This Paranormal Life - #253 Ourang Medan - The Ghost Ship That Stumped The CIA

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

'Ghost Ships' are synonymous with the golden age of piracy - the words conjure images of huge galleons with tattered sails and skeleton crews, sailing through the mist hundreds of years ago, reassuringly far removed from modern life. The story of the SS Ourang Medan, however, is disturbingly modern - the tale of a true ghost ship that has frightened people all over the world, from hardened sailors to agents in the highest echelons of government. It's time for Rory and Kit to investigate this story.Buy Official TPL Merch! -  thisparanormallife.com/storeSupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to bonus episodes!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityAdvertise on This Paranormal Life via Gumball.fmResearch by Amy GrisdaleIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do plants have souls? Why can't we see the internet? What's it hiding from? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Yo! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast

wherein two paranormal investigators at the top of their game investigate a different case every week and get to the bottom of whether it's truly paranormal or not. My name is Kit Greer-Molvena. Across from me is Rory Powers, my co-investigator. How are you doing today, Rory? I'm doing fantastic, and I want to stress we are at the height of our game.

You know, a lot of people in the papers, they say that we're washed up. A lot of people in the industry, too. Yeah, they say that we're past our glory days. A lot of our clients. A lot of people saying, please, rest for a day. You're old men, Borderline, at this point. Yeah, you knocked over my post box when you skidded into my driveway. You turned up with booze on your breath to try and investigate this case.

Not anything to do with old age or anything. That's just us being alcoholics. We investigated a vampire case the other weekend. A vampire popped out of the walls. I tried to grab my cross, pulled a muscle in my back. I was wriggling around on the floor like a f***ing caterpillar for 45 minutes. The vampire ate the family, ate the family, killed the dog. It was a sad state of affairs luckily he took pity on me thinking that i was a worm who had somehow become the size of a human and decided not to eat he thought you were already dead and therefore he didn't want your blood he's like i think your blood will

make me sicker so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna kill you you're older than me and i've been alive for over a hundred years so I don't need that blood. Sure, it calls into question what does being at the top of your game really mean? Yeah. Do we solve problems? No. But we investigate more cases than anyone else. And that means we're at the top of our game.

Technically, yeah. Does it count if you're solving the problems that you yourself caused? I think so. Sometimes you got to release a couple vampires into the wild just to get applauded for catching them again. And sometimes you don't catch them all. Sure, a couple of the little f***ers get loose, but is that on us?

Probably, yeah, I guess it is. And this reputation we have to keep up is exactly why we're going to jump into today's investigation post-haste. Rory, let me take you back to June 1947. We're in international waters, specifically the Malacca Strait. This is a narrow strip of sea between Malaysia and Indonesia that's teeming with ship traffic. One of the ships sailing through this channel is an American vessel

called the Silver Star. It's the middle of a bright sunny day. Conditions are favorable, but even so the crew on the bridge are on high alert. The sea is a dangerous place, even for the most experienced sailors. And as you said, this is the 1940s. I don't know where we were with nautical travel at this point, but are we still talking sails? Are we still talking wind powered? I seem to remember all the battleships in the Second World War were

Spanish galleons. Cannonball fire raining down on each other. No, it's the 1940s, so I'm thinking pirates? I'm thinking swashbuckling seamen? Is that correct, sir? I'm thinking King Arthur and his band of merry men.

We are, alright, so yes, of course. The world wars have happened. We got steam in. This is not the Black Pearl. Yeah. We have nukes. We have nuclear submarines. And the sailors are right.

Even on a glorious day, things can turn south and anything can happen. That's why, even in modern times, the life of a sailor is not dissimilar to that of a pirate. Even for the most decorated lieutenants and colonels of the navy whenever they get into port sure they kick back with a couple of wenches darn a couple of mugs of ale and uh party all night long gambling you're respecting your seaman heritage you don't know if tomorrow's gonna be your last day on Earth. Yeah. Suddenly, breaking the silence, a Morse code message starts coming in across the airwaves. The communication officer's blood runs cold as he recognizes the dreaded message.

S.O.S. He starts scribbling down the transmission, scarcely believing his ears. S.O.S. from Oran Medan. We float. All officers, including the captain, are dead. Lying in the chart room and on the bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. The young officer understands there isn't a second to lose and gets the attention of his commander. Sir, I think you should see this.

The senior sailor's eyes widen as he scans the translation. Rory, if you want to read the next line as the senior naval captain here. Yep. My God, we should change course immediately.

What? Sorry, dude. That was reading a bit. I don't know if it was just me. That was reading a bit like piratey or something. Well, yeah, you said he was the captain of the ship. He says after the Second World War, American ship. Aha, gotcha.

So he's got a rough and tumble voice. Okay. Sure. But maybe from like the Midwest. Midwestern United States. Right.

Not the Caribbean? Or Scotland or Ireland. I do. I respect the fact that we discussed that you didn't have a good grasp of like

this time period in terms of sailors. But I thought it was pirates. Just don't even think of the time period. Just America. Naval. Just a guy in the army. Okay.

