# Quotations in the report (for comparison AFTER blind transcription) ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: Silvio Scherl-Scherli, "Il mistero dell'«Ourang-Medan»", Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto, 16 Oct 1940, p. 3, transcribed from the page image [S1]; the same text in L'Illustrazione Italiana, 8 Dec 1940, p. 846 [S7]. The AP cable above is a close translation of this; the Dutch text of 1948 keeps the Italian word "medico" inside its "English" radio message (section 4). ORIGINAL: «S.O.S. de Ourang-Medan pse SW DH medico urgent», che tradotto in lingua chiara vuol dire: «S.O.S. del piroscafo Ourang-Medan, preghiamo navi con installazioni onde corte ottenerci urgente consulto medico». […] Dopo qualche minuto l'«Ourang-Medan», con l'apparecchio ausiliario, rispose: «Probabilmente secondo ufficiale morto, altri membri dell'equipaggio pure uccisi. Annullate consulto medico. S.O.S. urgente assistenza nave guerra. S.O.S. lat… long… punto stimato. Equipaggio ha…». E qui improvvisamente la comunicazione cessò del tutto dileguandosi con una serie di punti e di linee senza alcun significato ed inintelligibili. TRANSLATION: "S.O.S. de Ourang-Medan pse SW DH medico urgent", which in plain language means: "S.O.S. from the steamer Ourang-Medan; we beg ships with short-wave installations to obtain us an urgent medical consultation." […] After a few minutes the Ourang-Medan, on its auxiliary set, replied: "Probably second officer dead, other members of the crew also killed. Cancel medical consultation. S.O.S. urgent assistance warship. S.O.S. lat… long… estimated position. Crew has…" And here the communication suddenly ceased altogether, dissolving into a series of dots and dashes without any meaning, unintelligible. ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: Leekster courant, 24 Jan 1948, p. 1 [S13]. De locomotief, 3 Feb 1948, p. 3, prints the same paragraph without the Elsevier credit [S14]. ORIGINAL: Een raadsel van de zee… Sinds de muiterij op de „Bounty" en de ondergang van de „Titanic" is zelden een zo onverklaard en onverklaarbaar voorval vermeld, als het drama aan boord van de „Ourang Medan", het grote vrachtschip, dat, volkomen onbeschadigd, in de Stille Oceaan werd aangetroffen met een dode bemanning. Het enige authentieke ooggetuigenbericht over deze mysterieuze catastrofe volgt hier — maar een verklaring geeft het niet — de oplossing van het raadsel kent niemand, aldus een verslaggever van „Elsevier's Weekblad". TRANSLATION: A riddle of the sea… Since the mutiny on the Bounty and the loss of the Titanic, seldom has so unexplained and inexplicable an event been recorded as the drama aboard the Ourang Medan, the great freighter found, completely undamaged, in the Pacific Ocean with a dead crew. The only authentic eyewitness account of this mysterious catastrophe follows here, but it gives no explanation; nobody knows the solution of the riddle, says a reporter of Elsevier's Weekblad. ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: Leekster courant, 24 Jan 1948 [S13]; identical in De locomotief, 3 Feb 1948 [S14]. "Westerbreedte" (west latitude) is an impossibility that no editor corrected. ORIGINAL: Wij voeren midden Juni 1947 ongeveer 400 zeemijlen Zuidoostelijk van de Marshall eilanden, toen wij van de „Ourang Medan" op de 600 metergolf dit radiobericht ontvingen: „S.O.S. from ship ourang medan stop pse ships with SW get urgent DH medico stop". […] „SOS van de „Ourang Medan" 20 gr. Westerbreedte 179 gr. Oosterlengte stop Wij drijven stop tweede officier dood op de brug stop kapitein en hoofdmachinist dood in kaartenkamer stop waarschijnlijk gehele bemanning overleden stop deel der bemanning…" […] Alleen twee woorden kwamen nog door: „Ik sterf… Ik sterf". TRANSLATION: In mid-June 1947 we were sailing about 400 nautical miles south-east of the Marshall Islands when we received from the Ourang Medan on the 600-metre band this radio message: "S.O.S. from ship ourang medan stop pse ships with SW get urgent DH medico stop". […] "SOS from the Ourang Medan 20° west latitude 179° east longitude stop We are drifting stop second officer dead on the bridge stop captain and chief engineer dead in chartroom stop probably whole crew dead stop part of the crew…" […] Only two words still came through: "I die… I die". ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: Leekster courant, 24 Jan 1948 [S13]. The "pre-war listing" is the story's only gesture at a register; the 1948 sequel says outright that such ships "are no longer listed in Lloyd's Register". ORIGINAL: Aan bijzonderheden vonden wij een vooroorlogse opgave, dat de „Ourang Medan" een vrachtschip van ruim 5000 ton was, met één schoorsteen, veertig jaar oud en in die veertig jaar zeker wel tienmaal van naam en vlag en reder verwisseld. Tussen 1935 en 1937 had het met vier houten slaapdekken in de ruimen gevaren als Chinees transportschip. […] Overal lagen lijken. Er lag ook een dode hond. En het verschrikkelijkste was de krampachtige houding der doden, terwijl hun gezichten een afschuwelijke angst uitdrukten: mond en ogen waren wijd opengesperd, alsof zij van ontzetting gestorven waren. TRANSLATION: For particulars we found a pre-war listing that the Ourang Medan was a freighter of over 5,000 tons, with one funnel, forty years old and in those forty years surely changed name, flag and owner ten times. Between 1935 and 1937 she had sailed as a Chinese transport with four wooden sleeping decks in the holds. […] Corpses lay everywhere. There was a dead dog too. And the most terrible thing was the convulsed posture of the dead, while their faces expressed a hideous fear: mouths and eyes were wide open, as if they had died of horror. ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: De locomotief, 28 Feb 1948, p. 2 [S16]; the same wording, per Paijmans, stood beside the Elsevier instalment of 14 Feb 1948 [S15]. ORIGINAL: Het heeft enige tijd geduurd, alvorens wij van de schrijver van „Ourang Medan", het verhaal over de mysterieuze ondergang van een schip in de Stille Oceaan, het vervolg van zijn verhaal ontvingen. De auteur, Silvio Scherli, vertoeft thans te Triëst. Hij verzekert, voor de authenticiteit van dit verhaal in te staan. Daar wij over generlei verdere informatie dan die, welke in deze vervolgartikelen vervat is, beschikken, moeten wij met de persoonlijke verzekering van de auteur volstaan. — Red. Loc. TRANSLATION: It took some time before we received from the writer of "Ourang Medan", the story of the mysterious loss of a ship in the Pacific Ocean, the continuation of his story. The author, Silvio Scherli, is at present staying in Trieste. He assures us that he vouches for the authenticity of this story. As we have no information whatever beyond what is contained in these serial articles, we must make do with the author's personal assurance. — Editors, De locomotief. ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: De locomotief, 13 Mar 1948, p. 2 [S18]. ORIGINAL: Hiernevens volgt het slot van het verhaal van de „Ourang Medan". De ontknoping geeft ons aanleiding te herhalen, dat ons omtrent dit „raadsel van de zee" geen andere gegevens ten dienste staan. Op de vele in dit relaas onopgeloste vragen kan geen antwoord worden gegeven. De conclusie ligt voor de hand, dat het ganse verhaal een fantasie, een boeiende romance is. Hiertegenover staat de verklaring van de auteur, Silvio Scherli, te Triëst, die in zijn verzekering omtrent de authenticiteit volhardt. TRANSLATION: Alongside follows the conclusion of the story of the "Ourang Medan". The dénouement gives us cause to repeat that we have no data on this "riddle of the sea" other than these. The many questions left unresolved in this account cannot be answered. The obvious conclusion is that the whole story is a fantasy, an engaging romance. Against this stands the statement of the author, Silvio Scherli, in Trieste, who persists in his assurance of its authenticity. ## QUOTE BLOCK — cite: Il Prefetto della Provincia di Trieste, decree printed in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, 4 Oct 1930, no. 232 [S38]. The 1926 decree-law is the Fascist measure for the "restitution in Italian form" of the surnames of Trieste and Istria. ORIGINAL: Veduta la domanda presentata dal sig. Silvio Scherk fu Giuseppe, nato a Trieste il 29 aprile 1901 e residente a Trieste, corso Garibaldi n. 13, e diretta ad ottenere a termini dell'art. 2 del R. decreto-legge 10 gennaio 1926, n. 17, la riduzione del suo cognome in forma italiana e precisamente in « Scherli »; […] Decreta: Il cognome del sig. Silvio Scherk è ridotto in « Scherli ». TRANSLATION: Having seen the application presented by Mr Silvio Scherk, son of the late Giuseppe, born at Trieste on 29 April 1901 and resident at Trieste, corso Garibaldi 13, seeking under article 2 of Royal Decree-Law no. 17 of 10 January 1926 the reduction of his surname to Italian form, namely "Scherli"; […] Decrees: the surname of Mr Silvio Scherk is reduced to "Scherli". ## SOS BLOCK — source: Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council, vol. 9 no. 5 (May 1952), p. 107, unsigned editorial "We Sail Together" [S23]. "S. O. S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers, including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *." … "I die." ## SOS BLOCK — source: Yorkshire Evening Post, 21 Nov 1940, p. 5, Associated Press, dateline Trieste [S4]. Transcribed from the clipping images published by Estelle Hargraves in 2015. "S O S from the steamship Ourang Medan. Beg ships with short wave wireless get touch doctor, urgent." "Probable second officer dead. Other members crew also killed. Disregard medical consultation. S O S urgent assistance warship." "crew has …" ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 1. "Le ultime notizie · Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto, pag. III, Mercoledì 16 Ottobre 1940 - Anno XVIII": the headline of the first printing anywhere. Archivio storico Il Piccolo, page image [S1]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 2. The second of the two photographs, captioned "L'«Ourang-Medan» sta per inabissarsi", the Ourang-Medan about to sink. The same two pictures illustrate the Milan reprint of December 1940 and the Semarang reprint of February 1948 (figures 11b and 11c), where they depict an event of June 1947 [S1]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 3. The ending and the byline. "Del mistero dell'«Ourang-Medan» non restava che una collezione di fotografie, molte delle quali passate in esclusività alla Marina da guerra americana a cui incombe il non facile compito di risolvere l'enigma": of the mystery nothing remained but a collection of photographs, many of them passed exclusively to the American Navy, "on which falls the not easy task of solving the riddle" [S1]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 4. L'Illustrazione Italiana, vol. 67 no. 49, p. 846: the Trieste text reset in the national illustrated weekly with the same photographs. Internet Archive, item RAV0070589_1940_00049 [S7]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 5. Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto, Wednesday 5 February 1941, p. 3: "Light on the mysterious end of the steamer Ourang Medan. The discovery of a survivor of the tragic ship, saved by the natives of an island of Malaysia." Archivio storico Il Piccolo [S9]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 6. The sequel's opening, datelined "VITI LEVU (Figi), 5" and set as news, with the survivor's account: "Partimmo da Singapore, con un carico di 2500 casse il cui contenuto non era precisato sulla polizza di carico o meglio era falsato, diretti ad un porto occidentale dell'Australia. Il comandante era pure proprietario della nave", we sailed from Singapore with a cargo of 2,500 cases whose contents were not stated on the bill of lading, or rather were falsified, bound for a port in western Australia; the captain was also the owner of the ship [S9]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 7. Daily Mirror, Friday 22 November 1940, p. 11: "Crew Dies In S O S Mystery", ending "A ship of the British Merchant Marine was first to arrive on the scene. — Associated Press." The rescue party's officer spoke "yesterday", 21 November 1940. Page image: Internet Archive, item daily-mirror-fri-nov-22-1940 [S5]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 8. The China Mail, Hong Kong, 27 February 1941, p. 8: the same AP text three months later, the ship still "off the Solomon Islands, in the Pacific Ocean". Page image: Internet Archive, item NPCM19410227 [S10]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 9. Leekster courant, "Nieuwsblad voor Westerkwartier en Noordenveld", Saturday 24 January 1948, vol. 3 no. 4. A four-page weekly from Leek in the province of Groningen, digitised by the Groninger Archieven and published on Delpher on 9 July 2024. Delpher identifier MMRHCG04:235133008:mpeg21:a00006 [S13]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 10. The opening of the Leekster courant article, page 1, column 4. The fourth sentence credits the source: "aldus een verslaggever van 'Elsevier's Weekblad'". The text that follows is word for word the one De locomotief printed in Semarang ten days later. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 11a. De locomotief (Semarang), Tuesday 3 February 1948, vol. 96 no. 128, p. 3. Delpher ddd:010862872:mpeg21:a0050 [S14]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 11b. One of the two photographs that travelled with the story from 1940 onwards: "…op de commando-brug vonden wij de 2de officier. Ook hij was dood en niets verried waaraan hij was gestorven" (on the bridge we found the second officer; he too was dead and nothing betrayed what he had died of). Paijmans found the same picture in Il Piccolo 1940 and 7 Jours 1940; Brooks (1948) reports the suspicion that the man "looked like" someone shot in the back. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 11c. "Het uitgebrande wrak van de 'Ourang Medan' kort voordat het naar de bodem van de Oceaan zonk, zijn geheim medenemend" (the burnt-out wreck shortly before it sank, taking its secret with it). A photograph of an unidentified capsized ship, obtainable in wartime Trieste, as Paijmans notes. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 12a. De locomotief, 28 February 1948, p. 2, the editors' box ("Red. Loc."). Delpher ddd:010862918:mpeg21:a0035 [S16]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 12b. De locomotief, 13 March 1948, p. 2: "Fantasie of Realiteit?" and the editors' conclusion. Delpher ddd:010862945:mpeg21:a0036 and a0038 [S18]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 13. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1947, Steamers and Motorships, entry 89171: "Santa Juana (ex Silver Star-47, ex Santa Cecilia-46)", Grace Line Inc., New York. The only Silver Star in the legend's period had lost the name before the Register went to press in mid-1947. Internet Archive item HECROS1947ST, leaf 1407 [S32]. ## FIGURE CAPTION Figure 14. Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d'Italia, 4 October 1930, no. 232: "Il cognome del sig. Silvio Scherk è ridotto in « Scherli »". Internet Archive, item 19301004_232 [S38]. ## INLINE QUOTATIONS (in order of appearance) - ]){ --bg:#0E141A; --surface:#161E26; --ink:#E3E8EC; --muted:#9AA8B2; --rule:#2C3944; --accent:#E2574B; --sea:#6FB2D2; --sea-soft:#1B2E38; --accent-soft:#3A1F1C; --tag:#E5CF8A; --tag-soft:#2F2A17; --shadow:0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.4); } } :root[data-theme= - ,sans-serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.55;padding-block:0 4rem;padding-inline:clamp(16px,4vw,40px)} .page{max-width:76ch;margin:0 auto} h1,h2,h3,h4{font-family: - ,Georgia,serif;font-size:1.35rem;font-style:italic;color:var(--muted);margin:.9rem 0 0;text-wrap:balance} header.masthead .meta{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:.4rem 1.6rem;margin-top:1.2rem;font-size:.9rem;color:var(--muted)} .verdict{margin:2rem 