"I die."

The sea is a traitorous leman; under the tempting caress of winds and waves awaits a cold, silent death for those unfortunate enough. She has called out numerous eager lovers throughout the ages, only to engulf them under her dark, boundless waters.  But only some of them returns to haunt us- a lost ship resurfaces without the crew; a sunk vessel reappears in a port; a ship that never was comes to life. Legends of the sea have been around since the time people started sailing. Myth or not, nothing fascinates us more than the tragic tale of a ghost ship. 

The chilling story of the S.S. Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, dates back to the 1940s although the precise year differs from source to source. The world was healing from the devastating blow of a war and getting ready for another cold one. The increasing tensions attracted naval presence from various nations. Dutch ships were seen the most, as the European nation tried to restore its its massive colonial interests in what later became Indonesia. 

So, when a US Navy ship at the Straits of Malacca (present day Indonesia) intercepted a distress signal from a Dutch vessel, the American crew could not have been more shocked by the gruesome events that unraveled.

 “All officers including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew dead,” the distress call stated. Then there was an unintelligible frenzy of Morse code. The last living crew member signed off with two simple words: "I die."

The Ourang Medan might have looked similar to this file photo. 

Source: Google.

Upon arriving at the scene, the rescue party found the crew of the mysterious ship scattered across the deck. One report at the time stated that the crew lay there "teeth bared, with their upturned faces to the sun, staring, as if in fear...". Even the ship's dog lay dead in the same position, and was described as being "mid-growl".

                         A memo by the assistant to the Director of the CIA about the S.S. Ourang Medan.

                         Source: The Daily Star

The overwhelming stench of the rotten corpses soon took over the ship. One account says that shortly after the rescue team arrived, a fire broke out in the ship and it exploded with such intensity that the vessel was lifted out of the ocean, before quickly sinking without a trace.

Now we are left with two questions: what happened to the crew of this supposedly cursed ship and what caused the fire? 

According to https://www.historicmysteries.com/ourang-medan/  , the ship contained nitroglycerine and potassium cyanide which could've caused the explosion. Since the timeline is close to World War II, the ship could've been transporting sensitive material for the war. 

As for what happened to the crew, the explosion also could have released toxic gases which poisoned the crew and their dog. Another theory suggests that their cause of death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning. 

This story comes with another twist: there are no ships registered under the name of S.S Ourang Medan in Lloyd's Shipping registers . It is said that the ships registry wasn't found because it was actually registered in the islands of  Sumatra. The ship's name roughly translates to "Man from Medan"- Medan being a Sumatran island. 

Even though there are theories which include supernatural activities and aliens, keeping the ship and its contents hidden seems more likely. This case probably takes the cake for being one of the most fascinating in nautical history.