Don't even think about it. Just to get inside like the mindset of this son of a bitch. Sure. What color is my parrot and which eye is the patch on? No and no. So you shouldn't have a parrot. Granted, it is South Asia. I don't know if there's any tropical birds Maybe one of them just came in a porthole

Let's say no though Just in case I think it would be more accurate to say he wouldn't have a parrot And what did you say? Eye patch? No Salt water gets in your eyes Maybe a fellow pirate stabs you with a cutlass

Just think of a guy in fatigues Just like a standard naval uniform Peg leg No Just a modern ship Pirates. Just think of a guy in fatigues, just like a standard naval uniform. Peg leg. No. Just a modern ship. Imagine if you went on an army ship today, do that voice.

Got it. If you step, if you went to- Normal American naval ship. Imagine a guy who served, you know, in Iraq since the year 2001. Yeah. And he's just blasted on rum. He's been drinking rum since the crack of dawn. I mean, probably not,

because where would he get that? So, ahoy. Okay, this isn't working. I think we put a pin in this one. All right. Well, all right. I'll sprites it up. Let's try something a little more.

I mean, you should, if you look, I mean, if you actually, so I should clarify Ahoy and Yajar aren't in the text I gave you. You should, if you just read that, you should get a lot of context clues for the type of person this is. It's very plain English. Oh yeah. I see that.

There's no like, it says we should change course immediately. Yeah. There's no 1700s pan-Caribbean dialect. In my head, before I read it, it was going to be more about like Davy Jones' locker. I'm calling people scallywags. I feel like you're bringing

a lot of cultural context to this yourself. That's true. Which would be fine on a different episode. All right. About pirates. If I pretend like my character

is kind of cosplaying as an American soldier. I can kind of wrap my head around that. Okay. So I patch off. Rum's in the pocket. Get the f*** out of here, you little parrot. Get out of here.

Okay. I'm a man. I'm a man. We should change cars immediately. I'll notify the captain. Is this working? Okay, so this is a pirate whispering. It's a pirate using his indoor voice,

which I respect is granted exactly what a pirate would sound like pretending to be a naval officer. You don't get more indoors than underwater, let me tell you. Wait, we're above water. We're not underwater. I forgot this wasn't a submarine.

You have taken us on a journey to everywhere that's not the deck of this shit. Okay, okay. Here we go. American soldier. My God, we should change course immediately. I'll notify the captain. If any further communications come in, pass them onto the bridge. Post haste.

Within minutes, more Morse code was coming through and every crewman within earshot came running to hear the next part of the message. They're all looking at the communications offer expectantly, but he's shaking his head with his brow furrowed. The CO can't take it any longer and he snaps at the young seaman. Well, what's he saying? Nothing. It's complete gibberish. The random dots and dashes slowly peter out and silence falls. But there's one last message. This one's slow and deliberate and makes sense. I die.

Whoa! Wow. That's when, even if you were honestly just an American naval ship, things are going to get real piratey real soon. Even if you've never said these words before, all of a sudden you're screaming out for everyone to man the cannons. Set the mainsail. You need to be in battle station mode.

The juniors are turning to the middle management kind of officers and are like, Sir, what does that mean? I think he means get the guns. Yeah, man the cannons means arm the nukes. And that is the last contact the Orang Medan makes. It's heard by all the ships in the region, not just the Silver Star, but they're already on their way to the location and it's full steam ahead. An unusually cold fog descends as they speed through the sea searching for the ship in distress. Eventually it comes into view and they carefully sail alongside

it. By the looks of things, it's a standard cargo tanker. Nothing about the ship itself seems out of the ordinary. Except one thing. The engines aren't on. It's just floating in silence, whistling a little to the starboard side. There's no hint of movement from the huge iron ship that would ordinarily be clunking along, slicing through the fog, teaming with a working crew. I don't know a lot about sea law and how that works,

but isn't it kind of like universally agreed upon that any ships in distress, you are supposed to go investigate them, even if it's not like a friendly ship. I think you might be onto something there. I don't know if that's real ship law or if that is the space code of the Martians from Amazon Prime series, The Expanse, that you have to help any spaceships in distress. I might be getting confused. I can't say. I can't say. I'm sure you're right. But I also know

there's international waters where anything goes. Right. You can go pirate mode real quick. You said it was a cargo ship aka Booty City is what we're talking about right here. That's a floating treasure chest.

So I understand that you need to translate everything into pirate lingo for some reason. I think it's an after effect of you investigating the Flying Dutchman. Yeah.

But it was a cargo ship. This could just be, honestly, man, it could all be printer ink. I don't know. Oh, right. So not like golden doubloons. Not like, yeah, gold coins. Ancient Spanish doubloons and treasures untold. All right.