0 0;background:var(--surface);border-left:5px solid var(--accent);padding:1.4rem 1.5rem;box-shadow:var(--shadow)} .verdict .word{font-family: - ,Menlo,monospace;font-size:.9rem} .toc{margin:1.6rem 0 0;font-size:.95rem;columns:2;column-gap:2rem} .toc ol{margin:0;padding-left:1.3rem} .toc li{break-inside:avoid;margin-bottom:.25rem} @media (max-width:560px){.toc{columns:1}} .sos{font-family: - ,Menlo,Consolas,monospace;font-size:.9rem;background:var(--surface);border:1px solid var(--rule);padding:.9rem 1.1rem;margin:0 0 1rem;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1.5} .sos .src{display:block;font-family: - ,system-ui,sans-serif;font-size:.82rem;color:var(--muted);margin-top:.5rem} .quote{display:grid;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr;gap:1rem 1.4rem;margin:1rem 0 1.2rem;padding:1rem 1.1rem;background:var(--surface);border:1px solid var(--rule)} .quote .orig{font-family: - ,ui-monospace,Menlo,monospace;font-size:.86em;word-break:break-all} .timeline{list-style:none;padding:0;margin:1rem 0 0;border-left:2px solid var(--rule)} .timeline li{position:relative;padding:0 0 1.1rem 1.4rem} .timeline li::before{content: - ;position:absolute;left:-7px;top:.5rem;width:12px;height:12px;border-radius:50%;background:var(--sea);border:2px solid var(--bg)} .timeline li.acc::before{background:var(--accent)} .timeline .when{font-family: - , 1939, in the South Pacific. The Associated Press cabled it from Trieste to the British press in November 1940. In January 1948 Scherli sold the same story again to the Dutch weekly Elsevier's Weekblad , now as a first-person eyewitness account of June 1947, and the Dutch editors printed it with the warning that they had nothing but - and that the obvious conclusion was - . Everything that later made the tale sound documentary was added by other hands: the Strait of Malacca by an American Sunday supplement in October 1948 and the US Coast Guard's house magazine in 1952, the date - taking her secret with her - S. O. S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers, including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *. - Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council, vol. 9 no. 5 (May 1952), p. 107, unsigned editorial - [S23]. The American ship Silver Star found her drifting, boarded her, and saw the crew - ; even the ship's dog was dead. Fire broke out in No. 4 hold, the boarding party fled, the ship exploded and sank. Cargoes of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerine, carbon monoxide from the boilers, nerve gas, and - have all been proposed. The Coast Guard item names no source and no rescue ship; the Silver Star is not in it at all. 2. Why the verdict Five findings carry the weight. Each is tied to a checkable source in section 11 . 2.1 The - eyewitness account had already been published in 1940 The earliest printing anyone has found is Scherli's own article in Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , the Trieste evening paper, on 16 October 1940 [S1]. The Associated Press picked the story up in Trieste five weeks later. The Yorkshire Evening Post of Thursday 21 November 1940 printed it under the dateline - an eye-witness account of the last phase of a mysterious sea tragedy - by a merchant marine officer who went to the rescue of the steamer Ourang Medan off the Solomon Islands last November - S O S from the steamship Ourang Medan. Beg ships with short wave wireless get touch doctor, urgent. - Probable second officer dead. Other members crew also killed. Disregard medical consultation. S O S urgent assistance warship. - S.O.S. de Ourang-Medan pse SW DH medico urgent - S.O.S. from the steamer Ourang-Medan; we beg ships with short-wave installations to obtain us an urgent medical consultation. - Probably second officer dead, other members of the crew also killed. Cancel medical consultation. S.O.S. urgent assistance warship. S.O.S. lat… long… estimated position. Crew has… - radio message (section 4). The French weekly 7 Jours of 29 December 1940 gives the date and place precisely: - à 200 milles au sud-est du groupe des îles Salomon - le torpilleur américain n° 716 - à l'aube, le torpilleur américain arriva - La notte del 13 novembre 1939 a circa duecento miglia a sud-est del gruppo delle Salomone mentre si navigava verso il canale di Panama - una torpediniera americana e precisamente la «W 716» - midden Juni 1947 ongeveer 400 zeemijlen Zuidoostelijk van de Marshall eilanden - , the explosion from a hatch that ends the search, the night-long fire and the morning sinking. What changed is the year (1939 to 1947), the place (Solomons to Marshalls, 1,300 nautical miles apart), the body count (12 to 22), and the additions of a dead dog, a wireless operator dead at his key, and the words - , that the obvious reading was fiction (section 4, figures 11 and 12). The American Sunday supplement that carried the story to millions of readers in October 1948 added that the Dutch editor - [S21]. 