In 1880 Captain John Gray of the Peterhead whaler Hope took Arthur Conan Doyle as ship's surgeon on a Greenland voyage. Conan Doyle was then a medical student in Edinburgh and it was customary for graduates to make at least one voyage as a ship's surgeon. During this voyage, in addition to his surgeon's duties, Conan Doyle took part in the whaling as oarsman aboard one of the whale boats. He fell into the sea three times during the voyage earning the nick-name Great Northern Diver.

© SCRAN/Aberdeenshire Council
Modern drawing of Conan Doyle aboard ss Hope, 1880

After his adventure in the Greenland Sea Doyle returned to his medical studies at Edinburgh University and practised as a physician during the 2nd Boer War. He started publishing short stories in 1879 while working as a doctor in Southsea. The Sherlock Holmes stories were serialised in 'The Strand' magazine and proved so popular that Doyle felt pressurized to revive the character after the detective had plunged to his death over a waterfall. Doyle's foremost authority, Owen Dudley Edwards, maintains that he discovered his literary genius whilst at sea. His early works, The Square box and The Captain of the Pole Star, bear testament to that.

©SCRAN/ Hulton Getty
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes