Ghost ship (Ourang Medan)

Firstly let's go over the number of known, abandoned ships in the ocean. In 2020 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) database listed 438 ships worldwide, with 5,767 crew members, abandoned since 2004; not all cases are referred to the IMO, so the actual number is larger, but unknown.

Now into the case we covered recently.

In May 1947, vessels moving through the busy shipping route in the Straight of Malacca near Indonesia supposedly reported a crackling voice coming through their communications channels.

“All officers including captain dead,” the voice said, “lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew dead ... I die.”

The distress call, if anyone indeed heard it, wasn't something that could quickly be forgotten.

With those words, the S.S. Ourang Medan cargo ship would go down in infamy. For decades, stories have circulated of the crew being found dead following the distress call, with no obvious cause. Worse, their faces were said to be frozen in horror, anguish, or a combination of the two.

The Medan wouldn't have been the first ship to meet a similar and mysterious fate; one of the most infamous among the world is, the Mary Celeste, that was discovered at sea completely devoid of any occupants in 1872.

However what genuinely sets the Medan apart is that no one is completely sure what happened to its crew—or if it had ever been launched at all.

Is the Medan a fiction perpetuated through the decades, or a ship that navigated into dangerous waters? Maybe it is fiction made up by sailors for entertainment.

The printed American origins of the S.S. Ourang Medan story dates back to newspaper accounts that appeared beginning in 1948. The most frequent, by writer Win Brooks, who happened to have provided an account of the ship’s voyage and its confusing unknown fate.

According to Brooks, the Medan was a then-40-year-old, 5000-ton cargo steamer ship, its name translating to “Man of Medan” in Malaysian.

The Medan was passing through the Strait of Malacca with 23 crew members, including a captain and a number of workers native to Indonesia.

Exactly what cargo it was carrying and where it was headed are details that don’t appear to have survived any accounts. It's speculated that the cargo was toxic and / or possibly dangerous. It's also theorized that this was a smuggling attempt.

Either way it is not an easy thing for a ship to disappear, as nautical travel usually involves records of departures, stops, and arrivals, among other evidence.

The first and most concerning detail of the Medan story is that the ship was never registered with Lloyd’s Shipping, which is well known to have kept records of ships.

However it’s certainly incredibly possible that the history of the vessel may have prevented an accurate account of its whereabouts or even its origin.

“Medan” refers to a Sumatran island, where the ship may have potentially been registered.

There are many who also believe the Medan was a Dutch ship that was commandeered by Indonesian pirates, who may have been known to ferry illicit cargo and would therefore have every valid reason to avoid being documented.

With all this in mind the mystery surrounding this ship and it's accounts will remain an unknown.