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E271: The SS Ourang Medan
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An unregistered ship. A haunting distress signal. A crew found dead, their faces twisted in terror—and then, an explosion that swallowed the vessel forever. This isn’t the plot of a horror movie. This is the real (or is it?) story of the SS Ourang Medan. In this episode, we dive deep into one of the most unsettling maritime mysteries ever recorded—or invented. What really happened aboard the ghost ship that governments have seemingly tried to erase? Why was the CIA still referencing it a decade later? And could it all have been the cover-up of a deadly wartime secret?
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Transcript
Introduction to the Maritime Mystery
00:00:01
Speaker
For our case this week, we navigate a story so chilling, so utterly perplexing, that it continues to defy logic, sanity, and even, some would argue, reality itself.
00:00:15
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It's a tale whispered in hushed tones among sailors, a ghostly fable that haunts the very annals of maritime history.
Introduction of the Phantom Vessel SS Orenmeden
00:00:23
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We're talking about the phantom vessel, the SS Orenmeden.
00:00:28
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Imagine, if you will, the vast, indifferent expanse of the ocean, the rhythmic sway of the waves, the endless horizon, and the solitary majesty of a ship carving its path through the water.
00:00:41
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now inject into that serene scene a jolt of sheer terror, a distressed SOS call, jagged and desperate in its disembodied dots and dashes, piercing the silence of the airwaves, a plea for help that begins with horror and ends with a chilling two-word sentence of finality.
00:01:04
Speaker
This isn't mere fiction, at least according to some, though its origins blur the lines between nightmare and reality. This is the tale of the SS Ureng-Miden, a ship whose very existence is as debated as the horrific fate of its crew.
00:01:23
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Join me as I pull back the curtain on one of the sea's most tantalizing and terrifying secrets. A story that begs the question, what truly happened aboard the Oren Miden?
00:01:36
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And is there a logical explanation? Or was it something from the realm of the unknown that led to its fate?
Hosts and Purpose of 'Coffee and Cases'
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Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:38
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page Coffee in Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
00:02:51
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. Our journey begins in the tumultuous wake of World War twoi a period overflowing with secrets, unspoken horrors, and a world still reeling from unimaginable conflict.
00:03:07
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Depending on which version of the tale you choose to believe, it was either June 1947 or early February 1948. The location of her tale, too, shifts like sands and a restless tide.
00:03:21
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Some accounts place the vessel in the Straits of Malekka, a bustling maritime corridor between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sumatra. but other versions cast our ghostly ship much further afield in the more isolated waters around the Marshall Islands or even in some versions, the Solomon Islands.
Discovery of the Oren Mieden
00:03:40
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This geographical ambiguity, as we'll soon discover, is but the first of many unsettling inconsistencies that plague the ordering maidens legend.
00:03:51
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Regardless of the precise coordinates, the core of the story remains horrifyingly consistent. Several ships navigating these treacherous waters, including the American vessels City of Baltimore and the Silver Star, picked up a series of frantic distress messages.
00:04:08
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These were no ordinary calls for help, though. The first relayed in Chillingmore's code, told of a silent, creeping horror, reading, quote, SOS from ordering meadon.
00:04:20
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We float. All officers, including the captain, dead in chart room and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead, end quote.
00:04:31
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then a jumble of incoherent dots and dashes like a final desperate struggle, and finally, two stark words echoing through the airwaves, a final exhalation of life itself.
00:04:45
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Quote, i die. End quote. No further communications were received. The silence that followed was more unnerving than any scream.
00:04:59
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The Silver Star, being the closest vessel, was dispatched. Its crew, undoubtedly gripped by a growing sense of dread, set a course for the Oren Mieden's last known position.
00:05:10
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As they approached, the Dutch freighter presented an eerie picture. It appeared outwardly normal, a dark silhouette against the horizon, drifting aimlessly without visible damage or distress signals.
00:05:24
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There was no steam billowing from its smokestacks, no shouts for help from on board, just an unsettling stillness. Those aboard the rescue ships waved, they shouted, they sent radio messages, but only the vast, indifferent ocean responded.
