Short Stuff: The SS Ourang Medang | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hi and welcome to short stuff I'm Josh. and there's Chuck Chuck and Josh gety up. on short stuff that's right this is. another fun tale of a ghost ship M uh. ghost ships are just a lot of fun to. talk about and this is the tale of a. ghost ship that may or may not even. exist it's a big one uh but one thing. for sure uh one thing is for sure is. that this story has influenced a lot of.

um a lot of Pop Culture I feel like yeah. at the very least it showed up as a um a. video game in 2019 a horror game I was. watching a 4our YouTube video where this. um YouTuber just basically. narrated I guess added commentary here. or there to this 4our gameplay really. you didn't just watch the trailer of the. game you watched actual I did four hours. I did I just I mean I didn't watch the.

whole four hours no I skipped ah head. and it was cute um oh okay it was It was. kind of fun but yeah I know I probably. watched five minutes total of the whole. thing just skipping around but it looks. very scary um it it looks like a really. cool game if I play games I would. definitely go get it it's called The Man. of Madan and the reason it's called the. man of Madan is because that's uh the. English translation from the Indonesian. for the name of the ship urang Madan. urang in Indonesian means uh man which.

is why orangutans are called that. they're Forest men I think we've said. before so the name of the ship in. English was man of Madan which is a city. on Sumatra that's right and it looks. like a very scary game uh about people. that get up on this ghost ship and have. to contend with ghosts so what happened. with the uh SS orang Madan um was. that well here's the story uh it it it. depends. on there's some there's some Han this it.

goes on with the dates and we'll explain. why in a minute but uh either 1947 or. 1948 or maybe even 1940 as we'll see. there was a Dutch freighter ship named. the orang Madan that sent an SOS uh. picked up by some nearby ships including. uh the Silver Star an American ship yeah. um in the Straits of Mala where all it. said was this we float all officers. including Captain dead lying in chart. room and on Bridge probably whole crew.

dead I die that is a creepy message the. only way it could be creepier is if it. said we all float down here or I'm right. behind you you're right so this was like. the SOS the distress call and that. Silver Star like you said was was close. enough that it arrived um to help the. orang Madan and when it arrived it was. it you could basically just tell looking. at it that it was a ghost ship and Chuck. Chuck before we go into detail I say.

that we take a break what do you think. oh an early break okay okay let's do it. suspenseful early break. [Music].

all right so like you said when they uh. floated up to this thing they could tell. that something was aai there was clearly. no activity on the boat there was no. steam coming from the engines no smoke. uh they said does someone want to go. check and see what's going on with that. thing and everyone said not me not it. not it and there was one guy that was. eating some SE rations looked up and. went what so he went aboard uh and what.

he found supposedly were people on Deck. uh Frozen in place with their fearful. looks on their faces their eyes wide. open their mouth stretched and like they. were screaming even a dog in mid snarl. all Frozen immediately I thought of. another pop culture thing this. referenced did you see this season's uh. this year's True Detective uh night. country I think so right I tried to and. I I couldn't make it past the first.

episode oh God it was so good dude I. know you said that and I just I didn't. see it well maybe you should have. watched more than the first episode well. that's what I'm saying I didn't see it. coming I didn't see the Contours of it. being great I actually was like can't. watch this in your mind's eye he didn't. see how it could have been good possibly. after that no and believe me I know. stuff I can figure stuff. out well uh it was did you see enough to. see the the influence here for night. country when that in episode one yeah I.

think it was in episode one where they. show up and yeah it's it's a similar. thing sure yeah was part the thing part. orang Madan I think for sure yeah well. put oh you want me to take over so I. also saw TV critic I also saw that um. the people all of the corpses were. described as having their arms. outstretched as if they were trying to. fend off some unseen something uh but. there was no trace of anything on the. ship that would have suggested what had. happened to this crew and the do.

