Story embroidered

With regard to the article “Death Ship” about the Ourang Medan [ FT402:32-37]: The World’s Greatest Ghosts by Roger Boar and Nigel Blundell (Hamlyn 1986) has a page about this ship which contains some additional ‘information’. For instance, it states that the first ship to reach the Ourang Medan arrived within three hours of receiving the distress call. It also quotes one of the crew of the rescue ship as saying: “Sharks were surging around the hull, and it looked like every shark in the Bay of Bengal had homed in on her, knowing there was death aboard”. It also mentions that the ship’s dog was found dead with its paws in the air and “fangs bared”. According to this report, the rescue crew only just had time to get back to their own ship and cut the towline after discovering a fire onboard. The Ourang Medan then exploded, and, in a vengeful detail, “... even killed some of the hungry sharks”. No references are given for any of this, and the Ourang Medan was not, by any definition a ‘ghost’. Rather fittingly though (maybe), the next case discussed in the book is the Mary Celeste.

Norman Darwen

Lostock, Greater Manchester