SS Ourang Medan

All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told...

This article is about The Dark Pictures Anthology's first installment, Man of Medan .

The SS Ourang Medan is an abandoned WWII freighter lost in South Pacific Ocean. The area serves as the main location in which key events of The Dark Pictures Anthology's first installment, Man of Medan, take place.

Overview[]

The SS Ourang Medan is a large frigate-type warship designed to transport military cargo, including equipment, supplies, etc. It has several cargo holds and quarters for accommodating several hundred people during long voyages, including bunk rooms, bathrooms, laundries, kitchens, mess rooms and sick bays. Designed as a cargo ship, the Ourang Medan is not equipped with many weapons, having only anti-aircraft guns.

Abandoned for 72 years following the death of the entire crew, the Ourang Medan was left in disrepair. The ship is significantly damaged and rusted by natural influences, with some areas leaking or completely flooded, especially the lower levels. The entire ship is filled with the corpses of former passengers and a chemical fog that has never been weathered from the ship.

History[]

In 1947, in the post-war period, the SS Ourang Medan transported a special cargo - a chemical called "Manchurian Gold" - from Manchuria, China to San Francisco, US. Trying to conceal the existence of the Manchurian Gold because of its top-secret nature, the ship sailed a different route and hid all evidence indicating that they were carrying chemicals. The ship also carried a pair of coffins, which contained the bodies of men from Sergeant Jones' platoon. However, information about the contents of the boxes was kept secret from the crew.

Several days later, the Ourang Medan was caught in a violent storm. The lightning struck the ship and hit the crates with Manchurian Gold, causing it, after making a contact with water and electricity, to evaporate and spread as a mist across the ship. The first to be affected by the chemical was Private Wagner, who suddenly became aggressive toward his crewmates before jumping overboard. This forced the ship to anchor, as well as call for help as they went off course and got lost.

Eventually, the entire crew began to go insane with fear and die, killing each other or suffering a heart attack. During the commotion, a B-29 rescue plane, which responded to the distress call, arrived but was immediately shot down by one of the hallucinating soldiers, John Patterson, and crashed not far from the ship. After some time, the entire crew died and Ourang Medan became a ghost ship, left to drift forgotten in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the next few decades.

Events of Man of Medan[]

1947[]

The SS Ourang Medan first appears in the 1947 prologue, where the tragedy of the ship is told on behalf of two comrades, Joe and Charlie. Awakened at night by the noises outside, they begin to investigate the suspiciously empty ship, finding many corpses along the way. Upon reaching Cargo Hold 2, the two (already armed) separate and face paranormal threats. As a result, Charlie and Joe die (unknowingly killing each other) and with the death of the remaining passengers, the deserted Ourang Medan continues to drift in the ocean.

2019[]

72 years later, in 2019, the Ourang Medan is accidentally found by a group of friends (Alex, Brad, Conrad, Julia and Fliss) and trio of pirates (Olson, Junior and Danny) using the coordinates that the five found while diving for the wreck. Already aware of the existence of Manchurian Gold and believing it to be actual gold, the pirates board the ship, taking the protagonists as their hostages.

Though the five successfully escapes from the pirates, trying to find the way out, each of them encounters supernatural beings haunting them throughout the ship which could lead to some protagonists accidentally killing each other. Having survived all the dangers and found enough evidence, they come to the conclusion that all the supernatural happenings on the ship are actually hallucinations caused by Manchurian Gold, which is the name for the chemicals that killed everyone in 1947.

Uncovering the mystery behind the tragedy of the SS Ourang Medan, the friends put all their efforts into escaping the ship by calling the military with a radio while keep trying to retrieve the distributor cap for their boat, the Duke of Milan. Eventually, the surviving protagonists escape from the ship, saved or killed by the military or left stranded aboard the ship, doomed to suffer the fate of the past crew.

Ship Plan[]

Decks[]

There are six decks on the ship:

Weather Deck - The outer deck equipped with anti-aircraft guns and helipad.
Bridge Deck - The bridge with control and communication rooms.
Upper Deck - The deck mainly designed for soldiers' housing.
Main Deck - The deck designed to serve the soldiers.
Purification Deck - The deck equipped for seawater desalination.
Lower Deck - The deck entirely designed to working with engines.

Cargo Holds[]

There are five known cargo holds on the ship:

Cargo Hold 1 - A hold located in Main Deck.
Cargo Hold 2 - A hold located in Upper Deck, next to Cargo Hold 3.
Cargo Hold 3 - A hold located in Upper Deck, next to Cargo Hold 2.
Cargo Hold 3A - Section of Cargo Hold 3 located in Main Deck.
Cargo Hold 4 - The only hold never visited in the game.

Trivia[]

The freighter was inspired by the real legend of the SS Ourang Medan, an alleged "ghost ship" with the same story behind as the ones represented in the game.
The word "Ourang" means "Man" in Malay (the same translation has the word "Orang" in Indonasian) while "Medan" is the capital of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Thus, the literal translation of the ship is "Man of Medan", which is the game's title.
The ship has been identified as an American Liberty-Class freighter from the distinctive model.
As revealed in Ghost Story and Distress Signal, the Ourang Medan was originally located at 31°34'45.89 "S 139°23'40.31 "W (which is also the same location where the real ship was found), but by 2019 it had moved to 12°30'S 150°20'W.
In one of the variations of Flooded, the cargo hold ends up in flames, referring to the fate of a real ship that was blown up and sunk in the ocean.
In Switchback VR, the SS Ourang Medan is called the Haunted Shipwreck.