75. J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement (1884)

Illustration from Cornhill, January 1884

Welcome to Episode 75. This time, we discuss one of Conan Doyle’s most important and influential early stories, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’, which appeared in the Cornhill in January 1884. 

You can read the story here.

Listen to the episode here:

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD75sn (for all show notes, just replace ‘75’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe. 

Synopsis

There have been many theories forwarded regarding the fate of the brig Marie Celeste, found drifting derelict in December 1873. But one man, Dr. J. Habakuk Jephson, knows the truth because he is the only known surviving passenger. Following service with the Union forces in the American Civil War during which he was badly wounded, Jephson settled down to regular medical practice in Brooklyn. But years of overwork, weak lungs, and the lingering effects of his war wound leave his own doctor to suggest recuperation via a long sea voyage. Unfortunately, the chosen vessel is Marie Celeste, whose passenger list is expanded by the last minute addition of the apparently wealthy Septimius Goring, a man of mysterious and sinister aspect and antecedents. At first, all goes well, until the captain’s wife and child are tragically lost overboard mid-Atlantic, following which the ship appears to be cursed…   

Warning

The story contains racist language and depictions, which we discuss. If this is likely to offend, you may want to skip this episode.

Writing and Publication History

Page 1 the story in Cornhill

‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’ was Conan Doyle’s literary breakthrough. It was written in early 1883, submitted to Cornhill in June and accepted in July. Being printed in a journal he had long admired, and which had published authors such as Stevenson and Thackeray, was a dream for Conan Doyle. The fee, of 29 guineas, also paid his rent at Bush Villas for one year.

Conan Doyle revised the story on the suggestions of the Cornhill’s revered editor, James Payn. Through Payn, ACD entered a literary world that would lead to his introduction to many notable figures, including J.M. Stoddart who would commission The Sign of Four. Cornhill would serialise The White Company in 1891.

The story did not give him fame, as the editorial policy of the magazine was to publish anonymously. This led to one reviewer suggesting the story was authored by Robert Louis Stevenson – another plaudit for ACD.

The story was published in the January 1884 edition of Cornhill. It subsequently appeared in the Boston Herald on 3 April 1885 where it was printed as a true story. It was then anthologised in the unofficial Dreamland and Ghostland (1887) and thereafter ACD’s official anthology The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales (1890). 

We’d like to acknowledge the recent work of Jo-Ann Alberstat, co-editor of Canadian Holmes, who has done much of the recent work on ACD and the Marie Celeste.

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste, c. 1861

The Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship (originally Canadian) that had set off from New York, bound for Genoa in Italy with a cargo of alcohol, on 7 November. The crew included Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their two year old daughter, and a crew of seven. 

A Canadian brigantine, Dei Gratia, captained by David Morehouse, found the Mary Celeste adrift and deserted in the Atlantic ocean, off the Azores, near Portugal, on 4 December 1872. It was said to be seaworthy, under partial sail, but there was no-one aboard and her lifeboat was missing. The last log entry was 25 November, some nine days earlier.

It was often said it was undisturbed but that’s not true. The captain’s sextant and compass were missing, as was the ship’s register. There was 3 feet of water in the hold. The crew left oilskins, pipes, etc. which suggests they left in a hurry.

The Dei Gratia crew declared salvage, and took the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar. The Attorney General, Frederick Solly Flood, accused them of piracy and proposed a farcical version of events which saw the mystery of the Mary Celeste go down in history. In his excellent book Mary Celeste – The Greatest Mystery of the Sea (London: Pearson, 2005), Paul Begg describes Solly Flood as a man "whose arrogance and pomposity were inversely proportional to his IQ."

ACD read about the story when a student at Stonyhurst. He recalled being inspired by it in one his early interviews, ‘A Dialogue between Conan Doyle and Robert Barr’ which appeared in McClure’s in November 1894

ACD changed (or got wrong) several of the details of the case. He placed the incident in 1873 not 1872, he was slightly wrong on the location of its recovery, and he renamed several people – including Captain Briggs who became Tibbs. Critically, he renamed the ship Marie Celeste – a name that has stuck – and changed several of the details of the ship as it was found. 

A good description of the story was provided by Albert Richard Wetjen in his short story ‘The Ship of Silence’, originally published in the July 1932 issue of Blue Book Magazine.

Literary influences

One of the first illustrations
for Treasure Island (1883)

Sea stories are an obvious influence, including those of Clark Russell, Watson’s favourite. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) had only recently been published, and was read by ACD. As for other influences, ACD had read Smollett’s Roderick Random (1748) which contains a violent mutiny at sea. 

In 1893, ACD wrote  another mutiny story in ‘The Gloria Scott’ which riffs off these same influences. He would go on to write ‘The Tragedy of Flowery Land’, a true story about a mutiny, in 1899.

Contemporaries drew comparisons with Edgar Allan Poe, especially 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket', written and published in 1838. Similarly, Poe’s authorship of ‘The Balloon Hoax’ (1844) in the New York Sun. 

The black stone and the West Africa sequence place it in the tradition of the Victorian quest romance of the types written by H. Rider Haggard. 

Other notable works in a similar vein is William Hope Hodgson’s ‘A Tropical Horror’ (1905) and Albert Richard Wetjen’s ‘The Ship of Silence’ (1932), both of which feature sea monsters.