00:05:42
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The captain of the Silver Star ordered a boarding party. What awaited them on the decks of the ordering meeting was a scene torn straight from the darkest corners of a nightmare, a scene of death so profound that it would forever haunt the memories of those who witnessed it.
00:05:57
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The decks were littered with corpses. Every body, including that of the ship's dog, was found sprawled on their backs, faces upturned to the sun, mouths agape, and eyes staring blankly ahead, frozen and expressions of absolute bone-chilling terror.
00:06:16
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It was as if they had been struck down by an unseen, horrifying force, their last moments consumed by unspeakable dread. The corpses, resembling, quote, horrible caricatures, end quote, lay with arms outstretched as if desperately fending off an invisible assailant.
00:06:35
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The grim discovery continued below deck. The radio operator, the very voice behind that final agonizing message, was found dead at his station, his fingertips still resting on the Morse code transmitting device, as if death had snatched him mid-transmission.
00:06:52
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The captain lay dead on the bridge, officers in the chart room and wheelhouse, and even the engineering crew in the boiler room, all sharing the same contorted masks of horror.
00:07:03
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And yet, in this gruesome gallery of the dead, one detail stood out. There were no visible signs of injuries on any of the bodies, no blood, no wounds, nothing to explain their mass demise.
00:07:16
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Death seemed to have taken them by surprise at their posts. Adding to the unearthly atmosphere, the boarding party reported an inexplicable chill pervading the ship, even though the tropical temperatures outside were reportedly over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Mysterious Sinking of the Oren Mieden
00:07:33
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The mystery, however, was far from over. With no survivors found and no visible damage to the ship itself, the captain of the Silver Star made the decision to tow the Orang-Miden to a nearby port for further investigation.
00:07:48
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But as they prepared the tow, a new development unfolded. Smoke, dark and ominous, began billowing from the Orang-Miden's number four cargo hold.
00:07:59
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The fire spread with alarming speed, a raging inferno consuming the stricken vessel. The boarding party, narrowly escaping the encroaching flames, hastily evacuated back to the safety of the Silver Star.
00:08:12
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They had barely cut the tow lines when the Uring Miden exploded with terrifying force. Some accounts describe the explosion as so violent that it, quote, lifted herself from the water, end quote, before she plummeted back down and swiftly sank beneath the waves.
00:08:29
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Just like that, the SS Uring Miden, with all its unspeakable mysteries, vanished forever into the depths. taking with it any definitive evidence or clues that could explain the cause of the deaths or the catastrophic end of the vessel itself.
00:08:47
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The sea, an ancient keeper of secrets, had swallowed another tale whole. So we're left with a grim paradox, an entire crew dead of fright with no visible injuries and their vessel erupting and sinking before any answers could be found.
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But
Debate Over the Existence of Oren Mieden
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herein lies the first and perhaps most fundamental question. Did the SS Oren Meiden even exist? Generations of maritime detectives and curious researchers have scoured official records, but their efforts have been met with silence.
00:09:23
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There's no mention of a ship named Oren Meaden in Lloyd's Shipping Register, one of the most comprehensive and reputable sources of information on vessels since 1764.
00:09:34
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Searches of various countries, including the Netherlands, because the ship was supposedly Dutch, have also proven fruitless. No construction details, no crew manifests, no official registration, no wreckage records have ever been conclusively found.
00:09:50
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Even the Silver Star, the American vessel reported to be involved in the rescue, despite being a real ship, shows no record of such a dramatic encounter in its logs.
00:10:02
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At the alleged time of the Oren Midden incident, 1947 or 1948, the Silver Star had actually been renamed the SS Santa Cecilia and was more often seen around Brazil than the Straits of Malacca.
00:10:17
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This glaring lack of verifiable documentation has led many to dismiss the entire Oren Midden saga as nothing more than an elaborate urban legend of the high seas.
00:10:28
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But if it's merely fiction, how did such a detailed and widely circulated story come to be? And why does it refuse to fade into the forgotten tides of history?
