In late 1947, two American ships travelling down the Straits of Malacca, near Malaysia, picked up a chilling radio message in Morse code.
‘All Officers, including the Captain, are dead. Lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. I die…’ With the help of British and Dutch listening posts, the coordinates of the stricken ship, Dutch vessel SS Ourang Medang, were triangulated, and an American merchant ship, the Silver Star, was dispatched to find out what was going on.
Drifting
The SS Ourang Medang was tracked down, and even before the search party boarded, it was evident there was something horribly wrong. The ship was just drifting, with no signs of life on board.
Boarding the ship, the rescue party found that the decks of the vessel were littered…
