The legendary northbound steamer that Decoud and Nostromo were to intercept seems now to have vanished from the novel. Possibly its course runs outside the Gulf, beyond the range of a dinghy, but the interception was always vaguely defined, and in retrospect the whole plan seems primarly a panicked attempt to keep the silver from Montero regardless of its destination. The chief engineer hinted as much to Charles Gould last chapter , and certainly that's how Gould thinks of it later. If so, it adds force to Nostromo's sense of exploitation.