← Back

The Striped Chest

Arthur Conan Doyle

First published July 1897
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story
Series Tales of the High Seas #4

"Captain Barclay and mate Allardyce go aboard a Portuguese barque which has foundered in a storm. It is abandoned except for a corpse they find. They carry to portable cargo aboard their ship, including an enormously heavy chest which has a note on saying, Don't open. The second mate, overcome by greed, is discovered dead with his head cloven like the corpse on the wreck." (Books & Boots)

Although it is not really speculative, this horror story is sometimes regarded as part of Doyle's genre work.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
July 1897 Pearson's Magazine, July 1897 C. Arthur Pearson MAGAZINE 15
1922 Cover Tales of Pirates and Blue Water John Murray Collection 131
1925 Cover The Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Tales of Pirates George H. Doran Collection 111
June 1929 Cover The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
October 1939 The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
December 1940 The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
December 1945 Cover The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection 321
March 1949 Cover The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
August 1951 The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
November 1956 The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection
August 1960 The Conan Doyle Stories John Murray Collection 321
1968 Cover The Ring of Thoth: and Other Stories John Murray Collection 138
1970 Cover Thirteen Uncanny Tales J. M. Dent Anthology 122
March 1989 Cover The Best Horror Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle Academy Chicago Collection 256
March 1989 Cover Les exploits du Pr Challenger et autres aventures étranges Robert Laffont Omnibus 977
May 2004 Cover The Captain of the 'Pole-Star': Weird and Imaginative Fiction Ash-Tree Press Collection 293
2005 Cover The Best Horror Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle Academy Chicago Collection
2010 Cover The Speculative Conan Doyle Coachwhip Publications Collection 291
December 2010 The Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Tales of Pirates Project Gutenberg Collection |7
February 2012 Cover The Captain of the 'Pole-Star': Weird and Imaginative Fiction Ash-Tree Press Collection |293
February 2012 Cover The Captain of the 'Pole-Star': Weird and Imaginative Fiction Ash-Tree Press Collection |293
July 2016 Cover Tales of Pirates and Blue Water Jazzybee Verlag Collection 57
October 2016 Cover Gothic Tales Oxford University Press Collection
October 2016 Cover Gothic Tales Oxford University Press Collection
March 2018 Cover Gothic Tales Oxford University Press Collection 278