Well, you know, you might as well check it out anyway. It could be like a bunch of iPads or something that's like kind of probably not because 1947 damn it i guess it could be what'd you say 1947 so medieval scabbards well you know there could be some treasures in there not that i'm saying that we loot the bitch and sink it you have a pirate mindset people they just got an sos request saying that everyone on board is dead yeah and you're thinking about ipads at a time like this just saying if everyone's dead there's a bunch of floating ipads out at sea there is not one reason why there would be an ipad on board this ship did you see that recent report of the the boat that was out at ocean and it was a

huge cargo ship just filled with, I believe, Porsches? Yeah. And it caught fire and everyone had to evacuate it. And a bunch of people on Twitter were like, it is sea law that now it's basically up for grabs. And a bunch of lawyers had to be like, that's not, no, that's not how that works at all. Of course they still own it. it yeah it's still owned by the company uh you'd be trespassing if you went onto the ship uh but yeah a lot of people like myself just go into pirate mode yeah these stories can be kind of amusing because very often these ships can contain just one or two things recently a cargo ship uh sank uh carrying i think like the uk's entire year's supply of cooking books of like cookery books like jamie oliver recipe books and shit just like hundreds of thousands of cookery books oh man just like floating in the middle of the

pacific ocean somewhere can you imagine being the pirate that loots that ship yeah it's probably not gonna be a pirate it would be like when you're a kid and you open a christmas present and it's like socks you're like oh for sake i just traveled halfway across the atlantic i killed like six dudes on the way down i opened a door and put my flintlock pistol to the back of a man's head and blew his brains out across the captain's wheel for a fucking Jamie Oliver cookbook. For a fucking gluten-free foolproof pancake recipe. What the fuck am I going to do with that? I don't have a skillet on the seven seas. Why do you think I have scurvy? There's no vegetables. I'm starting to think right before I slit that guy's throat and he was trying to tell

me there's only cookbooks on board. He wasn't just trying to deter the pirates. He was being honest. Whereas the pirate that loots the ship full of Porsches. Hello. Oh, my God. Imagine docking up to the coast and riding your brand new convertible to the local tavern. Now that's baller.

You drank too much rum, you instantly wrap your 9-11 around the f***ing coconut tree. Pirates and Porsches is just such a funny idea. Pirates and Porsches really sounds like either a rap track or like an iPhone game or something. Oh man, now we have to write a rap called Pirates and Porsches. or like an iPhone game or something. Oh, man. Now we have to write a rap called Pirates in Porsches. I play the drums.

Michael plays the footy. We go coast to coast just hunting for the booty. Pirates in Porsches. Ya-har! Pirates in Porsches. The hook really writes itself. Pirates in Porsches. Pirates in Porsches.

And there's like an instrumental where it's like a car horn. But instead of the car horn, it's doing like the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. It's like. We go port to port just looking for fun with my wooden peg leg and my flintlock gun. And then, you know, there's one guy in the crew called, like, Tiny Pete. It's like, take it, Tiny Pete. Oh, my name's Tiny Pete and I look quite small, but I got more power than a cannonball. Oh.

I love booty. It's never enough, man. Sailing seven seas, I'm flying Dutch, man. In addition to just listing in the waves, the Orang Medan is also way off the normal shipping routes that most boats take. This particular part is rarely used. That's why it took so long to find the floating ship in the first place. A small team of Silver Star sailors gear up and prepare to launch a rescue mission. They take a small boat over to the silent ghost of a ship. On their way over, the men call out, hoping to catch the attention of somebody on the ship. Hello! Is anyone up there? We received a distress call!

But nobody appeared. The rescue crew were freaked out by the sight of the orangutan. Just as an aside, in case you're wondering, what is this strange name for this ship? It sounds a lot like orangutan. It actually comes from the same origin. Orangutan means man of the forest. And Orang Medan means man from the city of Medan in Indonesia. Oh, okay.

I thought you were going to say like man of the sea. Sea monkey. As a sailor, this must have been like facing your worst nightmare. And it seems as if there's a distinct possibility that something terrible has happened to the crew of the Orang Medan. Yeah, but what? Why ain't she moving? Where is everyone? I never saw something like this before.

I don't like it one bit. They're all shivering from the sudden and unseasonable onset of cold. Just minutes ago, it was almost 40 degrees Celsius. There's a strange atmosphere in the air, so the men proceed with caution. Something really has killed every person on the ship they were about to board. They'll need their wits about them. The team expertly maneuver close enough to the Orang Medan to tie onto it and clamber aboard. The men climb to the top and spot the first bodies before all their boots had even hit the deck. They're everywhere. Whoa! The rescue crew tiptoe

around the ship in horror, passing glassy-eyed body after body. It isn't long until the men began to notice that every single corpse is in the exact same position. They're all lying on their backs, with their arms raised in what appears to be self-defense. Holy shit. What's even scarier is that each of their faces is frozen in terror. These must have been violent deaths, but there isn't so much as a speck of blood to be seen. Yeah, isn't that weird that that's kind of scarier than if they had gone on board and these dudes are like ripped to shreds. Right. Like pieces of body everywhere. It's almost creepier that they've apparently died of fright.

