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if we're mentioning derelicts how about the Ourang Medan? well spooky
The ship one is fictitious as well. There is no record of a ship of that name anywhere.Some are a bit boring, some are probably rubbish, but some seem interesting. I'm rather interested in the weird balls being dug up, the human figure that seems too old and the ghost ships message. http://www.viralnova.com/weird-history/
It's all over the internet, even on Wiki! Admittedly most accounts take the story with a pinch of salt.The ship one is fictitious as well. There is no record of a ship of that name anywhere.
So it could have been a classic conspiracy to cover up an illegal post-war illegal operation... We may never know.
the Ourang Medan story is pretty fascinating...looked for a link to the story ...most are not in english..this is one that is ..and the author even provides an explanation for the mystery, albiet an unproven one. Should also note that it seems to have been grabbed from FT.
neswa.org.au/Library/Articles/A cargo of death.htm
This is from the September 1999 issue of Fortean Times Page 28. Fortean Times is a popular 'slick' in Britain dealing with the odd and unexpected. It contains some new data. (Connection with Unit 731)In 1948, a Dutch freighter was found drifting near Indonesia. Its crew all dead in postures of terror or agony.
CARGO OF DEATH
Marine historian Roy Bainton investigates, and uncovers hints of the sinister collusion of post--World War II governments.
TEETH BARED, AND STARING.
This strange yarn began as an obscure, bizarre footnote in nautical history. The story of the Orang Medan was one of those chilling fo'c'sle tales told by old hands over a few beers on long crossings of the Pacific or the Atlantic.
We've all heard the ghostly fable of the Mary Celeste; like many similar stories, a modicum of determined digging can usually strip away the romance and often leave us with the bare, demystified facts.
Not so with the Orang Medan. The more one digs, the more fragments, hints and nuances appear. This is a story with a secret; a secret buried somewhere in the guarded records of maritime officialdom. Turn down the lamp, cue the creepy music...
In February 1948 (or June 1947, depending on which source one consults) a series of distress calls were sent out by the Dutch freighter Orang Medan in the Straits of Malacca between Sumatra and Indonesia.
"All officers including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew dead... " This chilling message, accompanied by a spate of desperate SOS calls, was followed by indecipherable Morse code... then a final message just two stark words "I die."
Boarding parties found the dead radio operator, his hand on the Morse key, eyes wide open. The entire crew even the ship's dog were discovered in the same terrified posture, all dead.
According to a frequently mentioned document (which I have so far been unable to trace) called The Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council, the crew were found "teeth bared, with their upturned faces to the sun, staring, as if in fear..."
Following this grim discovery, a fire broke out in the ship's hold.
The boarding parties were forced to abandon her. Shortly after, a violent explosion described in some accounts as so violent the vessel "lifted herself from the water" and she quickly sank.
So, there you have it. It's a great yarn; but is it just an old seadog's tale? Or perhaps, as some have suggested, a 50-year old April Fool joke, composed by some bored tabloid hack? ...
I think the idea is that the radioman was signaling to whoever was listening that he'd be unable to reply. It's a super-dramatic way to do it, but given the context isn't completely ridiculous.What morse operator would send the words “I die”, as he was dying? It’s reminiscent of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the agonal Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have carved Aaaaaargh! into the stone as he croaked.
Actually that work is non-authoritative.... all it really does is mention that they'd heard of it.The Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council are quoted. As that body still exists - as the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety and Security Council - surely it would be a trivial matter to take a volume from a shelf in their library and either shoot this tale down, or provide invaluable confirmation.
maximus otter
Anchor booklets. Seefahrt around the world was a West German magazine novel series , which appeared from 1954 to 1959 in 95 editions in Munich's Arthur Moewig-Verlag . The publisher was the former officer of the Imperial Navy Corvette Captain a. D. Fritz-Otto Busch . Parallel to the series, the series SOS - Fates of German Ships was published by the same publisher from 1953. In contrast to SOS, the anchor issues mostly dealt with dramatic events in Anglo-American maritime history.
