In the early to mid-20th century, there were quite a few ways to become famous, but one sure way was to die under terrifying and mysterious circumstances on a ship in the middle of the ocean. That's how the crew of the SS Ourang Medan became infamous. No one knows what happened to the ship because shortly after it was discovered by a rescue boat, it blew up. At least, that was the story. In 1948, the SS Ourang Medan, a Dutch freighter, sent a desperate SOS. The radio broadcast was picked up by nearby ships including an American ship, the Silver Star, in the Straits of Malacca, between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The message said, simply: "We float. All officers including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew dead ... I die.” When the Silver Star arrived, the ship was eerily still. No steam billowed from her engines, no shouts for help could be heard. The search party boarded the ship and found the bodies of the crew. Their faces were contorted in fear, mouths stretched in eternal screams, and their eyes were open wide. Whatever terrorized the crew to death was gone without a trace. There was no time to investigate the deaths or recover the bodies because shortly after the rescue crew arrived on board, smoke was seen rising from the cargo hold of the ship. With seconds to spare, the rescue crew made it back to the Silver Star before the Ourang Medan exploded, leaving nothing but a story for the newspapers. Over time, the story of the Ourang Medan was retold and new storytellers embellished different details. Dates, locations and even the fates of the crew twist and turn with each new telling. Did dangerous chemicals kill the crew? Was there a survivor? What's more likely, says true crime writer Michael East, is that the Ourang Medan never actually existed except in the imagination of the storytellers and their eager audiences. "There is often a truth hidden deep in most myths, but people's need to tell a better story takes over, meaning the truth is lost."
