Ourang Medan

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The Ourang Medan (man from Medan) (in some sources appears as Orang Medan, or Ourand Medan) was purportedly a Dutch cargo ship of the mid-20th century which features in a legendary maritime occurrence, in which several boats, responding to SOS calls--"Captain and all officers dead. Entire crew dead or dying," and later, "Now I am also near death"--discover a ship which appears to be in perfect condition. However, upon boarding the ship, they discovered the crew, frozen in death. They all appeared to have died suddenly, with expressions of horror on their faces, their eyes still open. Some of the crew were supposedly pointing at the sky. No cause could be determined for the crew's deaths.

Not one member of the crew of the Ourang Medan is said to have survived the unknown, but terminal, fate; even the ship's dog was dead, perpetually snarling at an absent enemy. Any hope of gleaning answers by examination of the scene were dashed as, while being towed to port, the ship exploded and sank.

The story is likely to be apocryphal, although it is repeated in various texts, particularly on the paranormal. One explanation given is that the crew was smuggling an illicit cargo of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerine. If seawater combined with first one and then the other, it would neatly explain the deaths (water and KCN make KOH and HCN) from cyanide gas (HCN). It would also explain the fire and explosion, which could be attributed to the nitroglycerine - a notoriously unstable substance that could explode if combined with water and/or cyanide. Another explanation for the fire and explosion is the heat generated by water reacting with the KCN is possibly enough to trigger a fire, which would then cause an explosion in the nitroglycerine.

This story was also cited in the following two major books: Vincent Gaddis' Invisible Horizons (1965), and Richard Winer's Ghost Ships (2000), as well as in Phyllis Raybin Emert's Mysteries of Ships and Planes (1990), and others. However, no original source material documenting this case has been produced.