They were flash banged into the afterlife. None of the bodies have scratches or visible injuries at all. Every soul on board has been snuffed out, including the ship's dog. He too had a pained snarl on his face. No! As if he'd gone down fighting. It's the same picture in every room of the ship, the whale house, the crew mess and the entire bridge. They even see the poor radio officer, slumped on the ground at the radio

where he sent the SOS from, hands still firmly on the send key. To add yet another layer of mystery, despite getting the distress call a mere matter of hours ago, the corpses around the ship are already starting to decay. It doesn't really make sense. The whole ship is freezing after all. Yeah, you'd think that would preserve any kind of body very well. Even if it was a long time ago. You'd think all their bodies would be so pickled by rum that they would just last forever. Parrot after parrot lie paralyzed on the poop deck, frozen in fear.

The team's commanding officer has seen enough to know that what they have in their hands is suspicious and mysterious AF. Men, I want every inch of this ship searched. Leave no stone unturned. A lot of lives have been lost, and we owe it to those men to get to the bottom of this. This is it, Rory. Like you say, the sailor's code kicking in. He's like, God damn it, I didn't know these people.

God damn it, I don't respect them. But they did know how to use a boat, and therefore I will put my life on the line to honor their memory right it's quite a noble decision i'd say because again you've got a ship full of loot here you could just start off well we don't know that it's a cargo ship international law still applies wipe your fingertips off the boat sides when you leave and you're you're gone buddy so you know it's modern enough that there's forensic evidence that you can't just be a pirate about this.

If I was a commanding officer in this situation, I'm saying, men, I want all of you off this ship immediately. Some creepy shit went down and we're going to tell everyone this didn't happen. Oh, okay. That's one way to do it, I guess. You don't know what's on here

that's going to kill your team too. That's true. And I mean, if that guy sent the distress signal only a mere hours ago and then he passed away, you got to think whatever caused it is either still on the ship or in the vicinity of the ship. The mystified sailors split up and head into the various rooms of the ship, classic Scooby-Doo style.

Each is instructed to record as much information about the circumstances as possible and document the occupants of every cabin. Teams combing the upper deck spread out and begin to search for clues. Sir, over here! A lifeboat's been launched! The men gather and, sure enough, there's a lifeboat missing. Somebody has made it off the boat alive. The lifeboat kind of launched by itself. There's a way to tow the ship home or at least return the bodies to their families. It might be possible to determine who's missing. Whoa. They can rig up a tether to drag the orang-medan back to port. All they need is a little bit of time. Unfortunately, they're already almost out. Sir, can you smell that?

Suddenly, there's a distinct aroma of smoke in the air. Either someone has just lit up a cigarette or they're in grave danger. Oh my god, I think the ship might be on fire! Fire! The doors to the crew quarters bust open and the search crew come streaming out, screaming at the top of their lungs. The Orang Medan is on fire and they have seconds, not minutes, to escape with their lives.

They scramble back down to the rescue vessel and untie it from the burning ship. Hardly daring to breathe, the crew row as hard and fast as they can away from the ship. They're hit by a wall of heat as the hull of the Orang Medan erupts into flames. Whoa!

Quickly, there's not much time! The men were just climbing aboard when the entire ocean was rocked by a vast explosion, so forceful that the whole boat was thrust into the air. It broke apart into thousands of fragments and quickly sank to the bottom of the sea. Holy shit. Never to be seen again.

I don't know what we just witnessed. Was that part of the paranormal activity or was that someone trying to like cover up the evidence, you know, destroy the crime scene? Yeah, in very Agatha Christie Poirot style, the real lead here is the missing lifeboat where one person escaped. Yeah, that's really bizarre. I'm also, keep an eye on that colonel

who was like, everyone, go down below deck and don't come up until you hear me give the okay. Steve, have you got those matches as well by any chance? I'm just freaking freezing up here i don't know if i casually dropped any hints by saying this was all scooby-doo style but i think we're now looking out for the one suspect yeah yeah um or you know what we could be witnessing is like the aftermath of some of the paranormal activity that went on in the first place

kind of a ripple effect from the original earthquake. I'm glad that you're feeling that. We're going to continue going forward to toss up these two options, file play or paranormal. I guess the original paranormal activity didn't involve any fire or explosions. So it'd be a bit weird for that to be causation or, you know, an effect of the original event. That would be like, oh, this family said that uh they saw

a figure in the reflection of a of a mirror in their house uh one night and then the next day their house exploded it's like all right well i don't know if part two was related to part one because that doesn't say i'm struggling to see the link between why a ghost would detonate your house uh which is kind of similar here. Like all these men passed away, frozen in fear, and then the boat explodes like it's out of fucking diehard. That seems a little bizarre. I'm struggling to see the link.

Yeah, that's very true. I mean, this was a if someone put this plan in motion, I had some motive to kill the entire ship. This would be a very, very elaborate multi-stage plan. And I got to say, I know that this isn't how it went down, but in my head, these f***ing pirates are running along the deck and they swing on ropes out into the ocean as the ship explodes into smithereens. Sure.

