J. Habakuk Jephson‘s Statement

J. Habakuk Jephson‘s Statement is a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published anonymously in The Cornhill Magazine in january 1884. Conan Doyle has been inspired by the real case of the ship Mary Celeste which has been found drifting in the Atlantic off Portugal, under full sail but apparently abandoned. He has been one of the first to publish a version of what happened. He drew heavily on fact but included significant differences that have since accredited to the real story, not least in calling the ship the Marie, rather than Mary, Celeste. Some journalists even took his account for real. Joseph Habakuk Jephson, a soldier who was hurt in the battle of Antietam during the American Civil War, is in convalescence. One day, an old black maid offers him a black oval shaped stone which belonged to her ancestors. At the end of the war, Jephson gets married and establishes himself as a doctor in Brooklyn.