In the late 1940s, ships passing through Malacca, Malaysia, received distress signals from an unidentified ship. The message came in two parts. The unsettling distress message in Morse code read “SOS from Ourang Medan … we float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead …” This initial transmission was followed by a series of unclear and indecipherable Morse sequences which culminated in a final, grim statement: “I die.” There was no further message. The American ships Silver Star and City of Baltimore, which received the signal, headed towards the unidentified ship. The messages came from the Dutch cargo ship SS Ourang Medan.

The cargo ship Silver Star was the first to approach the Ourang Medan. The Ourang Medan looked strangely

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