It is a ghost town in the Namib desert, in Southern Nabia, it was named after Johnny Coleman, a transport driver, who, during a sandstorm abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. It was a small but rich mining community however, it now a tourist sight ran by a joint firm Namibia-De Beers.
In 1908, Zacharias Lewala, a worked found a diamond and showed it to his supervisor and after miners from Germany settled there because it was rich in diamonds. At its height it was producing around 11.7% of the world’s diamond production. A town sprang up around it in 1912 was built with amenities such as a hospital, ballroom, power station and school. It was a prosperous place in its time. The town was built in the German architectural style and had a railway linked to nearby Lüderitz.
After the First World War the town declined around the 1920’s as supplies of diamonds began to deplete and in 1954 or 1956 (depending on the source) they ultimately abandoned the town. The residents went south to try and get their chance on the next area with a supply, with many residents leaving possessions behind in their haste to chase the new money venture. The new area meant that instead of hard mining they could be scouted on the beaches.
Destination Truth investigated the town during rumours of it being haunted, it seems that the abandoned town keeps many interested. Tourists now need a permit to engage and enter the town, Kolmanskop is now being claimed back by the desert and so walking around tourists will find themselves knee deep in sand, but it is still very popular. It has been used as filming location and photographed widely, as it creates some very unique images thanks to it’s location and geography.
Drive South Africa- it mentions that there is a house just outside of Windhoak, Liebig House that has also been abandoned for about 30 years at the time of their article where people have reported ghosts and hearing spirits in the hallway of the house, but I cannot find anything else about it.
norwayhertiage.com, https://www.thedarkpictures.com/, wikpedia (English and German versions), Fortean Times monthly magazine, Proceedings of the Merchant Maritime Council, The Mammoth Book of Unexplained Phenomena by Roy Bainton (2013), Ripleys.com, de173.com, strangeremains.com, skittishlibrary.co.uk
Back in 2014 I visited this mystery with a quick overview. This mystery ship was meant to have burnt down, a fire breaking out on board and the sole witness was there, he took photos and then he and his crew watched from their own ship as it burnt and sank, down into the bottom of the ocean. I thought it would be interesting to revisit this with a little more detail, and an interest revived having skimmed a recent copy of Fortean Times.
January 1948, ‘Mystery Demise of the Ourang Medan’ was an article in the Elseviers Weekblad, a Dutch Weekly newspaper. It had two photographs, a ship on its side and a crewman dead on the floor with no face showing, as the evidence, along with the witness report. The English report was in 1952 as a handed down rumour. The author has claimed, in the Dutch Paper, to have been 400 nautical miles southeast of the Marshall Islands, in mid Jine 1947. The author, Silvio Scherli, said their vessel got a radio message and an SOS Signal from Ourang Medan. The dramatic description says that the morse code seemed very confusing, but they managed to make out “I am dying” from the garbled words and letters.
The next day they got there and the ship was drifting with no signs of life on bard. A small group of sailors boarded and were confronted with dead corpses, fear on their faces from some terror they had witnessed as they died. There were no signs of blood, or any violence and then they located the radio operator, still wearing his headset, the wires moving along with the rocking ship and his fists clenched, all adding to the dramatic tale.
Suddenly, a fire broke out and the crew that had boarded were forced to abandon it. The author says that no one on their ship could sleep that night so they stood and watched the burning ship until it finally sank into the Pacific Ocean.
So after this, two more instalments came, it mentioned a survivor, a Franciscan missionary from Taongi Atoll, reported that a man had washed ashore, dying a few days later, he had apparently relayed to a clergyman his story about the events on the Ourang Medan. He told them about a dodgy port, about mystery cargo and about a Chinese Port. It was sounds very creepy doesn’t it as the monk says that 15 days into the journey the disaster struck and the crew dropped dead in terror.
In the third instalment they gave up more of this odd tale, with 15,000 cases of sulphuric acid, nitro-glycerine in liquid form and other chemicals that had all been stored onboard. The swaying of the vessel has caused ruptures and vapours around the ship. The author said they were not allowed to release the man’s real name, he was a German buried by the old palm in the cemetery at the mission.
After this the story got repeated around, and there were a lot of questions!
Silvio Scherli, in Trieste, persisted in the story’s validity. This seems such a fantastical tale, but the red flags didn’t deter reporters. An American publication “apparently told by an Italian officer, on a ship that had answered the Ourang Medan’s distress call,” said the editor couldn’t help any further, they had brought the story and that was the end of that.
In 1952 the US Coastguard visited the mystery and in 1954 German author, Otto Mielke, published a 32-page booklet on the matter, giving his own retelling of the version. Let’s look at “Das Totenschiff in der Südsee” – The Death Ship of the South Sea. The story as built up from the three-part series in the Dutch Easter Indian Daily, but it relays that the Ourang Medan sent an SOS call and a radio call to a doctor at the same time, the call was relayed by both the City of Baltimore and American steamer, Silver Star, giving co-ordinates and announced their position. The connection to the radio died, they reconnected and that’s where they got “I’m dying”, the City of Baltimore vessel had a doctor onboard and carried on that way also.
