The Ourang Medan, The Mystery of the Deadliest Ghost Ship in History

In June 1947, the Dutch freighter S.S. Ourang Medan was traveling along the straits of Malacca, when the ship suddenly sent out a chilling distress signal.

"All Officers, including the Captain, are dead. Lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead."

This first message was followed by a series of indecipherable Morse code sequences until finally, a last ominous transmission:

"I die." 

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Ourang Medan's grim SOS was picked up by British and Dutch listening posts around Sumatra and Malaysia, who worked together to determined where the signal was coming from and alerted nearby ships.

American merchant ship Silver Star was first to reach Ourang Medan. They waived and shouted at the vessel to check for signs of life above deck. But there was no answer. Only eerie silence.

The US ship decided to send out a rescue team to board the ship to look for survivors. But what they found was a blood-curdling nightmare.

The entire Dutch crew was a ghastly pile of corpses – eyes wide open in horror, mouths are frozen in an eternal scream, arms stretched out as if saying stop as if saying no more.

Inside, they found the captain with the same twisted expression on his face as that of his men, dead on the bridge of the ship. Now nothing more than a dead captain, leading a dead ship.

His once strapping officers are now cold corpses straggled on the wheelhouse and chartroom floor. Even the ship’s dog wasn't spared a horrific death.

But the most harrowing is finding the radio operator, fingertips still on the telegraph where he sent his dying message.

After seeing the chilling devastation on board, the Silver Star decided to tow the Ourang Medan to port. But it wouldn't make it to shore, as thick clouds of smoke started rising from the lower decks and interrupted the rescue.

The crew barely had time to sever the line and move to safety, before the Ourang Medan exploded. The blast was apparently so big that the ship “lifted herself from the water and swiftly sank,” taking with it all the answers to its mysterious end to the bottom of the sea.

Or so the story of the Ourang Medan goes.

Some details may differ slightly in each version of the story. Like it happened in February 1948 instead of June 1947. Or that the waters that day were choppy instead of calm. And that the crew wasn't just dead, but they were decomposing at a faster rate. 

While in some versions, the details are, well, too detailed. Like one of the two American ships that heard the distress signal was named The City of Baltimore. That the smoke from the lower deck before the explosion came exactly from the Number 4 hold. Or that the poor canine aboard was a small terrier.

But whichever version of the story you've heard (or told), the basic plot points remain the same - Ourang Medan's entire crew met a gruesome and inexplicable death, and then very conveniently blew up and sank to the bottom of the ocean, leaving us all with an unsolved nautical macabre mystery.

So what happened to the Ourang Medan?

Theory #1: It was a cover up.

The most commonly pointed out loophole in the tale of the Ourang Medan is the vessel's lack of paper trail.

The Lloyd's Shipping registers don't have any mention of the ship. It's not in The Dictionary of Disasters at Sea that covers the years 1824-1962. It wasn't in the Registrar of Shipping and Seamen either.

There's no trace of it in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Nothing in the Dutch Shipping records in Amsterdam. The Maritime Authority of Singapore also doesn't have the ill-fated ship in any of their records. 

In other words, the Ourang Medan was a ghost ship, even before it gained notoriety as one. Because there's no tangible proof that it even existed.

But as espousers of this legend would explain, it's because the Ourang Medan is part of a transnational government cover-up involving the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, China, the United States, and possibly many others.

They believe that the ship was deliberately expunged from all maritime records because it was being used to smuggle a secret cargo of lethal nerve gas to Japan.

Saying the Ourang Medan's voyage is linked to Army Unit 731 founded by Japanese bacteriologist Shirō Ishii, whose main objective was to bring back a weapon of the chemical, gas, or biological variety, that could win the war in their favor.

But as the Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibited the use of all chemical and biological weapons in war, the only way a large shipment of poisonous gas could make it across the other side of the world without raising any suspicion from authorities is by loading it as inconspicuous cargo, in an old, beat up Dutch freighter.  

This theory also provides a convenient and somewhat plausible explanation for the grisly death of the Ourang Medan's crew. With that much hazardous chemicals on board, a gas leak would've certainly led to the immediate death of everyone in the ship.