00:10:40
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The answer, or at least a significant piece of the puzzle, seems to lie with a figure named Silvio Shirley, an Italian reporter. Shirley appears to be the primary source, the initial storyteller, who set this chilling narrative adrift upon the global currents of news and folklore.
00:10:57
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The earliest known published accounts of the Oering Medan incident didn't surface in 1947 or 1948, as many popular versions claim. as many popular versions claim Instead, investigative reporting by the Skittish Library, a source deeply committed to uncovering the true origins of this tale, unearthed contemporaneous newspaper reports from British newspapers like the Daily Mirror and the Yorkshire Evening Post, dating all the way back to November 1940.
00:11:24
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nineteen forty yes seven years before four the alleged nineteen forty seven incident These initial reports, sourced from the Associated Press, placed the ship in proximity to the Solomon Islands.
00:11:41
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The 1940 SOS message stated, quote, SOS from the steamship Orang Medan beg ships with shortwave wireless get touch doctor, urgent, end quote.
00:11:54
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This was followed by, quote, probable second officer dead. Other members crew also killed. Disregard medical consultation. SOS urgent assistance worship, end quote.
00:12:10
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The final incomplete phrase received was, quote, crew has,
00:12:18
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and then silence. In this early telling, the rescue vessel was not named, and there was no mention of the lore details of the dead crew's terrified expressions. The ship was described as a steamship, not as a freighter, and after explosions were heard, in the 1940 version, the rescuers, too, abandoned the ship and watched it go ablaze and sink into the Pacific.
00:12:42
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Now fast forward to 1948, a series of three articles detailing the Oering Medan incident appeared in a Dutch-Indonesian newspaper. These articles, whose sources were explicitly given as Silvio Shirley himself, introduced the more embellished details we often hear today.
00:12:59
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The location shifted to 400 nautical miles southeast of the Marshall Islands, and then again, later versions, placed it in the Straits of Malacca. This geographical hopscotching spanning thousands of miles across the Pacific is incredibly difficult to explain if the event were real.
00:13:19
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The 1948 version also introduced the now famous, more succinct and arguably much more dramatic SOS message. And for the first time, we hear of the graphic descriptions of the crew's bodies.
00:13:32
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Again, their faces frozen in terror, upturned to the sun with mouths gaping and eyes staring. The 1948 accounts notably still didn't name the rescue vessels immediately, though the Silver Star and City of Baltimore were mentioned in a later embellished 1948 version.
00:13:51
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Perhaps most tellingly, the Dutch newspaper concluded its series with a rather significant disclaimer, quote, This is the last part of our story about the mystery of the ordering meeting.
00:14:02
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We must repeat that we don't have any other data on this, quote, mystery of the sea, end quote. 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.
00:14:17
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On the other hand, the author, Silvio Shirley, assures us of the authenticity of the story." end quote Either way, this definitely doesn't sound like confident reporting.
00:14:32
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The story was then repeated in the Albany Times in October 1948 and later, notably, in May 1952 in an issue of the Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council published by the United States Coast Guard.
00:14:46
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This latter publication is actually what lent the story a veneer of official credibility, even though it was largely a recounting of rumors rather than an official report.
00:15:07
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If Shirley was indeed the source of both the 1940 and 1948 accounts, then it becomes highly improbable that he was truthfully reporting a quote-unquote new incident in 1948. It strongly suggests, as some experts now believe, that the story began and was perhaps embellished by Mr. Shirley, who, seeing his 1940 efforts buried by the ongoing World War II news,
00:15:33
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decided to dust off his, quote, romance of the sea, end quote, and try again in the quieter post-war years, adding some more gruesome and sensational details.
00:15:45
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This brings us to another element in some versions of the Oren Medan legend, the sole survivor. Many versions of the story, particularly those originating after the 1940 initial reports,
00:15:57
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attribute further details to an unnamed German man, purportedly the only crew member to escape the horror. This survivor, sometimes identified as Jerry Rabbit, reportedly swam to safety and was found by an Italian missionary and natives on an atoll in the Marshall Islands.