Yet, through a simple search on eBay, I found a copy of the Vichy French magazine Sept-Jours (#45, September 7, 1941) that had the more or less complete story of the Ourang Medan in it (p. 9, "Après Vingt Mois — Le Mystère de l' 'Ourang-Medan' Est Éclairci," i.e., "After Twenty Months, the Mystery of the Ourang Medan Is Solved"). It predates the earliest commonly known version by eleven years.
This article, in turn, refers to an earlier article on the Ourang Medan in an earlier issue of the same magazine (#13, December 29, 1940). According to Sept-Jours, the Ourang Medan incident took place on November 13, 1939, predating the earliest traditional date for the incident by about eight years. ...
I found me a copy of the December 29, 1940, issue of Sept-Jours with the original account of the Ourang Medan yarn (p. 6, "Le Premier Récit d'un Grand Mystère de la Mer," i.e., "The First Account of a Great Sea Mystery") ...
The angle of the picture suggests to me that it was basically a stock photo. It's a badly listing cargo ship that is nearly unrecognizable.Mielke's source for the story was a February 1948 article in a Dutch East Indies newspaper.
Een Mysterie van de Zee. ( Dutch : A secret of the sea. )
De locomotief: Samarangsch trade-en advertentie-blad of February 3, 1948, a daily newspaper of the Dutch East Indian port city of Semarang
An image of this published article can be accessed at:
https://imageviewer.kb.nl/ImagingService/imagingService?1584099620941&id=ddd:010862872:mpeg21003:image
This article states the incident occurred in June 1947 near the Marshall Islands, not the Straits of Malacca. No name is given for the ship that allegedly discovered the Ourang Medan (responding to the SOS or not ... ). No explanation is given for the photographs published with this article, and one of them was pretty obviously copied from an earlier French version of the story.
The February 1948 publication date for this article is almost certainly the origin of later claims the incident occurred in February 1948.
This is the same French publication but on a different website.“I found a copy of the Vichy French magazine Sept-Jours (#45, September 7, 1941) that had the more or less complete story of the Ourang Medan in it (p. 9, “Après Vingt Mois — Le Mystère de l’ ‘Ourang-Medan’ Est Éclairci,” i.e., “After Twenty Months, the Mystery of the Ourang Medan Is Solved”). This article, in turn, refers to an earlier article on the Ourang Medan in an earlier issue of the same magazine (#13, December 29, 1940). According to Sept-Jours, the Ourang Medan incident took place on November 13, 1939.” ~ Alexander Butziger
This is interesting; the ship did not use the name Silver Star in 1948.The rescue ship the Silver Star is another point where most researchers have said it simply did not exist. However it was originally christened “Santa Cecilia” by the Grace Line (W. R. Grace & Co.), and later renamed the “Silver Star” when the United States Maritime Commission “drafted” it in 1946. In 1947 it had been reacquired by the Grace Line shipping company who renamed the vessel the “Santa Juana” till it was scraped in 1971. So, in reality, it was only named the “Silver Star” for a short period. Repeated attempts by researchers to get details from Grace Lines in New York of the Silver Star crew list and logbook had been met with a strange silence.
It also has a bit explaining why it's futile to try contacting Grace Lines today.Santa Cecilia (3) (built)1942 (transferred)1946 to United States Maritime Commission renamed Silver Star, 1947 reverted to Grace Line renamed Santa Juana, 1971 scrapped .
Not only is the company defunct, but it got sold twice before dying for good. Also the Silver Star/Santa Juana was scrapped in 1971. Maybe there's a storage container somewhere with the old papers in it, but good luck finding it.Things were normal until 1969 when the parent company W.R. Grace decided to go out of the steamship business and concentrate on chemical and other company ventures. Grace Line was sold to Prudential Line, a small line owned by Skouras of 20th Century Fox. At first the line was called Prudential Grace Lines and later the Grace was dropped and it became just Prudential Line. The ships were operated as before with most of the same personnel aboard but in 1970 Prudential decided to suspend the Caribbean service and the Santa Rosa and Santa Paula were laid up, never to sail under the American Flag again. The "M" ships were sailed as freighters until 1972 when three were transferred to the west coast. They were once again returned to passenger ship status. They sailed from San Francisco, north to Tacoma and Vancouver thence through the Panama Canal calling at ports on the east coast of South America then through the Strait of Magellan to call at ports on the west coast of South America and thence return to Los Angeles and San Francisco. This was a 59 day voyage. The Santa Magdalena remained on the east coast until 1974 when she too was transferred to the west coast to sail with the other three.