However, it wouldn't explain why the rescue crew from Silver Star wasn't affected by the poisonous gas when they boarded the ship.

Or why, like the Ourang Medan, there’s no mention of the Silver Star in Lloyd's register.

Theory #2: It was carbon monoxide poisoning.

American author and inventor of the term Bermuda Triangle, Vincent Gaddis, speculates that it was carbon monoxide poisoning is the answer to the mysterious deaths of the Ourang Medan crew.

According to his theory, burning fuel from a malfunctioning boiler system produced carbon monoxide fumes that poisoned the crew.

When breathed in carbon monoxide enters the bloodstream and prevents red blood cells from carrying oxygen around the body. At high levels, carbon monoxide can cause dizziness, vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, and even death. 

The trouble with this theory is that Ourang Medan is not an enclosed space. Fumes could've simply escaped into the atmosphere, and lives of the crew working the upper decks of the ship would've been spared.

Theory #3: It was pirates.

What's a story about a ghost ship without pirates, right?

There are theories claiming that pirates invaded the Ourang Medan and killed everyone on board, which although doesn't explain some accounts saying that there were no visible wounds on the victims' bodies, it does fit with the Strait of Malacca's long history with piracy as far back as the 14th century.

Because of its geography - narrow and dotted with many islets - it makes it ideal for a surprise attack towards ships using it as the trade route to China and Europe.

Theory #4: Ghosts

One of the most repeated, but arguably, also the most inconsequential detail in the story of the Ourang Medan is the extreme chill the rescue team felt as soon as they entered the hull of the ship, despite it being 110°F outside.

Inexplicable drop in temperature plus the frightened expressions on the crew's faces set in a vast, unforgiving sea, equals ghosts did it.

There aren't many supporters of this theory, but what's a ghost ship story without a ghosts-did-it theory?

Theory #5: Aliens

You might think that the alien theory is the most far-fetched, the most uncreative, the most cop out theory explaining the phenomena of the Ourang Medan, but it's a very popular theory, with entire books dedicated to it.

The story of the Ourang Medan has all the elements of a good mystery - inexplicable deaths, unknown assailants, world powers, war, pirates, ghosts, and multiple highly-plausible conspiracy theories. 

Which is probably why it still fascinates us to this day, even if it's already been dismissed by historians, researchers, and the casual internet fact-checker alike as a hoax.

But if it's good enough for the CIA to release a document in 1959 saying, that the Ourang Medan holds the key to many of the sea's mysteries, including that of sightings of huge fiery spheres that come from the sky and descend into the sea, then, it's certainly a hoax worth retelling.

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Sources:
1. Death Ship: The Ourang Medan Mystery, http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/11/death-ship-the-ourang-medan-mystery/
2. The Myth of the Ourang Medan Ghost Ship, 1940, http://skittishlibrary.co.uk/the-myth-of-the-ourang-medan-ghost-ship-1940/
3. S.S. Ourang Medan, http://www.crime-mystery.info/great-mysteries/ss_ourang_medan/the_hoax
4.S.S. Ourang Medan, https://www.historicmysteries.com/ourang-medan/
5. CARGO OF DEATH, https://web.archive.org/web/20070205223141/http://www.neswa.org.au/Library/Articles/A%20cargo%20of%20death.htm
6. LETTER TO<Sanitized> FROM C.H. MARCK, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80R01731R000300010043-5.pdf
7. Did the Ourang Medan “ghost ship” exist?, https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20263/did-the-ourang-medan-ghost-ship-exist
8. The SS Ourang Medan: Death Ship (Updated), https://shortoncontent.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/the-ss-ourang-medan-death-ship-updated/
9. Mysterious Death at Sea: the Disturbing Discovery at the S.S. Ourang Medan, http://weekinweird.com/2011/07/17/mysterious-death-sea-disturbing-discovery-s-s-ourang-medan/
10. The Mammoth Book of Unexplained Phenomena: From bizarre biology to inexplicable astronomy, https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=YHCeBAAAQBAJ&lpg=PT263&dq=Vincent%20Gaddis%20ourang%20medan&pg=PT263#v=onepage&q=Vincent%20Gaddis%20ourang%20medan&f=false
11. Vincent Gaddis, http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Vincent_Gaddis
12. Crime on the high seas: The World's Most Dangerous Waters, http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/15/worlds-most-pirated-waters.html
13. The World's Most Dangerous Waters, http://time.com/piracy-southeast-asia-malacca-strait/

