Sherlock Holmes Among The Pirates

This study focuses on the publishing history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, tracing the story of the first two Holmes novels, which were widely pirated in the U.S. from 1890-1930. The book details the background that enabled piracy to occur and provides extensive descriptive lists of the various issues of A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four. The American issues are described in detail, with defects and inconsistencies clearly documented. Also included is a genealogical tree that traces the editions of these novels and thorough examples of their textual variations.

This volume contains twelve of Conan Doyle's best stories, the first part "Tales of Pirates" dealing with corsairs and adventurers, the second part "Tales of Blue Water" with sea stories. Included are: How The Governor Of Saint Kitt's Came Home The Dealings Of Captain Sharkey The Blighting Of Sharkey How Copley Banks Slew Captain Sharkey The "Slapping Sal" A Pirate Of The Land - One Crowded Hour The Striped Chest The Captain Of The "Polestar" The Fiend Of The Cooperage Jelland's Voyage J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement That Little Square Box

Tales of Pirates and Blue Water is a volume collecting 12 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in 1922 by John Murray. The collection is divided in two parts: Tales of Pirates with stories of pirates, and Tales of Blue Water with stories of sea.

Conan Doyle is now mostly known for his Sherlock Holmes character, but he was a master storyteller in other genres too, and this book about Pirates and their adventures will not disappoint. There are twelve short stories in this collection, each stand-alone, and each worthy of a read.

Sharkey, the abominable Sharkey, was out again. After two years of the Coromandel coast, his black barque of death, the Happy Delivery, was prowling off the Spanish Main, while trader and fisher flew for dear life at the menace of that patched fore-topsail, rising slowly over the violet rim of the tropical sea. As the birds cower when the shadow of the hawk falls athwart the field, or as the jungle folk crouch and shiver when the coughing cry of the tiger is heard in the night-time, so through all the busy world of ships, from the whalers of Nantucket to the tobacco ships of Charleston, and from the Spanish supply ships of Cadiz to the sugar merchants of the Main, there spread the rumour of the black curse of the ocean. Some hugged the shore, ready to make for the nearest port, while others struck far out beyond the known lines of commerce, but none were so stout-hearted that they did not breathe more freely when their passengers and cargoes were safe under the guns of some mothering fort. Through all the islands there ran tales of charred derelicts at sea, of sudden glares seen afar in the night-time, and of withered bodies stretched upon the sand of waterless Bahama Keys. All the old signs were there to show that Sharkey was at his bloody game once more. These fair waters and yellow-rimmed palm-nodding islands are the traditional home of the sea rover. First it was the gentleman adventurer, the man of family and honour, who fought as a patriot, though he was ready to take his payment in Spanish plunder. Then, within a century, his debonair figure had passed to make room for the buccaneers, robbers pure and simple, yet with some organised code of their own, commanded by notable chieftains, and taking in hand great concerted enterprises. They, too, passed with their fleets and their sacking of cities, to make room for the worst of all, the lonely, outcast pirate, the bloody Ishmael of the seas, at war with the whole human race. This was the vile brood which the early eighteenth century had spawned forth, and of them all there was none who could compare in audacity, wickedness, and evil repute with the unutterable Sharkey.

I CAPTAIN SHARKEY: HOW THE GOVERNOR OF SAINT KITT'S CAME HOME When the great wars of the Spanish Succession had been brought to an end by the Treaty of Utrecht, the vast number of privateers which had been fitted out by the contending parties found their occupation gone. Some took to the more peaceful but less lucrative ways of ordinary commerce, others were absorbed into the fishing-fleets, and a few of the more reckless hoisted the Jolly Rodger at the mizzen and the bloody flag at the main, declaring a private war upon their own account against the whole human race. With mixed crews, recruited from every nation they scoured the seas, disappearing occasionally to careen in some lonely inlet, or putting in for a debauch at some outlaying port, where they dazzled the inhabitants by their lavishness and horrified them by their brutalities. On the Coromandel Coast, at Madagascar, in the African waters, and above all in the West Indian and American seas, the pirates were a constant menace. With an insolent luxury they would regulate their depredations by the comfort of the seasons, harrying New England in the summer and dropping south again to the tropical islands in the winter. They were the more to be dreaded because they had none of that discipline and restraint which made their predecessors, the Buccaneers, both formidable and respectable. These Ishmaels of the sea rendered an account to no man, and treated their prisoners according to the drunken whim of the moment. Flashes of grotesque generosity alternated with longer stretches of inconceivable ferocity, and the skipper who fell into their hands might find himself dismissed with his cargo, after serving as boon companion in some hideous debauch, or might sit at his cabin table with his own nose and his lips served up with pepper and salt in front of him. It took a stout seaman in those days to ply his calling in the Caribbean Gulf

This collection of classic pirates stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle includes the following titles: Captain Sharkey: How the Governor of Saint Kitt's Came Home, The Dealings of Captain Sharkey with Stephen Craddock, The Blighting of Sharkey, How Copley Banks Slew Captain Sharkey and The "Slapping Sal," among others.