The otherworldly ship on which the narrator finds himself may evoke the legendary ghost ship, the "Flying Dutchman". A number of critics have argued that the story's ending references the Hollow Earth theories propounded by John Cleves Symmes, Jr. and Jeremiah N. Reynolds. Symmes and Reynolds proposed that the planet's interior was hollow and habitable, and was accessible via openings at the two poles. The idea was considered scientifically plausible during the early 19th century. Poe also incorporated Symmes' theories into his later work "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (1838), his only novel. "Pym" bears a number of similarities to "MS. Found in a Bottle", including an abrupt ending set in the Antarctic.