The Isle of Devils (55 page)


        
Based on Watson’s reporting, Henry must have joined the Army in 1872, around the same time that Watson enrolled in the University of London. Since Watson reports that Henry was two years his senior, it is not certain what Henry did for two years after finishing at Winchester College.


        
While Watson was thorough and detailed about depicting his friend Holmes, he was much more reticent to put down on paper a description of his own physical description. The closest we come was that reported by Inspector Lestrade when looking for a suspect in the death of the blackmailer Milverton (
The Adventure of Charles Edward Milverton
). Watson clearly must have looked much different with his new moustache, since both his brother Henry and his school-day pal Percy Phelps mentioned it upon first seeing it (
The Naval Treaty
). His now-legendary moustache is only mentioned once more by Holmes, who describes it as “modest” (
The Adventure of the Red Circle
).


        
Watson never lost his Afghanistan-acquired skill as a “prompt and ready traveler” (
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
). 


        
Ironically, a train was eventually installed in Bermuda in 1931, but Henry was right. It was a mad idea, crushed by the rapidly advancing onslaught of the automobile. The Bermuda Railway stopped operations only seventeen years later, leaving only a pleasant foot trail and the ruins of several bridges. Watson was very familiar with the injuries suffered by railway-men (
The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb
).


        
Oddly, many of the ships reported by Watson in Hamilton Harbor seem familiar to scholars of the Canon. The brig
Hotspur
makes its first appearance in the recollection of James Armitage, talking about a ship he was picked up by in 1855 (
The “Gloria Scott”
). One of the ships sounds very similar to the
Gloria Scott
, though it must have been a sister ship, for she was blown-up thirty-five years earlier. The British barque
Sophy Anderson
was lost in approximately 1887, though the facts surrounding the case have never been fully elucidated (
The Five Orange Pips
). The barque
Lone Star
was lost in the equinoctial gales of the Atlantic in 1887 (
The Five Orange Pips
). The ill-fated steamer
Norah Creina
was also lost with all
hands off Oporto in 1887 (
The Resident Patient
). At least two ships in Hamilton Harbor survived that grim year, including the steamer
Esmeralda
, which was still sailing in 1888 (Chapter XI,
The Sign of the Four
), and the SS
Palmyra
, which often sailed a route from Cape Town to England, though it was the site of a great tragedy when Jack Douglas was pushed overboard from it upon the orders of Moriarty (Epilogue,
The Valley of Fear
). Perhaps it is too much of a coincidence that all of the vessels that Watson spies in Hamilton Harbor would later play a role in his tales of Holmes. It has long been suspected that Watson changed names, such as the King of Bohemia (
A Scandal in Bohemia
) or the Duke of Holderness (
The Adventure of the Priory School
) to protect the identities of Holmes’ clients. Perhaps he also changed the names of some of the ships involved in the later cases, and took the names from this experience?


        
The Hamilton Hotel was the first of the grand hotels that would eventually become the cornerstone of the Bermuda tourist industry. It was finished in 1852, and was extended and modernized at the beginning of the twentieth century to attempt to keep up with competitors such as the famous pink Hamilton Princess. Sadly, it was destroyed by fire on December 23, 1955, and was never rebuilt. It stood where the City Hall car park is now located.


        
Port, a fortified wine made in Oporto, Portugal, was widely consumed during the Victorian era. Watson records drinking it with Holmes twice (Chapter X,
The Sign of the Four
&
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
). 

CHAPTER IV: THE GLOBE HOTEL


        
Sadly, little remains today of the North Shore sights pointed out by Henry. Admiralty House would go on to serve an important function in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, intercepting U Boat signals, but later fell into disrepair. The Black Watch Well was eventually abandoned and capped off by a featureless slab of concrete. The name of the regiment lives on however, in the excavated Black Watch Pass road that links the North Shore to the city of Hamilton. 


        
Watson’s way with women was borderline legendary. Not only was he married several times, and had a self-proclaimed vast “experience of women,” (Chapter V,
A Study in Scarlet
), but
Holmes himself admitted that “the fair sex is [Watson’s] department” (
The Adventure of the Second Stain
).


        
Sir Robert Norberton placed second in the Grand National and won the Derby with Shoscombe Prince (
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place
). Watson was fortunate to bet on Isonomy, whose progeny would go on to win the Wessex Cup (
Silver Blaze
). However, Watson was not always so fortunate at the track. Watson’s managed to hide his love of horse racing for many years, for in 1902 the usually astute Holmes had to ask him whether he knew “something of racing” (
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place
). Watson admitted that he had fully given in to the vice, as he paid for it with half of his wound pension. Watson was never the best at managing his money. Watson even asked Holmes to lock his cheque book up in Holmes’ drawer (
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
), presumably to prevent him from wagering too much upon the horses. It was similar financial straits upon his return to England that led Watson to look for a roommate. As fortune would have it, he found one that was certainly unique (Chapter I,
A Study in Scarlet
).


        
In 1888, the most expensive hotels in London charged eight shillings for a room (
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
).


        
Henry was right about Bermuda’s forts. British Bermuda would never be successfully invaded, other than a little-known episode in 1777 by some pesky Americans.


        
Watson and Holmes enjoyed many drinks together, but must have especially liked a whisky and soda (
The Red-Headed League
and
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
), since they had their own gasogene at 221B Baker Street (
A Study in Scarlet
&
The Mazarin Stone
). 


        
The corridors of Professor Coram’s house (
The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
) and the stairway at Pondicherry Lodge (Chapter V,
The Sign of the Four
) were also lined with coconut matting. The interior dividing walls and twisting corridor described by Boyle (and later mapped out by Mrs. Foster) as being installed by Mr. Foster when he acquired the building for the purpose of turning it into a hotel are no longer present in the modern-day iteration of the property (now the Bermuda National Trust Museum). Despite exhaustive efforts, I have been unable to locate any other historical floor-plans of the building that would either support or refute the authenticity of the Bermuda Manuscript.


        
In the official Canon, Watson never clearly identifies the make of his service revolver, despite the fact that it features prominently in many of the stories (first mentioned in Chapter V,
A
Study in Scarlet
). A great number of candidates for the make of the weapon have been proposed, based on the slim clues that he left us, such as is being called an “Eley’s No. 2” (
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
). If the Bermuda Manuscript is genuine, we finally have an answer to this little mystery.


        
At the Globe Hotel the four-poster bed in which Georgiana Walker gave birth to her fourth child, was still on display in the 1950s. The bed’s canopy was in fact a Confederate Naval Jack. What happened to the bed after that is a mystery.

CHAPTER V: ST. GEORGE’S


        
Watson’s waking habits seem to vary from “all sorts of ungodly hours” (Chapter I
, A Study in Scarlet
) shortly after his injury to quite “regular” three years later, presumably after he regained most of his health (
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
).


        
Watson continued to shave every morning by sunlight, which occasionally led to irregular results (
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
). 


        
Watson never lost many of his military routines, as in 1889 he still carried his handkerchief in his sleeve (
The Crooked Man
), a habit also shared by Mr. James M. Dodd (
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier
).


        
Reginald Musgrave was also fond of strong
café noir
, though he recommends not taking it after dinner if you wish to sleep (
The Musgrave Ritual
).