As long as you understand that isn't what happened. Totally. And don't let it color your future opinion of this case. Yeah. Fine. Think that.

Of course. Because as you said, it's the 1940s. Pirates haven't been around for a long time. This is wartime. It would be absolutely ludicrous for any of them to be

dressed in eyepatches and crazy hats. I'm glad that you understand that. But in my head, cannonballs flying, rum spilling out the sides of a bottle. I just think you're derailing the podcast. You're putting that image in people's minds.

I'm putting a lot of effort in here to try and set a time and place. Yeah, you're right. It is really confusing. It's going to be a little confusing if we call it a cargo ship one minute and then you call it the poop deck another. Sure, I need to stop calling it the poop deck another sure i need to stop

calling it the poop deck and this captain jack sparrow who you said no the commanding officer of this naval unit command it that's what it was yeah sorry just i'm getting a little bit jumbled up here if anything they were not pirates captain jack would be the last person coming to another ship's aid in uh inates of the Caribbean franchise. I don't need to be getting into the nitty gritty of what Captain Jack Sparrow would be doing.

He's not to do with this case. Right. I'm infecting you. We're both getting a little confused in the midst of the story here. I'm going to put you in Davy Jones' locker.

How about that? I'm like, this is a mutiny, brother. This is my podcast now. I'm the host. You're walking the plank. I'm taking, this is a mutiny, brother. This is my podcast now. I'm the host. You're walking the plank. I'm taking a little inspiration from your commanding officer over there, who's not a pirate, by the way.

So Rory, as discussed, there is a litany of possible explanations for what happened aboard the Orang Medan, causing this legend to take place. So, of course, let's dive straight into the paranormal possibilities for what happened. I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that this all took place in the Strait of Malacca. It was, and still is to this day, an incredibly busy shipping lane that connects continents. And in some parts, it's very narrow and extremely dangerous. And I can't believe I'm admitting this this late in the episode after all our conversation. But it was a hotbed of piracy for a long time.

Right. But 1940s pirates, which is not the pirates from pop culture, presumably. I'm talking sort of history, though. Oh, God. Okay. So swashbuckling, rum-swigging. The whole thing. Needless to say, countless souls have been swashbuckled into the depths of the sea here.

Not to mention the at least 30 or so vessels that have sunk of their own accord in this tiny stretch of water. Do I have to say the obvious? Could this stretch of ocean be haunted by the unresting souls of the deep? Right. Yeah. Or, you you know were the souls who were originally lost was that an act of whatever paranormal activity whoa happens at this location right some bermuda triangle stuff it just stretches back to the beginning of time possibly yeah this is a real chicken and egg paranormal situation. Did the deaths cause the curse or does the curse cause the deaths?

Yeah. Which came first? But I have to say, the paranormal explanations get pretty spicy pretty quick when you realize that the CIA got involved in the paranormal end of investigating this case. What? In the CIA public archives, which are linked online, there is a letter about the Ourang Medan. It's addressed to the assistant to the director of the whole organization and signed by C.H. Mark Jr. It's long, so I'm not going to read the whole thing,

but here's a few juicy snippets. I have just read a weird story about the Dutch vessel SS Orang Medan. I will indeed be grateful for your opinion. Do you think something from the unknown is involved? All right, weird to reference that. And that was in quotation marks, by the way. Oh, so it's like, it's almost like he's acknowledging something. It's like he's talking about Gojira itself. It's like, yeah, he couldjira itself. It's not like,

yeah, he could be either saying, is it genuinely something unknown? Or is he talking about the thing we don't talk about? Why put that in quotation marks if it was just something we don't know? Because that's very different, isn't it? Is it like, oh, do you think it was something undiscovered? Or do you think it was Something Undiscovered? It Who Shall Not Be Named? I feel sure that the tragedy holds the answer to many of these accidents and unsolved mysteries of the sea. I have also thought about the many sightings of huge fiery spheres rising from or disappearing into the sea. He goes on to say that throughout history, there have been multiple reports of balls of fire coming in or out of the ocean. Some from books printed before 1500 AD. He says they come from quote, within our planet. Okay. He then gives a list of examples of this kind of phenomenon

like quote, in 216 BC, things like ships were seen in the sky over Italy. In Sardinia, a knight was making his rounds when a stick in his hands burst into flames. Roman soldiers in Sicily saw their javelins flame and burn in their hands. In AD 1067, people saw a fire that flamed and burned fiercely in the sky. It came near the earth and for a little time brilliantly lit it up. Whoa. He finishes with, What terrifying secret does it hold? I feel sure that the SS Orang Medan tragedy also holds the answer to this secret.

Of the sea? I think he's saying, I admit it took me a couple of reads to really get at the point here. I guess these are out of context quotes, but basically he's saying there's a long list. I've researched it. There's a long list of weird shit happening at sea involving fireballs, strange phenomenon. And I'm sure that the Orang Medan is just another chapter in this story. Right. I mean, I will say as far as the ships floating in the sky goes, we did cover this on our episode about the Flying Dutchman. We did cover this on our episode about the Flying Dutchman.

