"J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" is an 1884 short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. It is in the form of a first-person testimony by a survivor of the Marie Celeste, a fictionalised version of the Mary Celeste , a ship found mysteriously abandoned and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. Doyle's story was published anonymously in the January 1884 issue of The Cornhill Magazine .
The story popularised the mystery of the Mary Celeste . Doyle drew heavily on the original incident, but some of the fictional elements that he introduced have come to replace the real events in the popular imagination. Doyle changes a number of details, including the names of the captain, crew, and passengers, and also the name of the vessel, from Mary Celeste to Marie Celeste. [1] [2] In the story, the ship is in an almost perfect state when discovered, and the lifeboats are still present, whereas the Mary Celeste had been in heavy weather and was waterlogged, and her one boat was missing.
The fictional story reached a much wider audience than the original story of the Mary Celeste, which has led to the widespread belief that Marie Celeste was the name of the real ship. [3] The change to the ship's name possibly was accidental, since Doyle did not change the name of the Dei Gratia, the ship that salvaged the Mary Celeste. [4]
The protagonist, Jephson, is a white American doctor. He explains that he was wounded while fighting for the Union during the American Civil War and was nursed back to health by an elderly black woman, who was aware of his abolitionist work before the war. As a way of thanks, she gave him a small, carved, black stone, which she claimed was a lucky charm that had been in her family for many generations, and that it would keep him from harm.
Eleven years later, Jephson develops a severe cough and is advised by a specialist to visit Europe, where the clear air might cure him. In Boston, he books passage to Lisbon on the merchant ship Marie Celeste. Seven crew and three passengers (Jephson, an accountant named Harton, and a man of mixed race named Septimius Goring), as well as the captain's wife and child, are listed on the ship's manifest.
The account then takes the form of Jephson's diary.
As the ship prepares to depart, two experienced crew members fail to return from shore leave, and the captain has to recruit two black sailors who happen to be on the quay to replace them. Jephson notes that the ship's cook is black, and that Goring employs a black servant who is not listed on the manifest.
Six days into the voyage, the captain's family disappears without a trace. The following day, the captain is found dead of a gunshot wound, which Jephson suspects was an act of suicide. His first mate Hyson takes charge as the new captain. These tragedies are followed by a series of unusual incidents, and Jephson and Harton become increasingly suspicious of Goring. Goring and the two black sailors learn of Jephson's lucky charm and take a great interest in it.
Eventually, the ship approaches land. Jephson, Harton, and Hyson expect it to be the coast of Portugal, but soon realise that they have instead travelled to the coast of Africa. Hyson believes his navigational instruments have been tampered with and decides to turn around and sail north to Lisbon. When night falls, Goring, his servant, the cook, and the two black crewmen seize Jephson and tie him up, having already killed Harton. After Goring sends signals to the shore, a large canoe manned by black Africans approaches the ship. They climb aboard and overpower the remaining crew members.
Then, further discussion occurs of the stone that Jephson is carrying, after which Goring tells Jephson that his life will be spared because the Africans believe the stone to have magical powers. While Jephson is taken ashore, the rest of the white crew are murdered, and their bodies dumped into the sea. The ship - the Marie Celeste - is left to drift out to sea, where it is eventually discovered by another merchantman, the Dei Gratia.
Jephson is taken to a temple, where the lucky charm is revealed to be an ear from a giant stone idol. This causes the Africans to worship Jephson as the bearer of the missing ear, and he is treated with reverence, although he clearly remains a prisoner. During the night, he is visited by Goring, who explains the history and significance of the statue and the stone ear. He also reveals himself to be a former slave responsible for the murders of several affluent whites as revenge for the suffering his family endured at their hands. It is revealed that he was responsible for throwing the captain's family overboard to their deaths and tampering with the navigational equipment. He now wishes to use the stone as a means to gain power over the tribe and in doing so shed his former identity as a freedman and become a "pure" African along with his conspirators from the ship.
To Jephson's shock, Goring explains that he does not want to kill him, but instead help him return home. Jephson has become a rival for the tribe's devotion and stands in the way of Goring becoming the chief. Killing him would only anger the tribesmen, and Goring makes it clear he has renounced killing. In exchange for his life, Jephson is instructed to teach the Africans that Goring is a divine saviour who outwitted the white race for twenty years and will leave them to return to heaven. Jephson honours his end of the deal and is given a boat to sail out to sea. After a few days, Jephson is picked up by a passing steamer and returns to his home and family.
The story was first printed anonymously in The Cornhill Magazine in January 1884 under the title "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", illustrated by William Small. It has been reprinted a number of times. The Boston Herald reprinted it on 3 April 1885, [5] and it was anthologised in Dreamland and Ghostland (1887), [6] The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (1890) [7] and Tales of Pirates and Blue Water (1922). [8]
The story was first published anonymously, and one reviewer attributed it to Robert Louis Stevenson, while critics compared it to Edgar Allan Poe's work. Though fiction, it was presented as an eyewitness account of the end met by those on the mysterious "ghost ship". Much to Doyle's astonishment, some mistook the story to be a true account, including the Boston Herald , [5] which reprinted the tale.
