The Isle of Devils

by Craig Janacek

   Watson continued to indulge his taste for port for many years. We know that he drank a bumper of port at least twice in the recorded cases of the Canon. The first time was when he, Holmes, and Athelney Jones fortify themselves before the river chase (Chapter X, The Sign of the Four), and later he and Homes enjoy a much quieter bottle at the Chequers Inn (The Adventure of the Creeping Man).

   Prussic acid was the common name for hydrogen cyanide. It was a common poison of the Victorian era and beyond, used both for murderous purposes as well as a preferred method of suicide, such as the fortunately averted case of Mrs. Ronder (The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger). Its antidote, inhalation of nitrate of amyl was also used by Dr. Percy Trevelyan to treat catalepsy (The Adventure of the Resident Patient). Aqua tofana was an arsenic-based poison that originated from southern Italy, of which Holmes was quite familiar (Chapter VI, A Study in Scarlet). Fowler’s solution was a tonic of potassium arsenite invented by Dr. Thomas Fowler of Stafford, England in 1786 for treating a wide range of ailments, including malaria and syphilis. It was still in use until the 1950’s.

  CHAPTER VIII: A DARKENING SKY

   Either a great coincidence, or during the span of fourteen years Watson clearly forgot that he used “the Darkening Sky” as a chapter title in this manuscript, as he later claimed that Holmes says it while describing his remarkable escape from Reichenbach Falls (The Adventure of the Empty House).

   So many of Holmes and Watson’s adventures were initiated during stormy weather, and elements of those descriptions are also found in this chapter, such that one wonders if he exaggerated some of those latter storms with remembrances of the great one on Bermuda (e.g. The Five Orange Pips, The Problem of Thor Bridge, & The Adventures of Charles Edward Milverton and the Golden Pince-Nez).

   Watson’s war wounds would ache wearily at every sudden turn of the weather for at least twelve years after Maiwand (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor).

   Watson and Holmes were both fans of hard-boiled eggs for breakfast (The Problem of Thor Bridge & The Adventure of the Retired Colourman).

   Like Watson before his walk about town, Holmes would obsess about the barometer and whether it would rain before he had a chance to explore the grounds where Charles McCarthy met his end (The Boscombe Valley Mystery).

   One method by which we attempted to prove the authenticity of the Bermuda Manuscript was to try to match up the hurricane described with Watson with those known to have affected Bermuda during the year 1880. We almost determined the manuscript was a fake when it became clear that the only hurricane to hit the island that year occurred on August 29. This storm was accompanied by winds of ‘appalling violence,’ destroyed numerous homes and four churches, and ruined the local fruit crop. Since Watson clearly must have still been recuperating in the Peshawar base hospital on that day, this seemed an insurmountable problem. However, it was later pointed out that we have only Mr. Boyle’s word that the storm on that night was a true ‘hurricane.’ It may have simply been a very intense tropical storm, and the relatively inexperienced Watson would have had no frame of reference to determine otherwise. Thus, the ‘hurricane argument’ has little bearing on the potential authenticity of the Bermuda Manuscript.

   The irony is that Watson would never discover the identity of the murderer in the Mystery of Edwin Drood, since Dickens died before he could finish it. Of course, it is possible that Watson was reading the ‘James version’ of the novel. In 1873, a young American by the name of Thomas James published a version of Drood which he claimed had been 'ghost-written' by Dickens’ spirit speaking through him. This created a great sensation and mixed reviews, but some critics, including Watson’s first literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, praised this version for its similarity in style to Dickens' work.

   Mrs. Foster was not the only lady of the Canon to own a Derby tea-set. Mrs. Mary Maberley also considered it one of her prized possessions (The Adventure of the Three Gables).

   Watson must have adopted Dr. Nemcek’s remedy of hot water and lemon, and taught it to Holmes, who offers Stanley Hopkins a cup during one of his visits to Baker Street (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez).

   Clearly Watson was too much of a gentleman to ever admit to Holmes that he found German music too introspective, since it was Holmes’ favorite (The Red-Headed League).

   Now that we have Watson’s reaction to Lucy’s playing, we know what Watson was talking about when he told Holmes that “a well-played violin is like a treat for the gods” (Chapter I, A Study in Scarlet).

   Given his general fondness for gaming, Watson was probably an avid whist-player, and he makes reference to it on multiple occasions in the Canon (including The Red-Headed League & The Adventures of the Empty House, Devil’s Foot, & Mazarin Stone).

   Clarets were often drunk by Watson and Holmes (The Cardboard Box & The Adventure of the Dying Detective).

   Watson did not forget his experience with this comet vintage, for he later described Holmes “with a pleased and yet critical face, like a connoisseur who has just taken his first sip of a comet vintage” (The Stock-Broker’s Clerk).

  CHAPTER IX: MURDER

   The cause of Watson’s constricted pupils would be apparent to any medical man. Watson would one day have the unfortunate experience of caring for Isa Whitney, whose opium habit would cause him many physical symptoms, the least of which were his pin-point pupils (The Man with the Twisted Lip).

