Another offering in the alternative-reality game of "where did ACD get the idea to write that fictional story?" This entry in that game: Bruce-Partington Plans (BRUC).
Set up the Game:
Where did ACD get the ideas for the plot of Bruce-Partington Plans?
BRUC was first published in 1908 in the Strand Magazine. Previously, The Adventure of the Naval Treaty had been published in October, 1893, which like BRUC, also involved espionage and theft of secret papers from the Royal Navy.
The Game proceeds:
Notably for purposes of this game, ACD had killed off Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem published in December 1893. Holmes' death left the newly created fans of Holmes bereft, and also deprived the Strand of a popular selling point. Other authors at that time took the opportunity try to fill the gap by offering detective stories in the fashion of Sherlock Holmes. In 1894, Strand published a series of stories by Arthur Morrison about a private detective named Martin Hewitt. The August 1894 issue had the story "The Dixon Torpedo" about the theft of secret plans for a naval torpedo, an underwater naval weapon, from a locked room, and the consequent danger to the Royal Navy if those plans fell into the wrong hands. Morrison's story even includes a drawing of the rooms where the theft occurred, just as Naval Treaty had a drawing of the scene in that story.
After the Parallel Case meeting on Oct. 15, 2022, I obtained a copy of "The Dixon Torpedo" and read it. It is available for free at Project Gutenberg:
"Dixon Torpedo" is a short and fun story. But Morrison's story does not measure up to all the good qualities of ACD's writing, such as pacing, drama, colorful descriptions, and character study. But to be fair, it has a decent plot involving espionage, a locked room mystery, and a private detective who is willing to do a bit of burglary for a good cause. And it has missing secret naval plans, combining detective mystery with a spy thriller.
Thus, while Holmes was temporarily dead (in a literary sense), Morrison gave us private detective Martin Hewitt and a mystery plot that fired up feelings of British patriotism while filling the hole left by Holmes's absence for detective stories in the pages of Strand Magazine. Then, Holmes was raised from the dead in 1903, and BRUC followed in 1908.
To Conclude this Game:
ACD probably borrowed plot ideas from Arthur Morrison's story "The Dixon Torpedo" (1893) when he wrote BRUC (1908). The story about the theft of plans for an underwater submarine is too similar to theft of plans for an underwater torpedo to be mere coincidence.
Morrison certainly copied ACD's use of a clever private detective as the protagonist, and was likely influenced by Naval Treaty (1893) when he wrote "Dixon Torpedo" in 1894.
In short, first Morrison copied Doyle, and then Doyle copied Morrison, returning the compliment of copying another author's ideas.
Game over.
Until the next installment.
We now return to objective reality, where Holmes is real, and Martin Hewitt is merely a fictional character created by English author Arthur George Morrison (1863 to 1945). Holmes may have his literary knock-offs and rivals, but no real life rival since the demise of Prof. Moriarty.
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