I have remarked elsewhere that Holmes possessed a quite extraordinary knowledge of the import trade — a knowledge which sprang, I think, less from interest in commerce than from his observation that a great many crimes attach themselves to the moving of valuable goods. It was therefore with no surprise that I saw him receive a Mr Henry Carstairs of the firm Carstairs, Drewett & Co, of Mincing Lane, with the welcome reserved for an unusually promising client. The matter, as Carstairs unfolded it over a cup of Holmes's strong coffee, was that of a small teakwood box consigned from Singapore by their agent Mr Jardine, containing some four hundred pounds in cut sapphires, properly insured and properly entered upon the manifest. The box had reached the firm's warehouse at the West India Docks on the previous Saturday, with the steamer's seals intact and the dock's seals applied. On the Tuesday morning Carstairs himself had broken those seals in the presence of his three principal clerks. Within he had found teakwood, the proper packing of camphor leaves, and four flat parcels of indistinguishable green river-pebbles. The sapphires were gone; the box, the seals, and the manifest gave no account of when. "Mr Holmes," said Carstairs, "the steamer is in dry dock and her crew dispersed. The dock-watchman swears no man approached the bonded shed save those whose business was the loading and the unloading. My clerks I would trust with my own life. And yet four hundred pounds in sapphires has gone, and the camphor in the box is fresh."
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Wednesday, 29 April 2026 | Difficulty III
The Mystery of the Singapore Box
A teakwood box reaches London with every seal intact. Four hundred pounds in sapphires gone — the camphor packing still fresh.
Sidney Paget · The Strand Magazine, December 1891 · Public Domain
Watson’s account
Section I
The Scene
- Setting
- The firm of Carstairs, Drewett & Co, Mincing Lane, City of London — and the bonded shed of the West India Docks
- Time
- Wednesday afternoon, late January 1895
- Weather
- A raw, foggy day, the river yellow and slow under a low sky
- Atmosphere
- The peculiar smell of bonded cargo — camphor, tea-chests, hessian, river-mud — overlaid on a respectable City counting-house.
Section II
The Suspects
-
Mr Edmund Drewett
Junior partner of the firm, in London
A neat, precise man of thirty-five, the firm's expert in stones and the only partner present at the dock when the box was landed. He had supervised its passage to the bonded shed and had himself applied the dock's seals.
-
Mr Edward Jardine
The firm's agent in Singapore — present in London on leave
An older man, forty-eight, lean and burnt brown by the East. He had returned to England by the same steamer that carried the box and had, by the firm's standing arrangement, taken his quarters in the company's warehouse-rooms upon arrival. He had access to the bonded shed in his official capacity.
-
Mr Thomas Brace
Senior clerk, twenty-one years in the firm
A grey-haired, careful gentleman of fifty, who had been present when the box was opened on the Tuesday. He had, two months earlier, lost a sum at cards and had been advanced a half-year's salary by Carstairs against the debt; the matter was known throughout the firm.
-
Mr Reuben Pollack
Lapidary, of Hatton Garden, with whom the firm had been in correspondence regarding the sale of the sapphires
A man of some sixty years, grey-bearded, of long-established reputation. He had been the obvious purchaser for the stones on their arrival. He had not been at the dock nor at the firm's warehouse, but had received a wire from Drewett on the Saturday confirming the consignment's arrival.
-
Mr Samuel Hood
Dock-watchman of the bonded shed
A retired marine, fifty-eight, employed by the West India Dock Company. He had been at his post from six o'clock on the Saturday evening through to six o'clock on the Sunday morning. His logbook recorded no admission to the shed save the official check made by the dock's tide-surveyor at four o'clock on the Sunday morning, an entry initialled in his own hand.
Section III
The Evidence
-
The freshness of the camphor leaves
The packing of camphor leaves within the teakwood box was, as Carstairs had observed, fresh — green at the leaf-edges, the oil still strong on the cutting. Yet the box had been packed in Singapore eleven weeks earlier. Camphor leaves, as Holmes remarked, dry and yellow within three weeks of cutting, even in their own native climate.
-
The dock's seals
The lead seals applied by the dock company were intact. The steamer's seals beneath were also intact. The seals are, in each case, individually numbered and the numbers were correctly entered in both the dock's and the firm's manifests.
-
Brace's debt of honour
The senior clerk had, the previous November, lost two hundred guineas at his club and had been advanced half a year's salary by Carstairs to clear the debt. The matter was known and was, by all accounts, in the way of being repaid out of his weekly stipend.
-
The wire to Pollack
Drewett had wired Pollack on the Saturday afternoon to arrange a viewing of the sapphires for the Wednesday following. Pollack had wired back his agreement. The two wires were lodged in the firm's day-book.
-
Jardine's quarters in the warehouse-rooms
Jardine had, by the firm's standing arrangement for its returning agents, taken up residence in the small set of rooms above the bonded shed at the West India Docks on his arrival on the Saturday. The rooms communicated with the shed below by a single, locked, internal stair.
-
The tide-surveyor's entry
The dock's tide-surveyor, a Mr Whittock, had visited the bonded shed at four o'clock on the Sunday morning to check a consignment unrelated to the firm's. He had been admitted by Hood and had left within ten minutes. The visit was logged.
-
The composition of the substituted parcels
The four parcels of green river-pebbles found in place of the sapphires were, on Holmes's quiet examination, of a kind common to the upper Thames valley above Henley — quite unlike anything to be found in the East Indies.
Section IV
Statements & Testimony
-
Mr Henry Carstairs Reliable
Senior partner, the client
“"The seals were intact. The manifest was correct. My clerks I would answer for. I had supposed at first that the substitution must have been done in Singapore by some agent of Jardine's; but Jardine himself selected the stones and packed the box."”
-
Mr Samuel Hood Reliable
Dock-watchman
“"No man entered the shed on the Saturday night save the surveyor at four. I did my rounds every half-hour. The shed was secure when I left at six on the Sunday. I would stake my pension on it, sir."”
-
Mr Edmund Drewett Reliable
Junior partner
“"I sealed the box myself with the dock's lead seals at half past four on the Saturday afternoon. I was the last man to handle it before Mr Carstairs broke the seals on the Tuesday."”
-
Mr Edward Jardine Partial
The firm's agent in Singapore
“"I packed the stones at the firm's office in Singapore on the morning of the seventh. I sealed the box and signed the manifest. From that hour until Mr Carstairs broke the seals it has been in the company's custody, not in mine."”
Section V