WELSHPOOL, AUSTRALIA—According to a report in The Guardian, the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Indian Ocean has revealed two nineteenth-century ships, about 20 miles apart, some 1,400 miles off the southwest coast of Australia. Tests of samples of coal recovered from both wreck sites suggest the vessels had traveled from Britain. The first ship was found in splinters, in a debris field of coal, as if it sank after an explosion. A large, rectangular metal object at the site has been identified as a water tank. Records of coal ships lost during the nineteenth century are incomplete, but researchers suggest the wooden ship may be the brig W Gordon, which had been traveling to Australia from Scotland when it disappeared in 1877, or the barque Magdala, which was lost in 1882 while sailing from Wales to Indonesia. The second wreck, found sitting upright on the seabed, is thought to have been made of iron and to have had at least two decks. This ship may be the barque West Ridge, which sank in 1883. “These are the deepest wrecks so far located in the Indian Ocean, they’re some of the most remote shipwrecks in the world,” said Ross Anderson of the Western Australian Museum. To read about the investigation of another shipwreck, go to “Is it Esmeralda?”