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.
About the Author: Arthur Conan Doyle (born Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died July 7, 1930 in Crowborough, Sussex), is a British writer and physician. He owes his fame to his novels and short stories featuring detective Sherlock Holmes - considered a major innovation in the detective novel - and Professor Challenger. This prolific writer has also authored science fiction books, historical novels, plays, poetry and historical works. He was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Order of the Most Venerable Order of St. John by King Edward VII on October 24, 1902. In 1882, he joined forces with his former college fellow, George Bud, in a medical practice in Plymouth. But their relationship proved difficult and Conan Doyle eventually settled independently. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that same year with less than £ 10 to his name, he opens his practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. At first, the practice was not very successful and, in the meantime, he began to write stories again. His first work of importance was A Study in Red, which appeared in the Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887. This was the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, a character partly inspired by his former university professor Joseph Bell, to whom Conan Doyle writes: "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes. Around the core deduction, inference and observation that I have heard you teach, I have tried to build a man. "This similarity does not escape the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who writes to Conan Doyle of the remote Samoa: My compliments to your ingenious and interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes ... Can this be my old friend Joe Bell? Other authors suggest additional influences, such as the famous character Auguste Dupin of Edgar Allan Poe. Living in Southsea, Conan Doyle plays football in an amateur club, the football club of the Portsmouth Association, holding the position of keeper under the pseudonym AC Smith, Conan Doyle is also a good cricketer and, between 1899 and 1907, he played ten first-class matches for the Marylebon Cricket Club. His best score: 43 against London County in 1902.