and um they hooked up I guess a tow line. from the Silver Star to the orang Madan. and they started to tow it but before it. could get um anywhere the thing caught. fire and actually blew up and so any. trace of the orang Madan and its mystery. sank to the bottom of the Straits of. Mala and became enshrined in Sea. shanties from that moment on that's. right but was this even a real ship at. all no uh we're not going to take a. break and find out we're going to talk.

about it right. now yeah I guess we should have done it. like that sure oh it's fine it it seems. like this probably was completely. fabricated uh there's never been a. shipping record of that vessel uh no. like living human ever came forward and. said hey this like I was that person. eating the sea rations that got shoved. aboard this thing um there were also. depending on when the article uh came. out there were varying details that were. different which is always sort of a.

giveaway that it could be fabricated. yeah um yeah I mean the fact that. there's like different dates different. locations that kind of stuff it's at the. very least that things been embellished. as we understand it today um and there. is a researcher named Estelle Hargraves. who found the first mention of this. story all the way back in 1940 a good. seven or eight years before the story. supposedly took place yeah uh this was. during World War II um and that it was a.

British merchant ship not an American. ship that that came to help out um but. the thing that does you know bear. resemblance to the following stories was. that there was um the ship exploded and. there was no trace of any thing or any. evidence that could have explained what. happened yeah this one was kind of fun. because I was on uh Reddit looking at. some like theories and stuff just for. fun and someone said hey I think I've. figured this thing out.

um like everybody knows this is probably. a hoax but I think I've actually got the. paper trail and and figured out who this. was and I was like oh interesting and I. started to read it it was Estelle hard. Graves on Reddit oh really yeah it was. that researcher I was like oh okay well. that makes sense so so what' she say how. what was what's the explanation well. it's the same explanation that we have. here oh uh which is it's laid at the. feet of one single person um not just. like oh a bunch of people that like kind. of made up this lore. uh it was actually uh at least Estelle.

has has put it out that it's uh a. reporter named Sylvio um Shirley s h r l. i and wrote this thing in 1940 and then. wrote about it again in 1948 as. supposedly the first time that it had. happened which is and you know it was. the same name so it had to be the same. person okay so I guess he's the he's the. culprit. right well it seems like it well okay so.

there were some other parts to this. story um that sherley added uh there was. a 1948 Dutch Indonesian newspaper called. their. locomotif um and this was the one where. we get the story as we kind of recognize. it today but one of the extra things. that gets left off these days is that. there was one Survivor from uh the orang. Madan um who washed upon the shore of. one of the Marshall Islands was found by. a missionary and told the the story of.

that this the ship was actually carrying. um illicit cargo that's why no one can. ever find any any record of the ship. it's because they didn't want to be. found and that the cargo sulfuric acid. or nitrog glyc glycerin or something. either um like off gas and killed the. crew or blew the ship up or both that's. right and this missionary supposedly. told this story to that writer Sylvio. sherley uh it's interesting that this.

article says like no one can be sure. that it was Shirley who made the 1940. report but I think this is old because. uh online like this uh Estelle har. Graves posted like screenshots of the. actual 1940 articles with his name yeah. but everybody knows she's always headed. out for Sylvio sherley. so can that be trusted in this day and. age of deep fakes and Ai and stuff yeah. that's a good point uh but it seems like. it didn't even exist at all and it maybe.

was this like writer writing about it a. couple of times and embellishing it even. more the second time to see if it gets. more steam I don't know yeah full steam. ahead so um do you want to hear a little. interesting tidbit a little app pendum. by the way no one knows if this is true. but it's almost certainly not and if it. is it's it's it has taken on some shapes. where you can barely recognize the. actuality of it or pick it out but um we. based this off of how stuff works. article on it.

correct correct I went among other. things right I went and read an. additional article on all things. interesting including some others but in. the all things interesting article it. referenced the house of Works article. that this was based on Ergo the universe. will collapse on itself. soon amazing uh Chuck said amazing I'm. not going to press my look so I'm just. going to end this now short Stu is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart Radio.

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