   Although he made a hash of it due to his discomfiture over the proximity of Mary Morstan, Watson tried to recommend castor oil in large doses as a sedative for Thaddeus Sholto (Chapter IV, The Sign of the Four).

   The use of brandy as a restorative was not uncommon during the Victorian Era. Amongst the times it was used in the Canon includes when Watson administered it to Percy Phelps (The Naval Treaty), Victor Hatherley (The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb), and Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable (The Adventure of the Priory School). Doctor Roylott half-heartedly used it on Julia Stoner (The Adventure of the Speckled Band). Holmes self-administered a dash after being half-strangled by Alec Cunningham (The Reigate Squires) and of course, it was used by Holmes to restore Watson after his first and only faint (The Adventure of the Empty House). Mr. Melas, on the other hand, was so far gone, that he required the combination of both brandy and ammonia (The Greek Interpreter).

   As an experienced army physician, Watson sadly would have had far too much experience with the effects of rigor mortis, the knowledge of which was also applied in the cases of Bartholomew Sholto (Chapter VI, The Sign of the Four) and the so-called Blessington, actually the bank robber Sutton (The Resident Patient).

  CHAPTER X: A TANGLED SKEIN

   ‘A Tangled Skein’ is clearly one of Watson’s favorite terms, for he used it in multiple tales (The Adventures of the Creeping Man & Wisteria Lodge, plus Chapter IX of The Hound of the Baskervilles). Even Holmes picked up on it and used it when he wrote one of his own tales (The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane).

   Amongst Watson’s many attributes must be accounted both his bravery and his willingness to accept whatever task or risk was asked of him (demonstrated in many places, but directly referred to by the third-person author – presumably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – of The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone).

   The list of places that Dumas lived in as he tried to stay one step ahead of his pursuers has similarities to the movements of Drebber and Stangerson (Chapter V, A Study in Scarlet). The Dacre Hotel is where the Prince of Colonna lived while in London (The Adventure of the Six Napoleons). The Hôtel du Louvre is where the international agent Hugo Oberstein received his letters (The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans). The Hôtel Dulong is where Holmes recuperated after his triumph in the affairs of the Netherland-Sumatra Company and of the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertins (The Reigate Squires). Lady Frances Carfax stayed at the Hôtel National (The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax).

   The translucent em
erald-green jadeite derives primarily from two sources: Burma and Guatemala. While Watson was more likely to be familiar with the Burmese jade exported into China, in retrospect this was a missed clue that Dumas had spent time in Mesoamerica.

   Twenty gold sovereigns corresponded to twenty pounds sterling. Since twenty shillings equaled one pound, this translated to four hundred shillings, or almost thirty-five days of half-pay (eleven shillings, six pence) for Watson. This was quite a bit of money to be carrying around, since in 2010 terms, twenty pounds was the equivalent of approximately £8400 ($13250). The twenty fifty-pound notes was an almost inconceivable amount of money (£420000 or $660,000).

   Receipted accounts also help solve the mystery of the death of Mr. John Straker (Silver Blaze). The bank of Cox & Co. at Charing Cross was, of course, the famous location where Watson eventually stored the unpublished adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Problem of Thor Bridge). It merged with Lloyd’s Bank in 1923.

   Including Fabian LaRue, New Orleans was the abode of unsavory characters such as the murderer Samson (Chapter I, A Study in Scarlet).

   The mysterious slip of handwritten paper reproduced in the Bermuda Manuscript is reminiscent of the fragment written by the Cunninghams (The Reigate Squires) or the partial telegram of Godfrey Staunton (The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter).

   Modern medicine can claim multiple medications that can mimic the pinpoint pupils of the opioids, but it is doubtful that any of them were available to the Victorian physician, so Watson’s statement that Sims’ pupils could not have been faked should not be counted against his skill as a doctor.

   Powder marks were used by Holmes to predict the firing of a gun at least once (The Adventure of the Dancing Men).

   Watson never makes clear exactly which brass replica of the Great Seal of the Confederacy was in the possession of Mr. Dumas. While the embossing press and brass replica die were made in London, they never made their way to Richmond due to the naval blockade between Bermuda and America. Did Dumas purchase the die while in Bermuda? Where was he taking it? We may never know the answer. It appears likely that after Dumas’ death this die was returned to its Bermuda caretakers, and it can now be found in the National Trust Museum within the Globe Hotel, St. George’s, Bermuda.

   The lead-enhanced cane of Mr. Dumas is reminiscent of the walking stick belonging to Justice Trevor (The ‘Gloria Scott’), though Dumas’ cane was even further improved with the sword-option, making it a very formidable weapon indeed.

   Watson’s thoughts while staring at Dumas’ body very closely mirror his thoughts while trying to solve the murder of Mr. McCarthy before Holmes deigned to fill him in (The Boscombe Valley Mystery).

   Watson claims to have acquired his classical education at Winchester College (see notes to Chapter VI).

