J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement

Doyle drew heavily on the original incident, but some of the fictional elements that he introduced have come to replace the real events in the popular imagination.

[1][2] In the story, the ship is in an almost perfect state when discovered, and the lifeboats are still present, whereas the Mary Celeste had been in heavy weather and was waterlogged, and her one boat was missing.

Eleven years later, Jephson develops a severe cough and is advised by a specialist to visit Europe, where the clear air might cure him.

As the ship prepares to depart, two experienced crew members fail to return from shore leave, and the captain has to recruit two black sailors who happen to be on the quay to replace them.

When night falls, Goring, his servant, the cook, and the two black crewmen seize Jephson and tie him up, having already killed Harton.

This causes the Africans to worship Jephson as the bearer of the missing ear, and he is treated with reverence, although he clearly remains a prisoner.

The condition is that Jephson reveal Goring to be the black mass murderer who outwitted the white race for 20 years.

The story was first printed anonymously in The Cornhill Magazine in January 1884 under the title "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", illustrated by William Small.

[8] The story was first published anonymously, and one reviewer attributed it to Robert Louis Stevenson, while critics compared it to Edgar Allan Poe's work.

Much to Doyle's astonishment, some mistook the story to be a true account, including the Boston Herald,[5] which reprinted the tale.