The Third Eye You Didn't Know You Had

source: youtube via infinitewaters

For millennia, humanity has always been fascinated with what lies beyond the physical realm. A large part of our population have been interested in and preoccupied themselves with the supernatural - those which are beyond or above nature or reality, and those which are not observable or a part of a tangible or measurable universe. We have the natural inclination to be curious of the unknown, which is why many of us have clung on to the transcendent and the divine.

And among those who believe that something lies beyond our material world, there are those who claim that there is a way to break the barrier that separates the physical and the spiritual; a way that human beings could see what should be unseeable, hear what should be unhearable, and sense what should be unsenseable. This is what they call the “third eye.” And this mystical, extra “eye” believed to be innate in all humans is referred to in the field of science and modern biology as the pineal gland.

 What Is the Pineal Gland

source: thoughtco

As biological science would explain it, the pineal gland - also known as the conarium or the epiphysis cerebri - is a tiny endocrine gland located in the brain. Its size is no bigger than a pea and is situated deep into the core of the brain, between its left and right hemispheres. This endocrine gland gets its name from the Latin word ‘pinea’ - which translates to ‘pine cone’ - and is named as such because its shape resembles one.

The pineal gland is a very small, reddish-gray organ, which measures only about one centimeter in length, and is attached to the posterior end of the roof of the human brain’s third ventricle. It is mainly comprised of pineal cells as well as neuroglial cells, and its known main purpose so far is the synthesis and secretion of a hormone called melatonin.

Melatonin is a simple hormone but is also considered to be very special because its secretion is dictated by light. As a hormone, it communicates information about environmental lighting to various parts of the human body. According to researchers, melatonin has two primary functions in human beings: first is to help entrain our circadian or biological rhythm, while its second purpose is to regulate certain reproductive hormones.

Humans’ circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological cycle which is characterized by sleep-wake patterns. Daylight and darkness help dictate a person’s circadian rhythm. Exposure to light stops the secretion of melatonin, which in turn helps in controlling circadian rhythms.

Because melatonin secretion is low during the daylight hours and high during dark periods, it influences our body’s reaction to photoperiod, which is defined as the length of day versus night. Since photoperiod affects sleep patterns, melatonin plays a role in controlling our sleep habits, though the extent of its impact is still disputed.

Melatonin also blocks the secretion pituitary hormones that aid in the development and functioning of reproductive organs such as the ovaries and testes.

For such a tiny structure, the pineal gland’s full purpose remains shrouded with a bit of mystery. Since its function was the last one to be discovered among the endocrine glands, research is still ongoing in an attempt for humans to get closer to understanding this mysterious organ.

Pineal Gland As The Third Eye

source: hippocampus

In the past and until now, various spiritual traditions and their devout believers consider the pineal gland as the “third eye,” and activating it is associated with accessing a higher, mystical level of inner vision, insight and wisdom. In fact, Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, once described the pineal gland as the “seat of the soul.”

For millennia, the pineal gland has been connected with the concept of spirituality in many ancient traditions and is subtly represented in modern establishments as well. Its pine cone shape, for instance, is found in many art and artifacts of various traditions, where it serves as a symbol of enlightenment and immortality.

For example, the ancient Egyptians held the pineal gland in such high regard that it is even preserved separately during the process of mummification. There are also claims that the Egyptians associated the pineal gland with the symbol of an eye, which is very prevalent in their discovered art and artifacts.

In Greek mythology, the greek god Dionysus carries a pine cone staff, while the Babylonian god Tammuz is also pictured carrying a pine cone. The Hindu religion, on the other hand, depicts all of its gods with a third eye located on their forehead, between the two eyes of the face.