00:16:16
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Before perishing due to injuries from his ordeal, this German survivor allegedly told his harrowing tale to the missionary, who then recounted it to Silvio Shirley.
00:16:27
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According to his deathbed confession, the ordering meeting was carrying a quote, badly stowed cargo of oil of vitriol, end quote, better known as sulfuric acid.
00:16:39
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The poisonous fumes escaping from broken containers were, he claimed, responsible for the deaths of most of the crew. The survivor also alleged that the ship was sailing from an unnamed small Chinese port to Costa Rica, deliberately avoiding authorities, implying a clandestine operation.
00:16:59
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However, like so many elements of the Oren Medan story, this addition, too, crumbles under scrutiny. The sheer distance between the Straits of Malacca, where the ship was most popularly located, and the atoll where the survivor was reportedly located, is approximately 5,000 miles in a straight line, with navigational routes potentially adding another 1,500 miles.
00:17:22
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For a lone, injured survivor to make such a journey stretches the bounds of credulity to a breaking point. Furthermore, there's no independent verification of Jerry Rabbit or of any recovered lifeboat.
00:17:37
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Despite the pervasive skepticism and the glaring inconsistencies in its origin, the ordering meat and story endures, largely because it taps into a primal human need to understand the inexplicable.
00:17:48
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And so a plethora of theories, some plausible, others wildly speculative,
Hazardous Chemicals Hypothesis
00:17:54
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have emerged to explain what might have truly transpired aboard this death ship.
00:18:00
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One of the most widely accepted and scientifically grounded theories, pauses that the Oering Medan was involved in smuggling operations of hazardous chemical substances. Proponents of this theory suggest the ship might have been transporting a volatile combination of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin, or perhaps even wartime stocks of nerve agents.
00:18:23
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The theory holds that if seawater had entered the ship's hold, perhaps due to rough seas, poor maintenance, or even damage, it could have reacted with this deadly cargo to release highly toxic gases.
00:18:35
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These gases, silent and invisible, would have caused the crew to succumb rapidly to asphyxia and or poisoning. The horrifying facial expressions, the bared teeth, the outstretched arms, could all be the agonizing physical manifestations of dying from such potent, fast-acting poisons.
00:18:55
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The subsequent fire and explosion, which dramatically sent the ordering meat into its watery grave, could then be attributed to the seawater reacting explosively with the nitroglycerin.
00:19:07
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This theory gains traction when considering the context of the immediate post-World War twoi era. Maritime historian Roy Bainton, who has dedicated years to investigating the ordering median, and professor Theodor Searsdorfer of Essen, Germany, a researcher who spent 45 years on the case, both point to the possibility of the transport of chemical weapons.
00:19:30
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Some speculate the ship might have been carrying nerve gas that the Japanese military had been storing during the war. At the end of the war, this horrific cargo was supposedly handed over to the U.S. military.
00:19:42
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However, transporting such substances on a U.S. ship would leave an undeniable paper trail, potentially leading to major international embarrassment given the Geneva Protocol.
00:19:54
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Therefore, it's hypothesized that it was loaded onto an unregistered ship like the ordering Mita for covert transport to the US or a Pacific Island hoping to arrive under the radar.
00:20:09
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The involvement of Imperial Japan's infamous Unit 731, a secret research department that conducted horrific biological and chemical warfare experiments on human beings during World War twoi lends a particularly sinister edge to this theory.
00:20:24
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Their research, deemed, quote, too good to waste, end quote, was allegedly exchanged for immunity from war crime prosecution for their biochemists.
00:20:35
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raising the horrifying possibility of stockpiled nerve gas. This theory aligns with ordering Meaden's absence from any records. If a government was involved in such illicit transport, a cover-up would be paramount.
00:20:49
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The subsequent destruction of the ship would be the ultimate act of evidence suppression. However, even this compelling theory faces its own challenges. If highly toxic gases were responsible, how did the rescue crew from the Silver Star manage to board the ship unharmed, spending minutes, even hours, on deck and below without succumbing to the same fate?