28th June 1947 the Ourang Medan was spotted, no flag set and no sign of smoke from her chimney. This is when the Silver Star crew go aboard, and find all the crew to be dead, in Mielke’s version all the bodies were of Asian people. It once again is about the terror of the deceased, visible on their faces and in this re-telling there are several explosives forcing the crew off their mystery find.
12th July, 1947 a lifeboat washed ashore on Taongi Island, where 6 of the 7 passengers had died. The survivor he calls Jerry Rabbit, who goes on to describe various transport information to various places for the dubious cargo. The chemical angle is used once again for the whole thing.
So the booklet became part of the ‘truth’ for information in retelling it all. UFO’s were then also brought forwards for explanation, and CH March Jnr wrote to the CIA in 1959, “something from the unknown” might be involved.
So what can be established?
Roy Banton (The Mammoth book of Unexplained Phenomena, 2013) searched through Llyod’s Shipping Register, he visited the shipping registers in Amsterdam and came up empty handed. He also came across a German researcher, Theodor Siersdorfer, who had found no mention of the vessel in 45 years. Also depending on the source it is either a steamer or a freighter, two very different uses.
This story has been used for varying fictional works, including a Russian version by Lev Skyragin called Voice of the Sea in 1973. So what else? 7 Jours, French magazine, made a conclusion of its own, the death ship was not from 1947 but from a decade before that. 13th November 1939 it was found by an American Destroyer but there seems to still be no mention of the ship’s name there to confirm this.
Another suggestion notes the vessel may have been registered in Sumatra as “man from Medan”, I found nothing concrete about that. The Silver Star is a registered vessel – Grace Line Ship List – Santa Cecilia #3, it was renamed Santa Juana in 1947, then scrapped later.
January 20th, 1855, SS City of Baltimore, Inman Line, was launched and was sold in 1874 and renamed “Fivaller” and scrapped in 1885. City of Baltimore ships after that? I found the SS City of Baltimore and she beached in the Upper Cheapsake Bay on 29th July 1937 but she was later broken up, she had been set on fire a decade before.
Theo Paijman’s, Dutch writer, summarised that it seems more likely Silvio Scherl-Scherli had a template to sell to various newspapers and magazines. The publications and submissions all lasted 8 years and if anyone sounded sceptical, he would just double down with his reassurances. As he rightfully points out the photograph of the dead man could have been easily staged and photos of a listing ship would not be that hard to get hold of during the period.
To support this theory I also think skittish library has found another great point about this, Yorkshire Evening Post 21st November 1940 and other newspapers. If it was 1947 when it happened either everyone was psychic or the original version just didn’t sell well enough? They also list it as Solomon Islands but the same ship name, and then in the newest version the same ship name but at Marshall Islands, quite a way off from one another and in both tales, both era’s the Trieste report came in. So there we have it?
“All officers including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew.”
Was it inspired by the Mary Celeste? It seems that Paijman’s visit into this matter and the skittish library finds, mean it really is a good and reasonable summary, but it’s a shame as I rather like the mystery going unsolved.
The village is the only official ghost town in Poland, it is in the voivodeship of West Pomeranian and abandoned, as of 1993. It was originally a German training ground for a branch of Nazi’s and then after World War II, a base for the Red Army, only existing on Russian Military maps thanks to that. Once they withdrew in 1993 it became vacant.
Originally the area was a small settlement, Westfalenhoft, and in the 1930’s the Wehrmacht planners built a large military base. A polish newspaper from the 1939 reported the numbers of personnel at 600,000. In the Autumn of 1939 the German’s then opened a POW camp at the site, by November 1939 there were 6,000 Polish soldiers and 2,300 Polish civlians. It was renamed to Oflag II D Gross-Born in June, 1940 and was used for French Officers and Polish POW’s from the other camps. Westfalenhoft was eventually taken over by the Red Army in January 1945. It was officially Polish territory but it was occupied and held by the Soviet Union. The Polish were not allowed entry, it was renamed Grodek and the village was not named on Polish maps.
The parts of the base not needed were razed by Red Army servicemen, the base had around 6,000 Russian soldiers. The debris from the village was sent back to Warsaw, used to help rebuild the city. When it was vacated as part of the collapse of the Soviet Union the area was handed back to the Polish. It was guarded by the Polish army for a year, after which it was handed over to civilian authorities.
There was an attempt to sell the area for redevelopment but it did not happen, there were other suggestions like turning it into a drug rehabilitation centre, or perhaps a prison but it’s also worth noting anything of monetary value has already been looted. In 2011 I found reference to five residents but there is no bus route there and the nearest shop is 4km away, so it’s not likely to be a cosy place to stay.
