Chapter Two – What Do I do with the Ferret?
In my first post, I told how I got the idea for my novel, Stolen Brilliance: A Lady Black Victorian Mystery (out in April). What do I do next? I needed characters and personalities readers would care about, and I needed a voice to write with. I decided it was too early to think about all that; I needed to research everything I could find about a steamship that sailed out of the River Clyde and disappeared without a trace. I started with newspaper accounts in Glasgow, which led to newspaper accounts and articles throughout the 1880s British empire; it seems this story ignited the imagination of many minds in the empire where the sun never set.
I scored when I acquired a copy of Australian Geographical Walkabout Magazine from December 1957. The author, A.D. Edwardes, provided a detailed account, which I will summarize here. A Mr. Wallace, claiming to be a representative of Henderson & Company, A ship brokerage in London, approached The Highland Railroad Company (Ferret owner) on behalf of a client named Smith, who wished to charter a steamship for a Mediterranean cruise for his ailing wife as her doctor had ordered. Mr. Smith was extremely well-spoken and positively impressed the Ferret’s owners. He claimed to be related to the First Lord of the Admiralty, recently deceased.
I had some characters that were real participants: Wallace, Smith, and an Ailing wife. As you might have guessed, all were fake. However, when their references were checked out by Highland, Smith and Henderson and Company had sizeable assets in the London Bank they gave as reference; the railway was delighted to provide a six-month lease and agreed to the requests to refurbish the accommodations to Smith’s requirements.
I asked myself, why go to all this trouble to lease a ship under a false name, fake bank accounts, and a fake brokerage? To what purpose was the ship to be used? Who were the real people? Where did the money come from? What is the bigger story? That was my job. I had to mix real and fictional characters and create a story related to acquiring the Ferret.
Edwardes documented that after being refurbished, a Captain Watkins (“a Negro master-mariner”) took command, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith embarked and steamed down the Bristol Channel to Milford Haven, bringing on a Carpenter that Smith had hired in advance. (ah, two new characters). The ship sailed down the French coast past Portugal and entered the Straits of Gibraltar on the 11th of November. They sailed close to the rock and signaled their number so their entry would be noted and reported. Then the Ferret disappeared. How could this be?
I continued researching, learning that Smith’s real name was James Stewart Henderson. He maintained several aliases, but I found little factual information on Henderson before the Ferret ruse. I could not uncover evidence of a Mrs. Henderson (Mrs. Smith). My inquiry into police records in Glasgow netted zero information. I did uncover an undated illustrated article, The Strange Case of the Ferret, from The Wide World Magazine, written by John Kennedy, which provided additional details.
Upon entering the Mediterranean and sailing past the rock, Henderson ordered Captain Watkins to anchor. He gathered the crew and, under threat of death, instructed them to paint the smokestack a different color and replace all areas with the name Ferret, with the name Banton. Lifeboats were also repainted, except two that Henderson had tossed overboard, along with other items bearing the name Ferret. Thus, the Ferret disappeared, and the Banton appeared. Under cover of darkness, with all lights extinguished or greatly dimmed, the Banton sailed back past the rock and into the Atlantic Ocean, heading for ports unknown, crimes, and adventures. Many are fiction, which I have created as part of the narrative of this book, but some are real.
It was time for me to begin writing in earnest. I needed a protagonist; I chose a strong female lead. There is no recorded history of Mrs. Smith (Henderson), and I decided to create my story around her. I asked myself what was the purpose of the theft? Who was this mysterious lady, and what was her history? Henderson seemed an untrustworthy person, so he became the antagonist. My protagonist needed a back story and a love interest. The narrative begins with her as a child, Edith Black, a product of the London slums. who grew to play the role of Mrs. Smith and became Lady Black. How did she do that? I went to work. I started with Edith (Edie) as the voice but soon realized I wouldn’t be able to tell this story in the first person, so I started over, writing in the third person. Research continued, of course, and led to the story being much more than the story of the Ferret, but the Ferret story is laced through the narrative; I’ll tell you much more about it in posts to come, including some very interesting real-life facts that are not part of the book. I hope you will follow my postings on Medium or on my website (michaelgcolburn.com) and let me know — by message, clap, or comment if I’m giving you an interesting read.
