Designing Fate

In searching for the wreck of the Australian steamer Elingamite, which was lost on the «Three Kings»—afterwards found to have been incorrectly charted—a diver employed by Lloyd's agent, who was endeavoring to recover the specie sunk in the vessel, came upon the wreck of an unknown steamer that had evidently struck the same rocks many years earlier and had disappeared. The diver reported to the puzzled salvage expert that he had located the Elingamite, and in confirmation of his claim he produced rusty tools brought up out of the sunken steamer. After further diving operations a second steamer was found on the ocean floor, and proved to be the Elingamite. But the identity of the steamer which had been wrecked long years previously on the same rocks was never established. That strangely dramatic discovery, which was recounted by Lloyd's agent to the author suggested the main idea of this story.