On December 11, 1937, the steamship Annagher sank off the coast of Ballymacormick, Ireland. The Court investigation attributed the sinking to “a movement which was rendered inevitable by the peculiar quality of the cargo and its distribution.” The wreck report also expressed puzzlement that, although the time between intial list and capsizing was quick, the crew should have had ample time to make use of the Annagher’s lifeboats, lifejackets, and lifebuoys, and yet did not. Nine of the ten-member crew died in the wreck. In the early spring of 1938, a lump of iron recovered from the hold is sent to Miskatonic University for examination. Where the salvage crew saw nothing but scrap iron, steel, and lead, a scholar at Dublin’s Trinity College thinks she might have stumbled onto something unusual. She has sent it to Dr. Armitage for study, and has invited a team to cross the Atlantic and accompany her as she ventures into the graves of the kings and queens of Erin.