The character of J. Habakuk Jephson 

Jephson is an irritatingly dim narrator who seems to be oblivious to all around him. He is a physician, a specialist in consumption, and veteran of the Union army in the Civil War. ACD gets the dates of the battles wrong, such that Jephson is invalided out before a battle in which he is said to take a part. 

Jephson is saved by a gentleman named Murray who takes him to safety – a direct forerunner of Watson’s orderly Murray who saves him at Maiwand in A Study in Scarlet.

Jephson is the son of a preacher. He is a confirmed abolitionist, and has written a rather generic pamphlet. His character, and that of Septimius Goring, draw on aspects of Henry Highland Garnet, the American abolitionist whom ACD met en-route to West Africa in December 1881 (see later).

Jephson is nursed to health by Martha, a black nursemaid on Murray’s plantation. Of old age, she gives Jephson a carved black stone that resembles an ear for safe keeping. Jephson later has it analysed and understands it to be of meteoric rock and part of a larger statue.

The voyage

Goring appears. Illustration
bu Maurice Toussaint (for
Pierre Lafitte 1913)

The middle third of the story takes place aboard the Marie Celeste on its fateful voyage and takes the form of Jephson’s diary. 

We are introduced to the character of Septimius Goring, a wealthy, mixed-race man from New Orleans. Goring is tall, gaunt and intelligent, but Jephson is repelled by his mutilated hand which has only a thumb. The name may owe something to General Goring, a Royalist general during the English Civil War.

Goring reveals a deep knowledge of navigation and an ability to use compass and sextant to plot the ship’s course, which he tracks on his own maps. He mixes with the black sailors on the ship, which piques Jephson’s interest. These facts together incline Jephson to make Goring a subject of study. The feeling is mutual, as Goring takes an interest in Jephson.

A series of tragedies unfold on the voyage, beginning with the loss of the captain’s wife and son, the captain’s apparent suicide, and then the near death of Jephson when Goring’s gone goes off accidentally.

Meanwhile, Jephson distracts himself reading Montaigne's Essays, which were published in the 1570s and 1580s. Although ACD did not cite them in Through the Magic Door, he alluded to having seen an early copy in Wanderings of a Spiritualist. 

Another passenger, Harton, discovers that Goring has a scrapbook that contains details of unsolved murders across the USA and suspects Goring is an undercover detective on the trail of a criminal. Jephson is not convinced. 

Shortly before landfall, Jephson and Harton have a conversation about the black stone, which Goring overhears. Though Goring claims it is of no value, the black sailors appear to revere it, and are protective of Jephson, it’s owner. 

West Africa

Henry Highland Garnet

The ship reaches land, but it is not Lisbon. Instead, they have arrived at the coast of West Africa, guided there by Goring who reveals his true intent: he has murdered the crew in his revenge on the white race for the horrors they have inflicted on him and his people. He has taken the Marie Celeste to transport himself to West Africa where he intends to set up an independent state. He is hampered by the black stone, which is revealed to be part of a statue on the coast. Unable to kill Jephson, Goring arranges for him to escape by boat, and thus the story ends.

The final section draws on ACD’s experience in West Africa. Between October 1881 and January 1882, ACD (then 22 years old) served as ship’s surgeon aboard the steamship Mayumba, carrying cargo and passengers to and from Madeira and West Africa. He later referred to it as the four most miserable months of his life. 

His diaries make unpleasant reading, revealing the widespread racist views of the period. He had little positive to say about West Africa, and seems to have expressed no interest in learning much while there, instead feeling a revulsion and a strong sense of death about the place. 

Nevertheless, he was pleased to meet Henry Highland Garnet, US Consul to Liberia, who joined the Mayumba in December 1881. They discussed American and English literature, an experience ACD enjoyed and years later recalled favourably in Memories and Adventures. 

Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) was born into slavery in Maryland and escaped with his family when he was seven years old with the help of the underground railroad. He then travelled to New York where he went to a free school, before serving on several voyages. He became a preacher and an abolitionists, and joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s as a supporter of direct action and emigration. It is sad to think that, six weeks after they met, Garnet died of malaria in Liberia.

The Black Stone

The black stone is revealed to be part of the larger black stone, the most sacred relic of the Muslim tradition. Located within the Kaaba in Mecca, the black stone was part of the first temple built by Adam, which was rebuilt by Abraham after the flood, and finally restored by the prophet Mohammed in the seventh century. 

It was famously seen by European visitors who made the Hajj in disguise, including Sir Richard Burton who visited the Kaaba in 1853 and described its appearance. It was probably Burton’s account that served as the source for ACD.

Racism

The story is very clearly rooted in late Victorian racism which also hangs heavy over ACD’s experience of West Africa. Goring’s revenge on the white race is a white horror fantasy, rooted in Imperial Gothic, while Goring himself is a villain straight out of gothic melodrama. At the same time, as Owen Dudley Evans pointed out, ACD puts before his white readership the sins of slave owning and its consequences. ACD would go on to write ‘The Yellow Face’, which positively represents marriage between black and white, and ‘The Five Orange Pips’, which strips away the symbolism of the Ku Klux Klan to reveal its thuggery. But in his treatment of the material, there is a sense that ACD is trying to have it both ways in this story. 

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We return to Sherlock Holmes with the stage play ‘The Crown Diamond’ and its short-story alter-ego ‘The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone’.

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.