2.3 Every detail that makes the story checkable was added later by someone else The Strait of Malacca enters only with Win Brooks's - , the month of the Dutch reprints, while copying Brooks's - (ex Silver Star-47, ex Santa Cecilia-46) - 20 gr. Westerbreedte 179 gr. Oosterlengte - the island of Taongi, belonging to the Marshall Islands - in 1940, an anonymous British merchant ship in the AP cable, an anonymous ship with an Italian officer in 1948, and the Grace Line's Silver Star in 1954. The dead number 12 - in 1940 and 22 in 1948. In the 1940 AP version the rescue ship relays the call and - , a wartime-Trieste touch for an event supposedly off the Solomon Islands. Scherli's own versions disagree with one another. The SOS is heard on - il giorno 19 novembre 1939 - and the first deaths fall on - ; the explosion comes from - in 1948; the 1941 sequel is datelined - under a headline that has the survivor saved by - …sul ponte di comando trovammo il corpo del secondo ufficiale… - L'«Ourang-Medan» sta per inabissarsi - una torpediniera americana e precisamente la «W 716» - l'anno prima trasportava un carico di forzati dall'Inghilterra all'Australia - ; the closing line: of the mystery - . seen page image and text layer, figures 1 to 3 [S1]. 26 Oct 1940 Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , p. 3, the editors' note above the second of Scherli's - , dated 21 April 1939): the first, - è stato riprodotto da tutti i giornali del Regno e sarà pubblicato pure negli Stati Uniti e sui giornali di altri Paesi - L'affare della Geo W. Macknight - as its source. reported [S2, S3]. 21 Nov 1940 Yorkshire Evening Post , p. 5, - , Associated Press, dateline Trieste; incident - . seen from clipping images [S4]. 22 Nov 1940 Daily Mirror , p. 11, - , AP. seen page image, figure 7 [S5]. 8 Dec 1940 L'Illustrazione Italiana , Milan, vol. 67 no. 49, p. 846, - , signed Silvio Scherl-Scherli: the Trieste text reset with the same two photographs. seen page image, figure 4 [S7]. 29 Dec 1940 7 Jours (Lyon), no. 13: - . snippet Gallica full-text search [S8]. 5 Feb 1941 Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , p. 3, unsigned, set as a wire report under the dateline - Luce sulla misteriosa fine del piroscafo «Ourang Medan». Il ritrovamento di un superstite della tragica nave salvato dagli indigeni di un'isola della Malesia - con un carico di 2500 casse il cui contenuto non era precisato sulla polizza di carico o meglio era falsato - , four men dead patching - with a torch, rats pouring from the holds, - , three Malay companions dying in the boat; the Governor's inquiry finds a clandestine consignment of - numerose casse di acido solforico - strand is here, sixteen weeks after the first article and seven years before the Dutch sequel. seen page image, figures 5 and 6 [S9]. new 27 Feb 1941 The China Mail , Hong Kong, p. 8, verbatim AP reprint. seen page image, figure 8 [S10]. 7 Sep 1941 7 Jours , no. 45, - : the French version of the 5 February sequel ( - morts asphyxiés, un par un - Sir Harry Charles Luke, gouverneur anglais des îles Fidji - Brand in Luik IV. Raadselachtige ondergang van de Ourang Medan - Mysterie, dat de zee nimmer zal prijsgeven - aldus een verslaggever van Elsevier's Weekblad - on the Wednesday evening (from a radio broadcast) that the Dutch motor ship - Elseviers Weekly, last January - . seen [S21]. 31 Oct 1948 L'Illustrazione del Popolo , Ennio Garieri. reported [S22]. 27 May 1950 Revista da Semana , Rio de Janeiro, - narração de Silvio Scherli - , the dog, no source. Checked the issues of March to December 1952 and January to March 1953: no correction or letter. seen [S23]. Jun 1953 Fate , Robert V. Hulse, - , citing the Proceedings. reported [S25]. 1954 Otto Mielke , Das Totenschiff in der Südsee. Dampfer - (Anker-Hefte, Moewig, Munich), 32 pp.: SOS on 27 June 1947 received by the City of Baltimore and the Grace Line's Silver Star ; survivor - landed on Taongi; cyanide and nitroglycerine. First appearance of the Silver Star . reported [S26]. 7 Jan 1955 Amigoe di Curaçao summarising the Dutch weekly Panorama : still - , cargo now potassium cyanide. seen [S27]. 1955 to 1959 M. K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO (1955); Frank Edwards, Strangest of All (1956), who cites - Dutch and British radio centers - rescue craft from Sumatra and Malaya - . seen [S28, S29]. 1965 to 1999 Vincent Gaddis, Invisible Horizons (1965), citing only the Proceedings; Bainton, - , Fortean Times 125/126 (1999), who imports the Silver Star and City of Baltimore from Mielke via Theodor Siersdorfer of Essen. seen [S30, S31]. Figure 1. - : the headline of the first printing anywhere. Archivio storico Il Piccolo, page image [S1]. Figure 2. The second of the two photographs, captioned - , the Ourang-Medan about to sink. The same two pictures illustrate the Milan reprint of December 1940 and the Semarang reprint of February 1948 (figures 11b and 11c), where they depict an event of June 1947 [S1]. Figure 3. The ending and the byline. - : of the mystery nothing remained but a collection of photographs, many of them passed exclusively to the American Navy, - [S1]. Figure 4. L'Illustrazione Italiana , vol. 67 no. 49, p. 846: the Trieste text reset in the national illustrated weekly with the same photographs. Internet Archive, item RAV0070589_1940_00049 [S7]. Figure 5. Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , Wednesday 5 February 1941, p. 3: - Archivio storico Il Piccolo [S9]. Figure 6. The sequel's opening, datelined - and set as news, with the survivor's account: - , we sailed from Singapore with a cargo of 2,500 cases whose contents were not stated on the bill of lading, or rather were falsified, bound for a port in western Australia; the captain was also the owner of the ship [S9]. Figure 7. Daily Mirror , Friday 22 November 1940, p. 11: - A ship of the British Merchant Marine was first to arrive on the scene. — Associated Press. - , 21 November 1940. Page image: Internet Archive, item daily-mirror-fri-nov-22-1940 [S5]. Figure 8. The China Mail , Hong Kong, 27 February 1941, p. 8: the same AP text three months later, the ship still - Nieuwsblad voor Westerkwartier en Noordenveld - aldus een verslaggever van 'Elsevier's Weekblad' - …op de commando-brug vonden wij de 2de officier. Ook hij was dood en niets verried waaraan hij was gestorven - someone shot in the back. Figure 11c. - (the burnt-out wreck shortly before it sank, taking its secret with it). A photograph of an unidentified capsized ship, obtainable in wartime Trieste, as Paijmans notes. 4.1 The eyewitness instalment (Elsevier's Weekblad 17 January; Leekster courant 24 January; De locomotief 3 February 1948) Een raadsel van de zee… Sinds de muiterij op de „Bounty - is zelden een zo onverklaard en onverklaarbaar voorval vermeld, als het drama aan boord van de „Ourang Medan - op de 600 metergolf dit radiobericht ontvingen: „S.O.S. from ship ourang medan stop pse ships with SW get urgent DH medico stop - 20 gr. Westerbreedte 179 gr. Oosterlengte stop Wij drijven stop tweede officier dood op de brug stop kapitein en hoofdmachinist dood in kaartenkamer stop waarschijnlijk gehele bemanning overleden stop deel der bemanning… - . In mid-June 1947 we were sailing about 400 nautical miles south-east of the Marshall Islands when we received from the Ourang Medan on the 600-metre band this radio message: - SOS from the Ourang Medan 20° west latitude 179° east longitude stop We are drifting stop second officer dead on the bridge stop captain and chief engineer dead in chartroom stop probably whole crew dead stop part of the crew… - . Leekster courant, 24 Jan 1948 [S13]; identical in De locomotief, 3 Feb 1948 [S14]. - (west latitude) is an impossibility that no editor corrected. Aan bijzonderheden vonden wij een vooroorlogse opgave, dat de „Ourang Medan - is the story's only gesture at a register; the 1948 sequel says outright that such ships - . 4.2 The sequel and the disclaimers (Elsevier's Weekblad 14 and 28 February; De locomotief 28 February and 13 March 1948) The second instalment abandons the rescue ship for a lone survivor: a lifeboat reaches - , where a Franciscan missionary nurses a dying, nameless castaway for five days and writes down his story. He had signed on at Shanghai, without papers, under a captain who did not give his real name; the ship, - , loaded 15,000 crates from camouflaged huts in a Chinese river mouth, bound supposedly for Costa Rica and then Panama for scrapping. On the fifteenth day rats poured out of the bunker, the crew sickened with yellow eyes and stomach pains, the second officer died on the bridge, and the captain went below cursing - . The third instalment produces the captain's papers, a passport - , and a pro-forma invoice for - , with the note that the nitroglycerine must not be stowed with the sulphuric acid and that - . The narrator, the first mate, leaves in the one lifeboat with six men; the wireless operator stays aboard - . Beside each instalment the editors printed a box. Figure 12a. De locomotief , 28 February 1948, p. 2, the editors' box ( - ). Delpher ddd:010862918:mpeg21:a0035 [S16]. Figure 12b. De locomotief , 13 March 1948, p. 2: - and the editors' conclusion. Delpher ddd:010862945:mpeg21:a0036 and a0038 [S18]. Het heeft enige tijd geduurd, alvorens wij van de schrijver van „Ourang Medan - . De ontknoping geeft ons aanleiding te herhalen, dat ons omtrent dit „raadsel van de zee - . The dénouement gives us cause to repeat that we have no data on this - had sunk, shows the serial being retold on the radio as though it were news [S19]. The last instalment ( - , De locomotief 13 March 1948) settles the survivor's fate. He is a nameless German first mate signed on at Shanghai; the captain's papers show a passport - 15,000 cases and drums of sulphuric acid, nitroglycerine in liquid form and other chemicals - begraven bij de oude palm op het kerkhof achter het missiegebouw - [S24]. No Alfred Schutzwald, no Father Christ and no Taongi mission can be found anywhere. 5. The registers and the casualty returns Earlier investigators reported - or variant in any volume. OCR controls present in every volume (Paketvaart, Batavia, Deli, Van Heutsz, Plancius; - Santa Juana (ex Silver Star-47, ex Santa Cecilia-46) - : nothing in 1940 to 1949; the first Singapore mention is a Straits Times feature series of 2022. - Santa Juana (ex Silver Star-47, ex Santa Cecilia-46) - 200 miles south-east of the Solomon Islands - , twelve dead of a crew of at least forty, the explosion in hatch two, a former convict transport from England to Australia, photographs - 16 Oct 1940 Scherli, Il Piccolo, reset in L'Illustrazione Italiana and translated in 7 Jours [S1, S7, S8]; the AP text keeps - a ship of the British Merchant Marine - were falsified on the bill of lading - ; rats; deadly fumes; a clandestine cargo of nitroglycerine, potassium cyanide and sulphuric acid; the ship now - 5 Feb 1941 Scherli's unsigned sequel in Il Piccolo, datelined Viti Levu [S9]; in French in 7 Jours, 7 Sep 1941, with a real governor's name added [S11]; reworked in 1948 as a German