It is referred to as an optical illusion called Fata Morgana, which is where through some process, it gives off the illusion that objects that should be resting on the ocean are actually floating or hovering above in the sky. Now that doesn't explain javelins and spears bursting into flames when a flying Dragon Ball Z blasts go soaring through the sky it's just a great example of something that was very unexplained for a very long time and then modern science came along and explained it in 30 seconds and the same same could be true for any of these phenomenon yeah was it the sun that these men saw sinking into the ocean.

It's so f***ed. This fireball came out of the sea at 6 a.m. I swear to God, at 9 a.m., it went back in on the other side of the sea. Because it does look like it's going into the sea. We gotta assume that even the ancient Romans understood that. Knew what the sun was. Yeah, hopefully. That is a 100%.

I literally have the link to the CIA document in front of me. That's a 100% genuine CIA communication. Now, you said that they covered this, but when was this letter written? How many years passed? Or was this at the time of the event? Do you know? This was 1959.

So a good, good 10 years or so. Quite a long time ago. The subject line is on May 29th, 1958. I sent you a letter concerning crews disappearing from ships in the high seas or ships that have disappeared without a trace. Well, here's another weird story. This is not how I thought the CIA worked, by the way. No, swapping creepypastas?

Hanging out? Bro, have you seen this one? Have you heard about Slenderman? All right, we know that's not real. I'm sure that Slenderman holds some mysteries. Of all of Earth's questions, could it be that C.H. Mark Jr. was on the brink of discovering some kind of unknown phenomenon of natural fireballs spat out by the sea? This may just be one letter about this whole phenomenon.

Presumably he thought about it more, wrote about it more, investigated it more. Yeah, I will say the ship did explode in the end. Is it possible that one of those fireballs just shot right up through this thing? And there are, of course, more conspiratorial ideas for maybe what went on. In the end, is it possible that one of those fireballs just shot right up through this thing? And there are, of course, more conspiratorial ideas for maybe what went on. You know, there's a lot of parallels between this story and that of the Philadelphia experiment, something we covered a long time ago. I was going to bring this up, but I didn't remember the time in which that took place.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the Philadelphia experiment was, I think, a hoax. I feel like we said no. I don't remember, though. I don't remember either. But it was purported to be some kind of government experiment gone wrong, killing an entire crew aboard a ship. I think it glitched out of this dimension, glitched back, and everyone was dead. Oh, gorier than that, I believe the men were fused to the ship. Right you are, right you are.

They, like, melted into the actual boat. Similarities, similarities to be sure. And then the government would have to have covered this up because you can't let that get out. And maybe something similar went on here. This could have been a government ship, maybe a commissioned government ship that wasn't supposed to look like a government ship. Right, like an undercover craft due to doing some paranormal surveillance. Of course, if you're going to carry out some kind of strange operation you wouldn't want anyone to know about, you wouldn't do it on a large airship or something.

Yeah. But maybe in the greatest M. Night Shyamalan twist of all, many believe that the ship never truly existed. Oh, I love a good twist like this. Even after years of curious researchers poring over shipping registers from around the world, the Ourang Medan doesn't seem to appear in any of them. No verified photos of the ship exist.

It was never signed in at any known port on Earth. There's no account of the rescue in the logbook of the Silver Star. But I guess the problem is the story still persists today. There are historians and scientists and people who've, even in the CIA, Christ, dedicated years to studying this case, thinking about it, talking about it. Surely that means there must be some grain of truth to it. Is there a possibility that the records of its existence have been scrubbed deliberately from history?

In 1954, a German author named Otto Mielke... I'm sorry, is that funny? I don't... It really isn't. It just caught me off guard. Something funny about the name Mielke? It's just... I wasn't expecting it. Just because Dr. Mielke carried out countless groundbreaking studies on the, sure, the benefits of milk. You think that's funny somehow? Dr. Milk published a research paper allegedly backed up by real crew members of the Silver Star.

His associate, Dr. Cookies, was actually involved in publishing the papers. Dr. Cookies actually was up to some bad shit and went to jail for a long time. So we're not going to spend a lot of papers. Dr. Cookies actually was up to some bad shit and went to jail for a long time. So we're not going to spend a lot of time on Dr. Cookies. This paper supposedly included the last known location of the Ourang Medan and its intended route. It also made mention that it was carrying dangerous cargo. All right, now where's this coming from?

You're saying these papers are documenting the last known whereabouts of a boat that you just told me very likely doesn't exist because there are no records of it anywhere. But Rory, Dr. Milk tracked down the surviving crew members of the

Silver Star, the one that supposedly rescued them. Oh, okay. In this universe that we're exploring it all happened, sure. But then the government covered it up. I don't know which one covered it up.

