On the 20th November 1886 Arthur Conan Doyle sold A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes Story to the publisher Ward and Lock for £25. Doyle’s inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes came largely from his former university professor, Dr. Joseph Bell, a renowned surgeon and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Bell was known for his extraordinary powers of observation, diagnostic skill, and logical reasoning, which he used to deduce details about his patients’ lives and ailments from seemingly insignificant clues. Doyle, who studied under Bell in the late 1870s, was fascinated by his mentor’s ability to make quick, accurate deductions based on small details — skills that would later become defining traits of Sherlock Holmes.
The whaling ship Essex, from Nantucket, Massachusetts, became a tragic and legendary vessel after an ordeal in 1820 that inspired Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby-Dick. The Essex set sail for the Pacific Ocean on a whaling expedition under Captain George Pollard Jr. With a crew of 21 men, they anticipated a standard two- to three-year journey, hunting sperm whales to harvest oil, a valuable commodity at the time.
On November 20, 1820, the Essex was approximately 2,000 miles west of South America when it encountered a massive sperm whale, estimated to be around 85 feet long. In a shocking turn, the whale rammed the ship twice, severely damaging it and causing it to sink. This rare attack by a whale—a creature typically perceived as harmless unless provoked—left the crew stranded in the open sea on small whaleboats with limited provisions.
In a desperate attempt to survive, the crew set off toward South America, over 1,000 miles away, instead of heading toward the closer Marquesas Islands due to fears of cannibalism among indigenous populations. Ironically, this decision led them into the same situation they sought to avoid. After their provisions ran out, the men faced starvation, exposure, and dehydration. In their struggle to survive, they resorted to cannibalism, consuming the bodies of deceased crewmates, and eventually drew lots to sacrifice one man to feed the others. The survivors endured over 90 days adrift before being rescued by passing ships. Only eight of the original 21 crew members survived.
The harrowing ordeal of the Essex crew captivated public attention, and accounts of the event circulated widely. One survivor, Owen Chase, published a detailed narrative titled Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which was eventually read by Herman Melville. Melville’s interest in whaling and the intense tale of survival influenced his writing of Moby-Dick, published in 1851. Melville’s portrayal of Captain Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of a fearsome white whale echoes the Essex tragedy, transforming a real-life maritime disaster into an exploration of human obsession, the unpredictability of nature, and existential struggle.
My inspiration for writing the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures came from reading about Standen’s role as an Elizabethan spy working for Francis Walsingham, in a biography of Sir Francis Drake. One never knows what is going to inspire us, or where we are going to find it.