it cannot be ruled out that it is a legend based on seaman's yarn .
The US magazine wrote, among other things:
"Perhaps one of the most perturbing sea drama ocurred in February 1948. Radio silence was broken with on urgent SOS from the SS Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, then proceeding through the Straits of Malacca . The strange distress call, transmitted in Morse Code, eerily read, 'SOS from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers, including the captain, dead in the chartroom and on the bridge. Probbably whole of crew dead * * *. ' A few confused dots and dashes later two words came through clearly. They were: 'I die.' Then nothing more. Later the Ourang Medan was found adrift approximately 50 miles from her indicated position. When the vessel which had stumbled across her sent a boat over to investigate, the sailors swarming aboard the Ourang Medan found sight seldom seen. There wasn't a living person or creature on board. There were dead men every where. Bodies were strewn about the decks, in the passageways, in the charthouse, on the bridge. Sprawled on their backs, the frozen faces upturned to the sun with mouths gaping open and eyes staring, the dead bodies resembled horrible caricatures. Even the ship's dog was found dead. Yet, the bodies seemed to bear no sign of injury or wounds. Then, when a fire was discovered in No. 4 hold, she had to be abandoned. A few minutes later an explosion followed and the Ourang Medan sank. To this day no explanation has been offered as to what might have happened to the unfortunate ship's company. ”
“Perhaps one of the most unsettling dramas in shipping occurred in February 1948. The radio silence was broken with an urgent SOS from the SS Ourang Medan, a Dutch ship, as it was passing through the Straits of Malacca. The strange emergency call, transmitted in Morse code, read in an eerie way like this: 'SOS from Ourang Medan * * * we are drifting. All officers, including the captain, dead in the chart room and on the bridge. Probably the entire crew dead * * *. ' A few confused dots and dashes later, two words came through clearly. They were, 'I'm dying.' After that, nothing more. The Ourang Medan was later found floating about 50 miles from the position indicated. When the ship that had struck her sent a boat to examine her, the sailors who had swarmed aboard the Ourang Medan had a rare sight. There was no living person or animal on board. There were dead men everywhere. Bodies were littered the decks, in the corridors, in the house of cards, on the bridge. Stretched out on their backs, their frozen faces turned up towards the sun with their mouths and eyes wide open, the corpses looked like terrible caricatures. The ship's dog was also found dead. Still, the bodies did not seem to show any signs of injury or wounds. Then when a fire in hold no. 4 was discovered, it had to be abandoned. A few minutes later there was an explosion and the Ourang Medan sank. To date, no explanation has been found for what happened on the unfortunate ship. "
Mielke
In Mielke's version, the Ourang Medan sent an SOS call on June 27, 1947 in the South Pacific and at the same time called for a doctor. This combination of two emergency calls was considered very unusual. The distress call was picked up by both the City of Baltimore steamer and the American steamer Silver Star . After the answer from the Silver Star , the Ourang Medan announced in another radio message her position as 179 degrees west and 20 degrees south and also announced that the third officer was dead on the bridge and the ship's captain and engineer were also dead as well as probably the entire crew of the machine personnel. The connection was broken during the radio call. However, the unknown radio operator managed to establish contact with the Silver Star again with the words “I'm dying”.
At this point in time, the Silver Star was a good 210 nautical miles southeast of the position reported by the Ourang Medan , a good 19 hours' drive from the distressed vessel, who, according to his own statements, was drifting and not making any more voyage. The Silver Star immediately set new course. All attempts to establish a new radio contact failed. The City of Baltimore, which had a doctor on board, continued its course after consultation with the Silver Star , as it was more than 800 nautical miles from the reported position of the damaged vessel.
The next day, June 28, 1947, around 9 a.m. local time, the Ourang Medan was sighted. The chimney showed no smoke, nor did the steamer change position. A flag was not set. The Silver Star circled the damaged vessel at a distance of a few hundred meters and operated the ship's siren several times, but no people could be recognized on board the damaged vessel. The Ourang Medan had slight list to starboard , but no visible leakage. The ship's command of the Silver Star suspected that the list was due to poorly stowed cargo or uneven coal consumption. When circling the steamer, it was found on the Silver Star that a lifeboat was missing on the starboard side. The tackle of the missing boat with the lines for the cutter runners still hung from the ship's side, which made an absolutely seaworthy impression.
Since even a call with a megaphone caused no reaction, the Silver Star launched a boat with the first officer and nine men to examine the Ourang Medan . Four men boarded the tackle runners and began to inspect the ship. Due to the size of the steamer, the Americans estimated that there should be a crew of around 40 on the ship. The Silver Star's men found the first bodies on the upper deck . The crew members of the Ourang Medan appeared to have died in great agony, but showed no external injuries. There was no trace of blood anywhere. The ship's personnel all appeared to be Asians. In the radio room, the radio operator who made contact with them was also found dead. The hope of finding the steamer's log book while searching the bridge and the captain's cabin was not fulfilled. The crew of the missing boat seemed to have taken all the ship's papers with them.
The four men of the Silver Star noticed a strange smell on board at an early stage . Suddenly smoke was discovered, which suggested a fire in the ship. The first officer immediately ordered the ship to leave. When the rowboat had covered half of the way to the Silver Star , several severe explosions occurred on board the Ourang Medan , which did not destroy the ship, but only set it on fire. The Silver Star watched the burning steamer for hours, which finally lay on its side and sank. The sea depth at this point is a good 5000 meters.
