Mystery of "Orang Medan"
This mysterious incident occurred either in June 1947 or in February 1948. It sounds paradoxical, but it is a fact. Even time is unknown, although the mysterious case is inextricably linked with the sea and ships. And on any vessel there is a logbook, where all incidents are scrupulously recorded, indicating the number and time. This is the most important ship document. At the expiration of the year, he surrenders to the archive and is stored forever. However, the journal did not help in this situation, because it was simply not found. But consider everything in order.
On one of the indicated approximate dates in the Strait of Malacca (the strait between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra) were the American ships Baltimore and Silver Star. At some point in time, they simultaneously received an SOS signal from the Dutch merchant ship Orang Medan (Ourang Medan). The radio operator of the ship in distress reported the following: “SOS from Ourang Medan ... A team of 9 people, please help. The captain is dead, probably dead, and other crew members. " And after a minute, another 1 signal came: "I'm dying."
According to maritime law, having received the SOS signal, the ship must immediately change course and rush to the rescue. In this situation, the Silver Star headed to the place of the tragedy. Reaching the coordinates indicated by the radio operator, the Americans saw a ship on the water. Having risen on it, found the corpses of people and the corpse of a dog. All bodies lay on their backs, as it were, in a frozen state. Horror froze on the dead, with their eyes open in their faces, and their arms and legs were turned unnaturally. Everything indicated that people died in agony, while there were no visible injuries on their bodies.
The vessel was in good condition, but the inspection suddenly interrupted a fire that started in the cargo hold. Rescuers hurriedly left the ship, and after a while, there was an explosion. "Orang Medan" split into 2 parts and went to the bottom. Together with him, the bodies of dead people disappeared into the depths of the sea. As a result, further investigation of the tragedy was impossible.
It would seem, everything is clear. There is a distress signal, the crew, hastened to help the sinking ship, but the matter turned out to be that the Orang Medan did not pass under any documents at all. That is, the ship with this name was not in the Dutch merchant fleet, nor in any other. How did you even know about this tragedy, where did the mystery “Orang Medan” come from?
The first official mention of a case with a Dutch merchant vessel appeared in May 1952 in a publication by the US Coast Guard. This incident was reinforced by the stories of members of the Silver Star team. Such an unusual incident interested journalists. They reviewed the Lloyd’s Register, other registries, and it turned out that the nature of such a vessel never existed. Then they turned to the Coast Guard and explained that the incident was described in 3 articles in an Indonesian newspaper. Articles were dated 02/03/1948, 02/28/1948 and 03/13/1948. It is from these articles that mysterious facts were taken.
The third article even told that one of the crew members of the mysterious ship escaped. It was discovered by a missionary and natives on one of the atoll islands. The survivor was in very poor condition and before his death, said that the ship was lucky sulfuric acid. One of the containers was broken, and people died from toxic fumes. The team received the deadly cargo in one of the ports of Costa Rica, and illegally. This story was subsequently reprinted by the Dutch newspaper, suggesting that Orang Medan was engaged in smuggling nitroglycerin and potassium cyanide.
In the future, it was not possible to find members of the Silver Star team, but historian Roy Baynton discovered a brochure in German, published in 1954. The author of it was a certain Otto Milke. The brochure was entirely devoted to the mysterious ship called "Orang Medan." It even indicated the name of the captain and the date of the disappearance of the ship - June 18, 1947.
The author of the brochure claimed that the ship regularly engaged in the transport of various hazardous chemicals, and this was done illegally. On his last flight, he took on board just cyanide and nitroglycerin. Upon contact with water, these substances begin to pose a real danger. Therefore, the team, in case of leakage of potassium cyanide, could get fatal poisoning, and nitroglycerin caused a fire and an explosion. As for anonymity, the ship in the registers could be listed under a different name, taking into account the specifics of transportation.
On the basis of this brochure, some journalists have suggested that the vessel was carrying nervously paralytic gas. His Japanese military stored in China during the Second World War. After the defeat of Japan, the gas was transferred to the US armed forces. Hence the conclusion that this carriage was carried out secretly with the knowledge of the US command. Therefore, they took the ship, renamed it, but apparently violated the rules of transportation, and all the performers died.
It was also suggested that the crew of the ill-fated vessel was poisoned by carbon monoxide as a result of faults in the boiler system. The released carbon monoxide led to the death of the entire crew and then destroyed the vessel.
And of course, there were people who voiced the paranormal version. Here came the hypothesis that the mystery "Orang Medan" is inextricably linked with the appearance of a UFO. It is a mysterious object that attacked the ship. The crew died while the ship itself exploded. An indirect proof of this statement was the absence of traces in corpses indicating natural death.
But in any case, there are always skeptics. Many authors of various articles covering this topic agreed that the whole story with a mysterious ship, which does not appear in any registries, is a fiction. There is not even direct evidence that it was the Silver Star that was trying to save the crew in distress. All this information is sewn with white thread, and it began with the filing of the Indonesian newspaper, which simply decided to earn extra money on a made-up sensation. Thus, the question concerning the mystery of "Orang Medan" remains open to this day.