William Kidd also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in New York City. By 1690, Kidd had become a highly successful privateer, commissioned to protect English interests in North America and the West Indies.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1884.
Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and franchise. An early iteration of Sparrow was created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, but the final version of the character was created by actor Johnny Depp, who also portrayed him.
Mary Celeste was a Canadian built, American-registered merchant brigantine that was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azorean islands on December 4, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition under partial sail and with her lifeboat missing. The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and was still amply provisioned when found. Her cargo of alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.
Captain Hector Barbossa is a fictional character of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, appearing in all five films in the series. Starting out as a villainous undead skeleton in The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Barbossa dies at the end of the film. However, the character is revealed to have been resurrected and brought back from the dead by Tia Dalma by the end of Dead Man's Chest, and has since appeared in anti-heroic roles. Captain Hector Barbossa was one of the nine Pirate Lords in At World's End (2007), a privateer in service to King George II and the British Navy while also seeking revenge against Blackbeard in On Stranger Tides (2011), as well as a rich rogue and influential leader of a prosperous pirate empire and fleet in Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). Throughout the series, Barbossa has been conceptualized as a "dark trickster" and the evil counterpart of Captain Jack Sparrow.
A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, as well as drifting boats that have been found after breaking loose of their ropes and being carried away by the wind or the waves.
Benjamin Spooner Briggs was an experienced American seaman and master mariner. He was the captain of the merchant ship Mary Celeste, which was discovered unmanned and drifting in the Atlantic Ocean midway between the Azores and the coast of Portugal on December 4, 1872. The lifeboat was missing, yet the Mary Celeste was still under sail. Briggs, his wife Sarah and their two-year-old daughter Sophia Matilda were never found and were presumed lost, along with the crew of Mary Celeste.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra is a fictional giant rat, first mentioned by Arthur Conan Doyle in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". As part of the tale, the protagonist, Sherlock Holmes, declares that there is a "story" connected with this rat, presumably a detective case he has handled. The name of the rat and its implied unpublished history were later used in works by many other writers.
Ras Nouadhibou is a 60-kilometre (37 mi) peninsula or headland divided by the border between Mauritania and Western Sahara on the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is internationally known as Cabo Blanco in Spanish or Cap Blanc in French.
The Cornhill Magazine (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London. In the 1860s, under the editorship of William Makepeace Thackeray, the paper's large circulation peaked around 110,000. Due to emerging competitors, circulation fell to 20,000 by 1870. The following year, Leslie Stephen took over as editor. When Stephen left in 1882, circulation had further fallen to 12,000. The Cornhill was purchased by John Murray in 1912, and continued to publish issues until 1975.
Time Passages is the eighth studio album by Al Stewart, released in September 1978. It is the follow-up to his 1976 album Year of the Cat. The album, like 1975's Modern Times and 1976's Year of the Cat, was once again produced by Alan Parsons. The album's title track and "End of the Day" were both co-written by Peter White. The title track also reached #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for 10 weeks.
The Abel Fosdyk papers is an apocryphal explanation of the fate of the Mary Celeste, which was presented on its original publication in 1913 as true but which is most likely a literary hoax.
Events from the year 1884 in the United Kingdom.
The Mystery of the Mary Celeste is a 1935 British mystery film directed by Denison Clift and starring Béla Lugosi, Shirley Grey and Arthur Margetson. It is one of the early films from Hammer Film Productions.
Spider-Man and Zoids was a comic book series by Marvel UK that was a tie-in with the toys of the same name. The comics anthology included reprints of Spider-Man stories and an original series of Zoids tales. Spider-Man and Zoids is notable for featuring early work by Grant Morrison, including the epic and apocalyptic Black Zoid storyline.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Dei Gratia was a Canadian brigantine built in Bear River, Nova Scotia in 1871. The brigantine was named after the Latin phrase for "By the Grace of God". She became famous in 1872 when, under the command of David Reed Morehouse, she discovered the ghost ship Mary Celeste without any crew near the Azores. They were 400 miles (640 km) east of the Azores on 5 December 1872. Morehouse and his crew took the derelict Mary Celeste to Gibraltar and claimed the brigantine as salvage. They were at first subjected to suspicion by Gibraltar's Attorney General, but the Vice Admiralty Court later approved their salvage prize and commended the crew for their resourcefulness and courage. The hefty court expenses of the extensive probe reduced the salvage compensation, which was originally set at roughly $8,300. Only a sixth of the money was really paid.
Lost Voyage is a 2001 supernatural thriller directed, edited and co-written by Christian McIntire that debuted as a Sci Fi Pictures TV-movie on the Sci Fi Channel.
Richard Glover was a pirate and slave-trader active in the Caribbean and the Red Sea in the late 1690s.