The captain of the Silver Star had no explanation for the incident, but suspected that the Ourang Medan was carrying chemicals and ammunition and / or explosives. He made an entry about the incident in the log book to report to the authorities when he returned to the home port .
On July 12, 1947, a good three weeks later , a lifeboat was washed ashore on Taongi Island , which belongs to the Marshall Islands group . Six of the seven passengers had already died; the last remaining inmate was cared for by a missionary. The person allegedly was the Second Officer of the Ourang Medan, who called himself Jerry Rabbit. According to him, the Ourang Medan had called on June 7, 1947 in Ballast Shanghai , where Rabbit was recruited. The steamer's command, however, noticeably did not want to see any papers from him. The now second officer suspected that a large part of the crew had been recruited in a similar way. According to Rabbit, it was originally a Chinese steamer that might have been used for transporting coolies or as a troop transport.
In Shanghai, 7,000 boxes of unknown materials were allegedly taken over at night. The ship sailed south on the morning of June 9, 1947. In a small port, a good 80 nautical miles south of Shanghai, another 8,000 boxes were taken on board. Rabbit suspected that all of the goods were contraband. The Ourang Medan's destination was said to be the coast of Costa Rica , where the cargo was to be transferred to another ship at sea. The Ourang Medan was supposed to be broken up in Panama City afterwards .
The course of the steamer was designed to avoid the usual shipping routes and led through the Mariana and Caroline Islands. After ten days, probably around June 21, 1947, the stokers began to fall ill; one stoker died instantly. The master determined heat stroke as the cause of death, which the second officer considered unlikely, even if the temperature in the boiler room was extremely high due to the tropical climate. A few days later, the entire machine staff gradually began to fall ill and complained of severe stomach pain or stomach cramps . Looking through the ship's papers, Rabbit discovered that the Ourang Medan had loaded 15,000 boxes of sulfuric acid and potassium cyanide and 20 canisters of nitroglycerin . Rabbit suspected that some of the boxes had developed leaks and hydrogen cyanide vapors were formed. Since the captain refused to make an emergency call, Rabbit and six crew members launched a lifeboat on their own and moved away from the now drifting steamer, as the stoker staff had failed and the ship's engine was at a standstill.
Since the dinghy had neither water nor provisions, the six other occupants of the dinghy died within a few days due to the intense heat. Jerry Rabbit also died of exhaustion a few days after being rescued.
It is unclear whether and how the Silver Star forwarded the process to the authorities or the shipping company on its return to the USA. Since the Ourang Medan was apparently no longer registered, even in the event that the ship's command of the Silver Star had correctly reported the incident to the American authorities, no maritime administrative proceedings could be initiated.
Trivia
- The presumed fate of the Ourang Medan inspired Supermassive Games to plot their video game The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan.
- The American journalist Vincent Gaddis , who coined the term Bermuda Triangle, mentioned the incident in 1976 in his book Invisible Horizons. He cited the Coast Guard article as a source but did not add any additional information.
literature
- We sail together . In: United States Coast Guard (Ed.): Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council . tape 9 , May 1952, p 107–110 ( digital copy from the US Coast Guard [PDF; 3.7 MB ; accessed on August 7, 2016]).
- Otto Mielke : Steamer Ourang Medan - The death ship in the South Seas . In: Anchor booklets. Seafaring all over the world . Moewig-Verlag, 1954.
Web links
- A mystery van de Zee. ( Dutch : A secret of the sea. ) Digital image of the article from De locomotief: Samarangsch handels- en advertentie-blad of February 3, 1948, a daily newspaper of the Dutch-East Indian port city of Semarang ; apparently first proven article about the shipwreck
Remarks
- ↑ With this, the Süddeutsche Zeitung also illustrated the article Florian Welles on the Ourang Medan on November 9, 2019 (see #Individual references ).
- ↑ According to information from Pabel-Verlag, the successor to Arthur Moewig-Verlag, which published the Anker-Hefte , there were no editorial notes in March 2009; an estate of Otto Mielke, who died in 1958, is unknown; The marine painter Walter Zeeden created the cover picture and illustrations .
- ↑ According to information from the US Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, DC , dated March 31, 2009, the files from the time of the accident are in the National Archives and are available for research there; one could no longer clarify the origin of the article, such as the authorship, and referred to the possibility that information about the incident could be found at the Naval History & Heritage Command (www.history.navy.mil).
- ↑ As with De locomotief, this is a good six months earlier than Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council stated in 1952.
- ↑ Launched in 1942 as Santa Cecilia at the Federal Shipbuilding Co., Kearny, New Jersey, renamed Santa Juana in 1947 , at the latest after the renaming for the New York-based shipping company Grace Line Inc. Wrecked November 16, 1970.
- ↑ According to the new edition of the issue in August 1979 as part of the volume Damned by fate - tank motor ship “Esso Bolivar” - steamer “Ourang Medan” ( SOS Ship Fates on the Seas of the World Volume 98) the Silver Star was on a journey from Manila to Panama .
- ↑ Between Fiji and Tonga , around 5000 km away from the Strait of Malacca , according to the Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council in 1952.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Florian Welle: The ghost ship. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 9, 2019, accessed March 10, 2020 .
- ↑ German for "400 zeemijlen zuidoostelijk van den Marshall islands", see the original image with #Weblinks .
- ↑ Vincent Gaddis : Ghost Ships - The Bermuda Triangle and Other Unsolved Riddles of the Seas . Heyne Verlag , Munich 1976, ISBN 978-3-453-00634-8 , p. 134 (American English: Invisible Horizons . Translated by Ursula Schuler).