Don't know if it was the Dutch, the Indonesians, the Americans. God knows. Probably the Americans, though. They covered up the spilt milk. And Dr. Otto, he lapped this shit up like a cat with its meek.

Okay, I'm starting to understand. I'm starting to get my head around this. Allegedly, this cargo container may have been carrying potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin. Two extremely unstable, dangerous chemicals, which could poison a person with just minutes of exposure. That might explain the fiery explosion. That shit sounds flammable. And the hundreds of

crew members writhing in agony, dead. Well, that's a really good point. You know, if it was some sort of airborne killer, then if it was, you know, poisoning, that is kind of how you would contort your body. It would look like fear, but maybe if you're just inhaling poison, that's kind of how you'd end up. Granted, this is a less kind of sexy paranormal explanation, but it is interesting. Maybe this was a real ship operating illegally under a fake name. That's why there's no reports. That's why we aren't able to track it down

because it was doing some illegal shit and it didn't carry its cargo safely and everyone died. I guess it doesn't, unless the people, the crew on board the ship didn't know what was being transported it doesn't really make a lot of sense for them to then cry out for help to another ship it's like we're being poisoned come on aboard we need help it's true it is true uh and there still is the missing link of this person who supposedly got away in a lifeboat i guess they could have just drowned minutes later i did forget about the lifeboat i actually this is an extra interesting story because a few years back i was flown out to germany i believe to play a video game based

around this exact story oh it was called the man of in Medan and was one episode in a serial of games, horror games that were released. They were kind of like multiple choice games where you live out different scenarios throughout history, like spooky scenarios. And one of them was this. It was The Man in Medan.

That was wicked. Now, the game that I played was of course a lot more fictional, let's say, than the story that we're being presented with today. Actual zombies on board the ship, ghosts walking around the halls. You haven't heard part three, brother. But it was a very cool trip because they actually, as I said, they flew us out and we got to play the game inside of an alleged ghost ship that had been docked at a harbor nearby. So we were kind of like rocking back and forth trying to play this game on PlayStation. It was very intense.

This is making a little bit more sense why you were so attached to this pirate lifestyle and connecting it to this story. You've lived this story. I was a pirate. Rory, that is just testament to how famous this story is. For Christ's sake, it might have even never happened. And yet the CIA were looking into it. That's that's the rumor mill for you back in the 40s and 50s. Rory, we have discussed the legend itself, all the details of its story and some of the possible explanations for what

really happened. What do you think went down on that fateful day? It's easy for me to say, hey, no records of the ship, no ship. It's not beyond the government to destroy records. They're actually pretty famous for doing that throughout history. It's kind of their thing. Yeah. So, you know, the thought that a ship like this could have existed is real. And I think, you know, if we if we push a ship like this could have existed is real. And I think,

you know, if we, if we push the paranormal to the side for one second, we do have a world where we could have a, uh, a ship transporting some sort of hazardous material that leaked and there was a crisis on board and the crew passed away and then the ship was covered up afterwards. That makes sense. You know know that's not a paranormal story it is kind of like a conspiracy based story but um it's a real ghost ship and you know that's something i could really get my my head around when the paranormal comes into it things get a little bit more complicated uh because we don't really have any explanation as to like what killed these men aside from the fact that this area of the ocean they were traveling in is notorious for for uh hazardous journeys but there's not really a motive or a reason why the boat would explode as the men kind of vacate it

sadly it's true i mean we recently discussed the case of the cursed uh mummy case at the british museum yeah if that thing was aboard we might have a motive but as yet seems pretty slim it's just that there other people have died in this place so maybe the ghost would hunt them too but it's pretty heavy-handed i mean the mummy case was pretty heavy-handed but this is very heavy-handed you're just sailing through a region and they kill every man woman and dog on board it's got a the way this would have to be a paranormal story is if there was a really clear theory about what they were transporting if down below decks they had the ark of the covenant and someone had a little peak just being like it's international water that means also with god i can break the ten commandments and And he has a little peek inside and they're all

zapped on board the ship. Sure. That would be pretty paranormal. But the fact that the only theory that we have is that it was hazardous chemicals. It's like, all right, I can see why you would think that's paranormal men dropping dead. But as we know, science can explain that. It's very sad that in the case of ghost ships all throughout history, we're allowed to fantasize, think that they're paranormal, have all sorts of cool, creepy explanations. But when it happens in the last hundred years, science just swoops in and explains it all instantly. It's so boring. That's why you got to pretend like everyone's a pirate. It really brings the story to life, really gives it that whimsical taste that people enjoy.

the story to life really gives it that whimsical taste that people enjoy. It really feels like the lead here that we shouldn't bury is that the CIA are looking into sea mysteries. I mean, that's fantastic. And even if we can't explain or confirm the paranormal case of the orang madan, I just love that there's more sea mysteries to be explored. Listen, I'm going to say it on record right now. You know, we've talked a lot in the past about there being some sort of alternate paranormal dimension. Do you know what that is, guys? It's the ocean.