In 1978 the Prudential Line was taken over by Delta Lines, In 1983 there was a sharp drop in cargo bookings to South America and operations began to wind down. The six "L" class freighters were laid up and finally sold. The four "M" ships continued to run until 1984 when all operation of the former Grace Line Santas ceased.
I'd come to the conclusion that the 7 Days version was a propaganda piece BEFORE getting to this. But yeah... it's an interesting tidbit.The American warship is identified as "torpilleur américain No. 716." That doesn't seem to make sense.
...
What's more, referring to a destroyer only by her number instead of by her name strikes me as rather un-American. It is, however, a typically German thing to do. The Germans never built many destroyers, and those they had often had no names, only numbers, and even those that had names were frequently referred to by their numbers only. This would appear to support my theory below that the hoaxer was a German.
While interesting, it's not a source of information. It's apparently nothing more than a guy using official channels to discuss a rumor he heard. :/The letter to the CIA has been made available thanks to the FOI act, but it's unclear whether this was internal CIA correspondence, as this website suggests, or an interested civvie trying to get answers out of the CIA.
The following looks like a follow-up letter, chasing earlier correspondence from 1956. I can find no evidence whether C.H Marck Jr. ever received a response.
View attachment 52012
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/ghost-ships-spooky-sos-call-14007356
While interesting, it's not a source of information. It's apparently nothing more than a guy using official channels to discuss a rumor he heard. :/
The fact it's marked TS ("Top Secret") is interesting though.
The question is "why"? Legend has it that a lot of stuff is classified for no reason other than whoever wrote it doesn't wanna talk about it later.Indeed and whilst I tend to go along with the FT's debunking of the incident, the fact that the CIA saw fit to classify the correspondence is interesting.
The American warship is identified as "torpilleur américain No. 716." That doesn't seem to make sense.
...
What's more, referring to a destroyer only by her number instead of by her name strikes me as rather un-American.
>_<' You're quoting the source I was discussing... and not what I said.... Yes, that's a PT boat(or the British equivalent anyways)... which I was discussing in the post.Quite the opposite: "torpilleur américain" translates as "American torpedo boat". There was just such a vessel: Motor Torpedo Boat PT-716.
It had zero career in the US Navy, having been completed less than a week before WWII ended. It was sold to Cuba sometime after July 1946. Its ultimate fate is unknown.
Here's what it would have looked like:
Technical specs.
maximus otter
While I can't verify this, if true it means the 716 hull number is impossible. Also noteworthy, this story went around in the early 40s. This is the time period BEFORE PT boats were mass-produced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_boatThe American warship is identified as "torpilleur américain No. 716." That doesn't seem to make sense. The US Navy never had so many torpedo boats that one would be numbered 716. The destroyer DD-716, the USS Wiltsie, wasn't laid down before 1945. The USS Balduck was briefly classified as DE-716, but even she wasn't laid down before 1944. There was a submarine chaser USS SC-716, but the boats of her class were built between 1941 and 1944, again far too late to be afloat and cruising in 1939. Unless there's another Navy numbering scheme I'm unaware of, this ship appears to be pure fiction.
It wasn't even built until years later. But that quote about "torpilleur américain No. 716." that source(29dec1940) claims the incident was 17nov1939. The dates just don't line up. Whatever that Sept-Jours article was talking about, it couldn't have been a PT boat.Laid down 6 June 1945 by Annapolis Yacht Yard, Inc., Annapolis, MD
- Launched 17 July 1945
- Completed 2 August 1945
Honestly? other than that one serious mention in 1952? I don't think the case actually got much attention until modern times.I just dug out Lost at Sea: Ghost Ships and Other Mysteries by Michael Goss and George Behe, I was surprise to find that the Ourang Medan doesn't even get a mention.
I read about the Ourang Medan in several books back in the '80's. It was up there with the Mary Celeste. Hell, I might still have some of those books.I don't think the case actually got much attention until modern times.