00:21:11
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This is a significant point of contention for skeptics. Another plausible, albeit less sensational, scientific hypothesis points to carbon monoxide poisoning.
00:21:21
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Vincent Gaddis, an author of Fortiana Lore, Fortiana is a reference to basically anything inexplicable, some inexplicable phenomena that we struggle to comprehend, proposed that an undetected smoldering fire or a malfunction in the ship's boiler system could have released lethal amounts of this odorless, colorless gas.
00:21:42
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Carbon monoxide can quickly cause asphyxiation, leading to death without any visible signs of injury. The fire, slowly spreading out of control, would ultimately lead to the vessel's destruction.
00:21:53
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This theory explains the lack of physical trauma and the rapid demise of the crew. However, it struggles to fully account for the reportedly terrified expressions on the faces of the deceased or the mysterious, quote, chilling atmosphere, end quote, observed by the rescue team in a normally hot boiler room.
00:22:13
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While carbon monoxide poisoning can cause disorientation and fear, the widespread frozen grimaces of terror reported across all bodies suggest something more immediate and visceral than a gradual suffocation.
00:22:26
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Furthermore, carbon monoxide poisoning would primarily affect those inside the ship. It's far less likely to explain the deaths of crew members found on the open deck. Beyond chemical mishaps and mechanical failures, other theories delve into the darker side of human nature and the untamed forces of the sea.
00:22:44
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Given the Orang-Miran's strategic location in the notoriously pirate-infested waters of Southeast Asia, some have speculated about piracy or foul play. Perhaps the crew was poisoned or suffocated by attackers who then ransacked the ship.
00:22:59
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However, this theory is often less favorite as it fails to explain the reported lack of physical disturbances, of violence, or of visible wounds on the bodies. Pirates usually leave a trail of chaos, and the Orting Medan, remarkably, was found outwardly undamaged and its cargo seemingly untouched.
00:23:16
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Then there's another explanation rooted in natural phenomena. One intriguing scientific theory proposes the involvement of methane hydrates, massive pockets of methane gas trapped beneath the seabed that can be released in sudden and bursts, especially in seismically active areas.
00:23:34
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Such an eruption could engulf a ship, causing the crew to suffocate instantly without leaving a mark. The gas could also react with air to cause an explosion, aligning with the Oering Medan's dramatic end.
00:23:47
Speaker
Another, more fringe natural theory mentions infrared, low-frequency sound waves, inaudible to humans but capable of causing a range of physiological effects, including disorientation, anxiety, and even fear-induced cardiac arrest.
00:24:04
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While captivating, direct evidence of either of these phenomena occurring at the exact time and place of the Oren-Meiden incident is non-existent. And then
Government Cover-Up Theories
00:24:15
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we step into the realm of the truly inexplicable, the theories that push the boundaries of conventional understanding.
00:24:22
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Given the eerie nature of the distress messages, the terrifying expressions on the crew's faces, and the mysterious cold chill felt aboard, some have inevitably delved into supernatural or extraterrestrial explanations.
00:24:35
Speaker
Could the crew have encountered something truly otherworldly, a ghostly presence, an ancient sea spirit, or even a UFO? While these theories ignite the imagination and make for a truly spine-tingling narrative, they obviously lack any concrete evidence or scientific basis.
00:24:54
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They are, as the Dutch newspaper itself suggested back in 1948, the stuff of, quote, a thrilling romance of the sea, end quote, where fact often gives way to the fantastical.
00:25:06
Speaker
Ultimately, it is the idea of a cover-up that stubbornly persists, providing a compelling, albeit equally unproven, explanation for the story's lack of verifiable documentation.
00:25:18
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If the Orang Medan was indeed transporting illicit chemical weapons, particularly those with ties to wartime activities, any government involved would have an overwhelming incentive to ensure its existence was scrubbed from official records.
00:25:33
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This theory gains an eerie layer of intrigue from the fact that the Ourang Medan was referenced in a 1959 letter by C.H. Mark Jr., assistant to the director of the CIA.