That shit is crazy. Waves. Have you ever seen a wave? What the f*** is that? Who's making them? And then you're telling me there's a whole world under the sea under the sea this is rory playing that video game in germany for the first time what the f**k is this that's the ocean oh my god what it's like a cup of water but massive uh it's insane it's insane

down there uh we love throwing around this fact on the podcast which i'm pretty sure is an absolute lie but um that uh we know more about the space than we do about the bottom of our own oceans on earth yeah there's no way that's true there's no space the whole thing i've said it so many times with such blind confidence and i definitely just saw it tweeted from like Uber facts on Twitter. Oh boy. Yeah. Which is total nonsense. Like there's no f***ing way. The universe.

We know more about that than we do where crabs live. But the ocean is a mysterious place. It really is. And we're talking about the surface of the ocean is still a wild place. That thing is deep. You all seen islands? It's crazy. It's like a cup of water with a rock floating in it.

So I'm not surprised that a lot of our more interesting paranormal stories revolve around the ocean. Rory, of course, at the end of every episode, we do have to decide whether the aforementioned case is truly paranormal or not. In the case of the Orang Medan, what are you saying? I love this story. I was more on the edge than I thought I was going to be. But unfortunately, due to a lack of evidence today, it's going to be a no. Dope story. Totally agree. Not enough paranormal evidence. It's a no. Double no today. Damn. Thank you so much to Amy Grizzell for researching this case. This has

been suggested many times over the years. So thank you to anyone who has sent that in to us at this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com. And thank you so much to Cammy Tillman for editing this episode. Hope you enjoyed this week's investigation. If you're a returning listener of this paranormal life, you know, you'll know all those other cases we were talking about. But if you're a first-time listener, why not go back? Go back through the archives. Check out The Flying Dutchman. Yeah. A capital case on the high seas

of This Paranormal Life, or even back all the way through the archives to episode 25, The Philadelphia Experiment, where we talk about men being fused to ships. And maybe if you listen to those, and at the end, you're still not satiated, head on over to ships. And maybe if you listen to those and at the end, you're still not satiated,

head on over to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life where there are approximately 50 more bonus episodes ready to be listened to right now. Oh, yeah. There's also all 21 tracks of the first album

of the Pirates and Porsches. Yeah. And there's a bunch of great features on there. You got little Timmy. Yeah. Big Timmy. The pirate takes an interlude all of his own. Yeah.

There's like a cannonball fire style, like a breakdown, like. Yeah. It's really great stuff. Includes all your favorite songs. Booty is Life, Da Seven Seas. Yeah. Live by the Sword, Die by the Booty, another Booty-related track.

A lot of them are mainly focused around Booty. Booty Till I Die. They actually only discovered the cargo ship full of Porsches around three quarters of the way through recording the album. So the last quarter of the album is very Porsche heavy thematically. It's 16 very authentic sea shanties that quickly descends into a full-on hip hop

slash hyper pop mixtape. They got rich towards the end of the album production process. Dirty rich. You're going to want to check it out. Davy Jones rebranded as Cash Money Davy, for example. Little Timmy as Big Timmy. We did say,

because we've joked about this before, if I ever started a rap career, that I would be a pirate-based rapper and my name would be Dabloon. And I was always... I know what this goes down like. Like a ton of f***'s on a brick so you mentioned like a red like a lead balloon i think i think that's great so will we potentially hear doubloon on the studio version of pirates and porsches you're about to hear it right now boys this is

doubloon with the pirates in porsches dropping our first single of the year, Booty is Life. Oh! My name is Captain John and I run a tight ship. I like the ocean breeze, the taste of rum on my lips. I play the drums, Michael plays the flutyuty We go coast to coast just hunting for the booty Yeah, I'm searching for that booty Just because they're trying to sue me

Cause I'm stealing all their wenches Got them acting like a floozy We go port to port, looking for some fun With my wooden peg leg and my flintlock gun Sailing on the seven seas will save you from a drive-by If our cannon misses you, I'll take you in a knife-fly. Pirates in horses. Pirates in horses.

Pirates in horses. Pirates in horses. Chasing that booty. Pirates in horses. Give me that looty. Pirates in horses. Well, my name is Salty, and I like my winches creepy. Eat a box of lime so I don't get scurvy.

Ask me about the pirates' life, I'll tell you what's best. Sipping on private shot shot I'll be the protest Some rappers like a Lambo Others like the prancing horses But me and my crew We be pirates in horses You walk the plank I'm at the bank

Your ship needs rowers I've got horsepower Take it away Tiny Pete Yo my name's Tiny Pete And I look quite small But I got more force Than a cannonball I'm talking at your port Take it away, Tiny Pete. Yo, my name's Tiny Pete, and I look quite small, but I got more force than a cannonball. I'm talking at your port.

Better lock up your daughters, because if you cross me, you'll end up in Davy Jones' locker. Don't get any of that grum in me, 9-11, or I'll make you walk the plat. Ha-hoo! Ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Some of those that set courses are the same that drive Porsches.