[1] Forest Row in the Weald is the scene of a harpoon murder, and a young police inspector, Stanley Hopkins, asks Holmes, whom he admires, for help.

Holmes has already determined that it would take a great deal of strength and skill to run a man through with a harpoon and embed it in the wall behind him.

Peter Carey, the 50-year-old victim and former master of the Sea Unicorn of Dundee, who lived with his wife and daughter, had a reputation for being violent.

Carey was found fully dressed, suggesting that he was expecting a visitor, and there was some rum laid out along with two dirty glasses.

Neligan's father had indeed come aboard the Sea Unicorn with his tin box of securities, and Carey had murdered him by throwing him overboard while he believed no-one was looking, though Cairns had secretly witnessed the event.

Cairns then examined the box of securities, but finding them impossible for him to sell, escaped, leaving his tobacco pouch on the table.

[1] It was included in the short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes,[1] which was published in the US in February 1905 and in the UK in March 1905.

[3] A silent short film adapted from the story was released in 1922 as part of the Stoll film series starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes and Hubert Willis as Watson, with Teddy Arundell as Inspector Hopkins, Hugh Buckler as Patrick Cairns, and Fred Paul as Captain Peter Carey.

[5] There is a visual reference to the "Black Peter" storyline in "The Hounds of Baskerville" (2012), the second episode of the second season of the BBC series Sherlock (2010–2017).

In March 2017, the US TV series Elementary (a modern version of Sherlock Holmes) used the "Black Peter" story as the basis for an episode called "Dead Man's Tale".

The murder victim (one of the searchers) is impaled with a sword, and, like in the short story, a suspect named Neligan (a teenaged girl in this case; her father, named John Neligan, was also briefly suspected) is judged as being innocent due to lacking the strength to impale the victim.

[8] "Black Peter" was adapted twice for the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.

The first adaptation, dramatised by Alan Wilson, aired in March 1961 on the BBC Light Programme, and featured Michael Turner as Inspector Hopkins and Eric Woodburn as Cairns.

The second adaptation, dramatised by Michael Hardwick, aired in July 1969 on BBC Radio 2, and featured Arnold Peters as Hopkins and Henry Stamper as Cairns.

In 2014, Frogwares released a video game titled Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, the first case of which "The Fate of Black Peter" adapts the elements of this story.