00:25:45
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In this memo, Mark asks if the recipient believes the story of the Ourang deals with, quote, something from the unknown, end quote, and states, quote, I feel sure that the SS Ourang Medan tragedy holds the answer to many of these airplane accidents.
00:26:02
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and unsolved mysteries of the sea." End quote. Why would the CIA, an intelligence agency, be interested in a maritime ghost story years after its alleged occurrence?
00:26:16
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This brief cryptic mention fuels the fires of conspiracy theorists, suggesting that governments are indeed keeping silent about what truly happened. But what that was is still unknown.
00:26:30
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It's not unheard of for sensitive information to be deliberately destroyed. In the UK, for instance, the Ministry of Defense, quote, irresponsibly destroyed all records of poison gas dumps that are over 25 years old, end quote. Over 100,000 tons of deadly nerve agents were deliberately loaded onto ships at the end of World War II and sunk in the North Sea and Atlantic.
00:26:54
Speaker
This historical precedent makes the idea of the ordering maidens records being expunged a possible reality. However, playing devil's advocate, the simple lack of records could all be attributed to poor record keeping in a turbulent post-war era, or the fact that the Orang Medan, if it existed at all, was deliberately operating outside of official channels.
00:27:18
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The absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence, but it is certainly grounds for a discussion. So where does the truth end and the myth begin?
00:27:29
Speaker
The story of the ordering meeting is filled with conflicting dates, shifting locations, and evolving details. It's been retold countless times, each storyteller, each newspaper, each publication adding their own embellishments, their own lurid details driven by the human desire for a captivating narrative.
00:27:47
Speaker
The legend has permeated popular culture, inspiring works such as Namco Entertainment's video game Man of Medan, which interestingly incorporates many of the key elements of the legend, including a chemical fog, the terrified crew, and the ship's ultimate demise, adapting the mystery for a new generation.
00:28:05
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The game even attributes the horror to a chemical called Manchurian gold, causing hallucinations and madness, a creative blend of the chemical weapon theory with the frightened-to-death elements.
00:28:18
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It's been featured in mystery publications like the Fortean Times and has been the subject of numerous documentaries and books, all attempting to unravel the threads of this tale. The allure of the ordering meat and legend lies precisely in its nebulous nature.
00:28:33
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It's a story with enough concrete sounding details to pique curiosity, but just enough inconsistencies and lack of proof to remain perpetually unsolved. It's a
Enduring Legend of the Oren Mieden
00:28:44
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canvas onto which we can project our deepest fears of unseen danger, of government secrets, of the sheer terrifying unpredictability of life and the vast unknown depths of the ocean.
00:28:55
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So what can we definitively say about the SS Orang Medan? We can say that its name, translating to Man of Medan in Malay or Indonesian, roots it deeply in the geography of Sumatra, suggesting a possible origin or association with that region.
00:29:11
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We can say that the story and its earliest incarnations appeared in Italian and British newspapers in 1940, then re-emerged with more dramatic flair in Dutch and US publications in 1948 and 1952.
00:29:25
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And we can acknowledge the remarkable efforts of researchers like Roy Bainton, Professor Theodore Seisdorfer and Estelle Hargraves, who through diligent detective work have illuminated the story's evolution and highlighted its perplexing inconsistencies.
00:29:40
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But the central mystery remains. Was it a real ship carrying a terrifying illicit cargo that doomed its crew in a silent agonizing dance of death? Was it a malfunctioning boiler spewing an unseen killer gas that left its victims frozen in their final horrified moments?
00:29:57
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Or was it, as many skeptics believe, a masterfully created yarn spun by an imaginative storyteller like Silvio Shirley, who found a receptive audience and world hungry for mystery?
00:30:11
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The power of the ordering meat and lore drifts through the collective imagination, much like the phantom ship itself, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions and a haunting sense of dread.
00:30:23
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The physical wreck, if it ever existed, lies buried deep beneath the waves, taking its secrets with it. And for now, the ocean, vast and indifferent, isn't answering.
00:30:39
Speaker
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00:30:59
Speaker
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00:31:10
Speaker
Stay safe. We'll see you next week.