Even the Roman Catholic faith utilizes the pine cone as a symbol. And not only does the Church have a huge sculpture of a pine cone in the Vatican Square called the “Court of the Pine Cone,” their religion also uses ornaments as well as candle holders decorated with pine cone designs.

A reference to the pineal gland can also be seen in the back of the U.S. one-dollar bill called the “all-seeing eye.” Some argue that this may just be a subtle depiction of the nation’s close relationship to Free Masonry - which, by the way, also uses a lot of pine cone or pineal gland symbolism. However, there are also those who claim this to be a reference to the mystical abilities of people which are hiding inside an unlocked endocrine gland.

In modern times, many believe that every human being’s pineal gland or “third eye” can be activated to frequencies of the spiritual world, giving us the power to sense the all-knowing, godlike euphoria and oneness that surround us. They believe that the pineal gland can be tuned into the proper frequencies with the help of meditation, yoga and other esoteric or occult methods. And once a person has achieved this state, he or she has the ability to travel into other dimensions - which is popularly known as astral travel or astral projection. Through more advanced and ancient methods, they also believe it possible for people to control the thoughts and actions of other people in the physical world.

The Conspiracy of Pineal Gland Suppression

Some of those who believe in the spiritual power hidden in the pineal gland are also of the opinion that there are strong forces in our society which have taken great lengths to ensure that we never access and unleash this innate potential within ourselves. This elaborate conspiracy involves the suppression of the pineal gland through people’s unwitting consumption of sodium fluoride.

In the late 90s, the first study on the effects of sodium fluoride on the pineal gland was carried out. It was determined that this tiny gland is actually a prime target for fluoride since it absorbs more of this chemical than any other physical matter in the body, including the bones. Because sodium fluoride is attracted to the pineal gland like a magnet, this leads the gland to calcify, rendering it ineffective in fulfilling its biological as well as spiritual functions.

source: wikipedia

Nowadays, fluoride is prevalent in the food we eat and the beverages that we drink. Even the majority of the water supply in the United States are infused with sodium fluoride.

Water fluoridation has always been a controversial issue not just for those with spiritual beliefs but for everyone. Though it is widely accepted that fluoride is toxic in high doses, a trend in the twentieth century emerged which added this chemical to people’s drinking water at dosages deemed as “safe.”

Where did this trend begin? Well, fluoride was introduced by the Nazis as well as the Russians into the water supply of their concentration camps so that their prisoners remain docile and don’t question authority. As to how water fluoridation was introduced in America, there are theories claiming that a large corporation was behind the practice, stemming from an elaborate orchestration that allowed an industry to dump toxic waste into the public water supply while also getting paid in the process.

However, there are also those who are of the opinion that water fluoridation is actually a sinister plan by powerful, shadowy forces to reduce an individual’s power to resist domination, and to suppress a person’s ability to awaken the powers of their consciousness, thereby preventing them from reaching their full potential.

Regardless of whether the pineal gland is indeed the divine link to a realm beyond our observable plane of existence, it cannot be denied that this tiny, pea-sized and pine cone-shaped organ is a valuable part of the human anatomy.

However, though we are aware of some of its biological functions, the full purpose of the pineal gland remains to be an exciting scientific question which invites further research and investigation. And since science and modern biology are still working to unlock its remaining mysteries and secrets, there might be a future somewhere in the horizon in which the pineal gland could truly be heralded as humankind’s “third eye.”

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Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/science/pineal-gland
https://www.endocrineweb.com/endocrinology/overview-pineal-gland
https://arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/otherendo/pineal.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/pineal-gland-functions-melatonin-circadian-rhythm.html
http://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/pineal-gland-activation-third-eye/
http://www.mysticbanana.com/pineal-gland-our-third-eye-the-biggest-cover-up-in-human-history.html
https://exemplore.com/misc/Pineal-Gland-the-God-Organ
http://fluoridealert.org/studies/luke-1997/
http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/895/1/fulltext.pdf
http://consciousreporter.com/conspiracy-against-consciousness/the-effects-of-fluoride-on-consciousness-and-the-will-to-act/
https://youtu.be/WY1tTgfxq9c