  CHAPTER XI: THE EVIDENCE OF THE PROPRIETRESS

   Not having ever experienced a hurricane himself, Holmes nonchalantly compares a moderate English gale to one, which made the ground harder to read than a palimpsest (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez).

   The Canon has several examples of maps reproduced for the reader’s enlightenment. Like Mrs. Foster’s maps, two were drawn by others, one by Percy Phelps (The Naval Treaty), and the other by Stanley Hopkins (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez). Only one map was definitively drawn by John H. Watson, since he signed it (The Adventure of the Priory School). The maps reproduced herein are digital re-creation, as the original versions found with the manuscript (presumably the ones drawn by Mrs. Foster) were so water-damaged as to be almost unreadable.

   A dark lantern was modified kerosene hand-lantern that could be darkened while lit by a sliding shield that covered the light without extinguishing the flame. Holmes used one while springing his trap in the cellar of one of the principal London banks (The Red-Headed League).

   Mrs. Foster and Constable Dunkley give an accurate representation of the activities of Major Walker and his wife during their sojourn in St. George’s.

   It is not clear from the historical records if Ralph Foster ever left the island of Bermuda, nor is it recorded why he chose the Globe name for his hotel. It is plausible that the account found in the Bermuda Manuscript is accurate in this regard.

  CHAPTER XII: THE EVIDENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN RUGBY-PLAYER

   The practice of transporting English criminals to Australia in order to decrease the burden of the English prisons began in 1788 and continued through 1850 in New South Wales and as late as 1868 in other parts of the continent. The story of Bruce Sims’ father was little different from Mr. James Armitage’s tale, albeit without the escape from the transport ship and subsequent name change (The “Gloria Scott”).

   Upon first reading the Bermuda Manuscript, I assumed that I had discovered proof that it was a modern forgery when I read what I thought to be an obvious anachronism: ‘three sheets to the wind.’ Imagine my surprise when I found that this phrase goes back in printed form to at least 1821. Robert Louis Stevenson placed a version of this phase three years later into the mouth of Long John Silver in his masterpiece Treasure Island.

   The first known international Australian Rugby tour took place in 1899, when the teams from New South Wales and Queensland played a four match series against a team from Britain. The first known international tour for the Australian Rugby team was in 1908, when a squad of players travelled nine months through United Kingdom, Ireland and North America, even winning the gold medal in the 1908 London Olympic Games. Assuming the authenticity of the Bermuda Manuscript, either an Australian Rugby team actually blazed that trail twenty-eight years prior to the official records, or Sims was lying through his teeth about what he was doing in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he injured his knee.

   Robert Ferguson mentions the name of Watson’s Rugby Club in the postscript to his letter to Holmes (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire). Interestingly, many years later, Godfrey Staunton would also play for Blackheath (The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter).

   “I have never had much of a head for dates.” Truer words were never spoken! Much sleep has been lost and more arguments kindled because Watson could not be bothered to put a simple date on the majority of his manuscripts!

   Watson mentions his damaged tendo Achilles by location only once (Chapter VIII, The Sign of the Four). Before the Bermuda Manuscript, it had never been entirely clear whether this was wound sustained in Afghanistan, or something less glamorous, such as a rugby injury. Fortunately, this wound healed better than his shoulder, and by 1889 Watson was once again reckoned fleet of foot (Chapter XIV, The Hound of the Baskervilles).

   Godfrey Staunton also once slipped his knee-cap (The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarter).

   Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809 – 1894) was an American physician, poet, professor, lecturer, and author. He was regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the nineteenth century, and was great friend with Longfellow and other giants of American letters. His most famous prose work was The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and was also recognized as an important medical reformer. Since he measured only ‘five feet three inches when standing in a pair of substantial boots’ and was pushing seventy-one years of age by the time that Sims met him, Sims’ description is likely a fair one. Watson never mentions O.W. Holmes again in his writings, but the inspiration of a medical-man-turned-author upon Watson’s later literary pursuits is crystal clear, though the shared name with Sherlock Holmes can only be a coincidence.

   Typical of his generous nature, Watson forgave Robert Ferguson for his injurious assault when, in 1896, Richardson called upon the assistance of Holmes and Watson in solving the mystery of his infant child and bloodthirsty wife (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire).

   The proverbial ‘drop that made the cup run over’ is from the French: ‘c'est la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase.’ A more typical English expression woul
d be: ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ which dates back to the works of none other than Charles Dickens (Dombey and Son, 1848), though he clearly found it in an earlier work, as the proverb is originally Arabic.

   Douglas Maberley also had a small annuity (The Adventure of the Three Gables). Stocks were a great source of income during the Golden Age of the London Exchange. Miss Mary Sutherland derived her little income solely from the interest of her New Zealand Stock (A Case of Identity). Mawson and Williams was a great stockbroking firm on Lombard Street where Mr. Hall Pycroft was once hired as a clerk (The Stock-Broker’s Clerk).