The story of the SS Ourang Medan is one of the most mysterious and haunting maritime legends of all time. According to the story, the ship was found adrift in the Strait of Malacca, a narrow stretch of water between Malaysia and Indonesia, in 1948. When rescuers boarded the ship, they discovered that the entire crew was dead, with their eyes and mouths wide open, and their faces frozen in terror. The cause of their deaths remains a mystery to this day, and the SS Ourang Medan has become a legend among sailors and ghost hunters around the world.

While many details of the story remain unclear or unconfirmed, the following are the reported facts about the ship and its crew:

The SS Ourang Medan was a Dutch cargo ship that sailed in the 1940s.

On June 1947, two American vessels received a distress signal from the SS Ourang Medan in the Strait of Malacca, Malaysia.

The message was reported to be: "S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float * * * all officers including the captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge * * * probably whole crew dead * * *I die***".

The crew of the Silver Star, one of the American vessels, reached the Ourang Medan and found it adrift, with no sign of life on board.

When they boarded the ship, they discovered that the entire crew was dead. The bodies were found lying on the decks and in the cabins, with their eyes and mouths open and their faces twisted in terror.

The American rescuers reported that they could not find any obvious cause of death, such as injuries or illness.

Shortly after boarding the ship, the Silver Star crew also reported feeling a sudden chill and an unexplainable sense of unease, which added to the eerie atmosphere of the scene.

According to some reports, the ship's dog was the only living creature on board, but it died shortly after the rescue.

The SS Ourang Medan was towed to port, but before it could be investigated, it reportedly exploded and sank, taking with it any evidence that might have shed light on the mysterious deaths of the crew.

Sources:

The story of the SS Ourang Medan has been the subject of much speculation and myth-making over the years. Many details of the story remain unconfirmed or disputed, and some historians have even suggested that the entire story may be a hoax. Nevertheless, there are several primary sources that support the basic outline of the story:

A series of distress messages sent by the SS Ourang Medan were received by two American vessels, the City of Baltimore and the Silver Star, in June 1947. The messages were recorded by the operators of the ships' radios and later reported to the U.S. Coast Guard. Copies of the messages are reportedly held in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., although they have never been publicly released.

The story of the SS Ourang Medan was first reported in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in February 1948. The article claimed that the ship had been found adrift in the Strait of Malacca, and that the entire crew was dead. The article cited anonymous sources in the shipping industry, and did not provide any details about the cause of the crew's deaths.

The story of the SS Ourang Medan was later picked up by several English-language newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and the Yorkshire Evening Post. These reports added further details to the story, such as the descriptions of the crew's bodies and the eerie atmosphere on board the ship. However, many of these reports relied on second-hand sources and did not provide any additional evidence to support the story.

In the years since the story of the SS Ourang Medan first appeared, several books and articles have been written about the incident. These include Charles Berlitz's "The Bermuda Triangle" (1974), which popularized the story of the Ourang Medan and linked it to other mysterious maritime incidents; and Roy Bainton's "A Frightful Folly: The Real Story of the Ourang Medan" (2004), which attempted to separate fact from fiction in the legend.

Some researchers have attempted to investigate the story of the SS Ourang Medan more thoroughly, but have been hampered by the lack of available evidence. For example, some have suggested that the ship may have been carrying dangerous chemicals or other hazardous materials, which could have caused the crew's deaths. However, without access to the ship's records or physical evidence, it is difficult to confirm or disprove these theories.

The story of the SS Ourang Medan remains one of the most enduring maritime mysteries of all time. While the basic outline of the story has been confirmed by primary sources such as the distress messages received by the American vessels in June 1947 and the initial reports in Dutch and English-language newspapers, many details of the story remain unconfirmed. Nevertheless, the eerie atmosphere of the scene and the inexplicable deaths of the crew continue to fascinate and haunt sailors and ghost hunters around the world.