mate confessing to a Franciscan on Taongi, with 15,000 cases of sulphuric acid and nitroglycerine loaded in China [S16, S18] the 1940 versions Date - 400 miles south-east of the Marshall Islands - , first-person narrator (the fire in - of 1941) 17 Jan 1948 Scherli, Elsevier's Weekblad [S12]; reprinted Leekster courant and De locomotief [S13, S14] every printing before 1948 Scherli named as author; - een fantasie, een boeiende romance - Ourang Medan means Man of Medan - down the Strait of Malacca - Dutch circles in Africa were disturbed - Lloyd's says: For the moment it has us sunk as well - frozen faces upturned to the sun … horrible caricatures - May 1952 Unsigned editorial, Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council [S23]; the 50 miles and the dog are Brooks's, hold no. 4 is Scherli's own since 1941; - is the month of the Dutch sequels Brooks (who keeps the Pacific and June 1947) - rescue craft from Sumatra and Malaya - 1953 to 1956 Hulse in Fate; Frank Edwards, Strangest of All [S25, S28] the Proceedings The rescue ships Silver Star (Grace Line) and City of Baltimore ; SOS on 27 June 1947; survivor - landed on Taongi 12 July 1947; cyanide and nitroglycerine 1954 Otto Mielke, Das Totenschiff in der Südsee, a 32-page pulp booklet without sources [S26]; into English via Siersdorfer and Bainton, 1999 [S31] every English text 1940 to 1998, including Gaddis 1965 - We know that he lived in Trieste at some time, but other than that Scherli did not leave much of a trace - Il cognome del sig. Silvio Scherk è ridotto in « Scherli » - ; […] Decrees: the surname of Mr Silvio Scherk is reduced to - . Il Prefetto della Provincia di Trieste, decree printed in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, 4 Oct 1930, no. 232 [S38]. The 1926 decree-law is the Fascist measure for the - of the surnames of Trieste and Istria. What the records give, in order: 1901 to 1930. Silvio Scherk, son of the late Giuseppe, born Trieste 29 April 1901, resident at corso Garibaldi 13, had his surname reduced to Scherli by the Prefect of Trieste; the decree is printed in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 4 October 1930 [S38]. The 1934 city directory's index of changed names has - [S39]. The identification with the journalist rests on the first name, the city and the age at death (83 in March 1985) and is very probable rather than proven. seen 1933. L'Illustrazione Italiana of 15 January 1933 carries - , signed Silvio Scherl; Il Piccolo of 5 February 1933 notes that - was publishing illustrated travel pieces in the Milan weekly and in La Scena Illustrata [S43]. A travelling photographer, seven years before the Ourang-Medan photographs. seen 1940 to 1941. - , the pre-decree and post-decree forms joined, signs - that followed it in Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto : the - mutiny (26 October), the yacht - (16 November), the Titanic (23 November), - (1 January 1941, the Canadian ship named in the Ourang-Medan's first paragraph), the Ourang-Medan sequel (5 February) and - (24 April) [S1, S6, S9, S41]. Readers doubted them at once. On 27 November 1940 the editors answered a reader from Gorizia who had asked for the author's age and photograph: - , the paper does not print its writers' photographs, and - [S43]. seen for 16 and 26 October, 27 November and 5 February; the other titles reported from the 2024 blog. 1943. Married Gabriella Zanini at San Giusto on 11 September 1943, the witnesses his brother, - , and a Captain Diodato Belohradsky; the civil-register column of 1 October 1943 gives his trade: - , merchant-navy radio officer [S43]. seen . It is the trade the 1940 text betrays: a distress call in operators' abbreviations ( - ), the 600-metre band, an auxiliary set, - for dead reckoning, and the real radio-medical services of the day, Rome's Centro Internazionale Radio Medico and the German - service through Elbe-Weser Radio. The 2024 blog adds, from Ancestry crew lists we could not open, that he was radio operator of the liners Conte di Savoia and Conte Grande in 1935 and Rex in 1938, and of the tanker Esso Pittsburgh in 1954 and 1955 [S41]. reported 1950. - , Il Piccolo , 30 December 1950: still at sea, still sending the paper dramas of the sea [S43]. seen 1952 to 1954. The 1952 directory lists - , and at largo Barriera Vecchia 16 the widow Anna Scherli and - [S39]. On 25 February 1954 he wrote from that address, on letterhead - , to Paul Hahn, president of the American Tobacco Company in New York, as - , offering for 780 dollars his - on lung-cancer deaths in Italy, Germany, Austria and other countries; the company's reply of 26 March referred him to its London office. Both letters are in the tobacco-industry archive at the University of California, San Francisco [S40]. seen 1958 to 1985. A photograph of the Nagasaki peace statue credited - our research indicates this tragedy did happen - Lloyd's says: For the moment it has us sunk as well - lines are unattributed colour in a Sunday supplement that also asserts sea lore about ships named for men; and the photographs show a man face down on an unidentified bridge and an unidentified capsized hull. Scherli's own 1948 sequel pre-empts the register check by having the survivor explain that ships of this kind - did not leave much of a trace - from crew lists. The often-repeated claim that he wrote