I first came across notes about the area on a show called Stupid Man, Smart Phone. Whilst it is a ghost town it is not abandoned and is regularly visited, and seems to be a tourist spot for some. Have you been?
If, like me, you are a fan of the Dan Bell hotel reviews for bad hotels/motels do you also wonder what review you could leave for discovering a dead body? 1 out of 5 stars, or is that bad taste? Well it all started with a small campfire style story…
A couple book a night away and find the smell in their room to be over-powering and foul. Human beings tend to be quite inquisitive and a search shows up something truly awful… a dead body! Is there any truth to the claims? Well yes, I started with a Snopes article on his and went on to read up from there. So here goes:
13th July, 2003 a news article for WDAF Kansas City TV News (now expired link) says that a man complained about a bad smell and checked out early, after three days. The Capri Motel on Independence Avenue was the location, the cleaning crew then then found a body of an unknown male under the bed. It is thought the wood paneling masked the odour for a period. Police knew his identity but had to notify his next of kin.
In 1999 Saul Hernandez of Queens, New York City was discovered dead, his body had been stuffed under the bed of room 112 of the Burgundy Motor Inn. A German couple managed to sleep there for one night, despite the smell, and it led to the discovery of the dead man when they complained the next day. The County’s Medical Examiner, Dr Hydow Park, concluded that death was due to exsanguination from chest and abdomen stab wounds. A follow-up article in the New York Times states a 17-year-old girl was charged on suspicion of murder.
A slightly different way to report this one, in 1961 Jerry Lee Dunbar was born and sometime around May/June 1989 in Virginia he strangled two women and hid their bodies. Deidre Smith (27) and Marilyn Graham (29) were found murdered and left for guests to discover. Smith was found under the floor of a motel room on Route 1 and Graham under the bed in the Alexandria Econo Lodge (Murderpedia source). Dunbarr waived the rights to a jury trial, he was sentenced having been found guilty of both murders and sent to prison in 1990.
CBS News reported a missing person found dead in a motel room, with a few frightening thoughts about the circumstances. Sony Millbrook reported missing on 27th January 2010, after she failed to pick her children up from school. On 15th March, 2010 homicide police were called to the room of a Budget Motel, Memphis, Tennessee when her body was found in the motel bed frame, she had been living there prior to her disappearance and after her room had been cleaned and rented several times. It had taken 47 days for her to be found and there are suggestions online that reports were made about a bad smell in between.
Lakeith Moody was found guilty of strangling her to death and sentenced to life in prison. Moody was the father of four of Millbrook’s Children and was arrested several weeks later driving her car.
Now don’t go thinking this is all exclusive to the USA either, poor Amphon Kongsong’s body was discovered in a hotel in Pattaya, Thailand. Two teenage boys of 14 years old and 17 years old were arrested for the murder of the transgender woman, the boys from Nakhon Ratchasima were tracked down by CCTV. The two boys had made friends with Amphon but she was apparently aggressive about the 17-year-old vying for sex, the fight turned lethal as he strangled her and the 14-year-old held her legs down.
Having killed her they then stuffed her body under the mattress and a couple of tourists who used the room complaint about the odour, where upon her body was found.
So, if you do get a funky smell in a room have I made you sufficiently paranoid?
The earliest guess for the beginnings of the catacombs in the Ukraine is about the 1600’s. It could be earlier than that but it’s hard to date back as they were also widened later on. They became the giant labyrinth of today when in the early 1800’s the limestone was used from them to build much of the city.
The myriad of tunnels led to it being popular for hideouts, rebels and criminals could use them and during WWII they Soviets were forced out, but were able to leave Soviet-organised Ukranian’s hidden down there. They were able to listen in to the Nazi forces above and set up a situation where they managed to blow up German facilities. It wasn’t all good news as malaria and malnutrition affected those men and women.
The Facist German and Romanians chose random exits, sealing them off and and dropping poisonous gasses down them. When the war was over the criminals claimed the tunnels and created new ones of their own. In 1961 a group was formed, they wanted to map and document the geography and history of the place.
It is common for groups of explorers to go into the area, occasionally people do go missing and if they are in the area the explorers will rally to help. A number of children have been rescued this way but sadly it hasn’t always turned out positive. Old weapon caches and grenades are sometimes found, every five years or so a body is found and on rare occasions they have been naturally mummified there too. Many are old bodies but sometimes more recent accidents have turned up a corpse as well.
A sad example of this occurred 15th January 2005, the local teens were partying in the tunnels. A girl called Masha was separated and lost during the drunken celebrations. For 3 days she walked around in the pitch black and freezing conditions, where she then expired due to dehydration. It was two years later the police located her body and could retrieve it.
There is an official area that can be visited and perhaps given the warnings of lost people and random body finds, I’d recommend going there before being too bold.
By Полищук Денис Анатольевич – Own work, CC BY 2.5, Link
Investigations into the unknown and weird 