about the ship again in Export Trade in 1959 rests on a misreading of a trade report on the port of Trieste. The earliest open-archive Dutch printing. The Leekster courant of 24 January 1948 with its explicit credit to Elsevier's Weekblad , and the April 1948 item in De schalmei that treats - tied to the printing that introduced it (section 6), in particular the derivation of the Coast Guard editorial of May 1952 from Win Brooks's Sunday-supplement text of October 1948 by shared wording, the observation that its - ; the identification is probable, not proven. Method. No paywall or bot gate was bypassed. Where a source could not be opened it is marked - . Reported by Paijmans 2021 [S37]; ANNO is gated; not seen. Yorkshire Evening Post , Thursday 21 November 1940, p. 5, - , Associated Press, dateline Trieste. British Newspaper Archive viewer bl/0000273/19401121/132/0005 (paywalled); transcribed from the clipping images in Hargraves 2015 [S42]. Daily Mirror , Friday 22 November 1940, p. 11, - , Associated Press. Internet Archive item daily-mirror-fri-nov-22-1940 ; page image, figure 7. Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , 26 October 1940, p. 3, editors' note above - . Archivio storico Il Piccolo, issue 19401026, page 3, text layer. Silvio Scherl-Scherli, - , L'Illustrazione Italiana (Milan), vol. 67 no. 49, 8 December 1940, p. 846. Internet Archive item RAV0070589_1940_00049 , leaf 51; figure 4. 7 Jours (Lyon), no. 13, 29 December 1940, - . Gallica ark:/12148/bpt6k32533027 ; confirmed through the ContentSearch API (full-text pages are gated). - , Il Piccolo delle Ore Diciotto , Wednesday 5 February 1941, p. 3. Archivio storico Il Piccolo, issue 19410205, page 3; page PDF and image saved; full transcription in the project files; figures 5 and 6. The China Mail (Hong Kong), 27 February 1941, p. 8, - . Internet Archive item NPCM19410227 ; figure 8. 7 Jours , no. 45, 7 September 1941, - . Gallica ark:/12148/bpt6k32533346 ; ContentSearch snippets; further details from Butziger 2013 (bermudatrianglecentral.blogspot.com, - , November 2013) and Paijmans 2021. Elsevier's Weekblad (Amsterdam), 17 January 1948, p. 16, - ; 14 February 1948, p. 4; 28 February 1948, p. 19. Not digitised; reported by Paijmans 2021 [S37] and known from the reprints S13, S14, S16, S18. Leekster courant (Leek), Saturday 24 January 1948, p. 1, - . Delpher MMRHCG04:235133008:mpeg21:a00006 ( view ); figures 9 and 10. De locomotief (Semarang), 3 February 1948, p. 3, - . Delpher ddd:010862918:mpeg21:a0033 to a0036 ( view ); figures 11a to 11c. Editorial box of Elsevier's Weekblad , 14 February 1948, as reprinted in S16 and quoted by Paijmans 2021. De locomotief , 28 February 1948, p. 2, - , with the editors' box. Delpher ddd:010862945:mpeg21:a0036 and a0038 ( view ); figures 12a and 12b. De schalmei (Amsterdam), vol. 19 no. 4, April 1948, p. 57. Delpher MMKB14:002764008:mpeg21:00011 ( view ). De locomotief , 13 March 1948, p. 2, - . Delpher ddd:010862872:mpeg21:a0050 and a0051 ( view ). De West (Paramaribo), 16 April 1948, p. 3, - . Delpher ddd:110637081:mpeg21:a0047 ( view ). Obersteirische Volkszeitung (Leoben), 24 July 1948. Reported by Paijmans 2021; not seen. Win Brooks, - , The American Weekly , 3 October 1948 (Atlanta Constitution edition, Internet Archive item the-american-weekly-1948-10-03-dn-lg-ia) and 10 October 1948 (Albany Times-Union and others, item the-american-weekly-1948-10-10-darwin-ia ). Transcription in the project files. Ennio Garieri, - , L'Illustrazione del Popolo (Turin), 31 October 1948, p. 5. Reported by Paijmans 2021; not seen. - , unsigned editorial, Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council , United States Coast Guard, vol. 9 no. 5, May 1952, p. 107. Coast Guard PDF via the Wayback Machine: Vol9_No5_May1952.pdf . Issues of March 1952 to March 1953 checked for corrections and letters: none. Wolf Kneip, - , Revista da Semana (Rio de Janeiro), 27 May 1950. Internet Archive item 1950-maio . Robert V. Hulse, - , Fate , June 1953. Reported (Skeptoid 2020, Paijmans 2021); not seen. Otto Mielke, Dampfer - . Das Totenschiff in der Südsee , Anker-Hefte 1, Moewig, Munich 1954, 32 pp. Reported (Bainton 1999, Paijmans 2021; listed in the Deutsches Bücherverzeichnis); not seen. Amigoe di Curaçao , 7 January 1955, p. 2, - . Delpher ddd:010404481:mpeg21:a0051 ( view ). M. K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO (1955), Varo edition, Internet Archive item THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup; Frank Edwards, Strangest of All (1956), - Returns of Ships Totally Lost, Broken Up, &c. - Death Ship: The Final Voyage of the Ourang Medan - (anonymous blog), August 2024, tragedies-of-the-sea.blogspot.com . Cites Ancestry crew and passenger lists we could not open. Estelle Hargraves, - , The Skittish Library , 29 December 2015, skittishlibrary.co.uk ; Brian Dunning, - , Skeptoid 756, 1 December 2020, skeptoid.com ; Wikipedia, - (English, German, French, Italian, Dutch), article and talk-page histories; CNBC Indonesia, 2025, feature quoting the Leekster text. Il Piccolo (Trieste) on the Internet Archive, items Piccolo_1933-02-05 (travel writings of Silvio Scherl), Piccolo_1940-11-27 (editors' reply), Piccolo_1943-09-12 (marriage notice), Piccolo_1943-10-01 (civil register, - ), Piccolo_1950-12-16 and Piccolo_1950-12-30 (the - Scherli's report on Trieste