We meet monthly and discuss an adventure in The Canon (the combined collection of the stories of Sherlock Holmes).  One person is given the honor of being the presenter and may present their thoughts or ideas "on anything Sherlockian, Holmesian, or Victorian anyone wishes to contend or debate", as our flyer states.
We have met monthly since 28th January 1989.  The scion was recognized by The Baker Street Irregulars in November 1988, after our formation in August 1988.  We have been especially thankful that our existence mirrors the time-period of Holmes and Watson, one-hundred years later. Victoria stills reigns as Queen in our lives and the British Empire surrounds the globe.


Our meetings were first conducted at The Miller's Daughter Pub, an authentic English Pub located at 329 South Main Street in St Charles, Missouri.  After the closing of our beloved pub, we moved to the Mother-in-Law House at 500 South Main Street, St Charles, where we have met, after a bit of wandering, since July 1992.
We have been through The Canon twice.  The first time, we followed the William S Baring-Gould "Annotated Sherlock Holmes", which is in chronological order (according to Baring-Gould, that is).  We finish the second round through The Canon October 2001 and followed the "Oxford Edition of Sherlock Holmes", which is in the most recent estimation of actual publishing order.  In 2002, the Apocrypha was explored -- as something entirely different.  2003 thru 2006 we did the Brett series. 2007 started the Rathbone/Bruce series. In June we celebrated our 221b meeting. The event was very rewarding in the number of people that showed up that we had not seem in a while and the amount of fun we had. 2008 will find us starting the new Klinger Annotated Sherlock Holmes and will find us starting once again on the books and examining the writings of Dr. Watson and the world that is "always, 1895."

We have a few new members that are, well, bringing something new to the meetings.

Hope to see you at one of our meetings soon. Lots of great stuff starting up, come and be part of it.

"Elementary, My Dear Watson!"
  In a few short months, the Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn (HSU) will be celebrating their twentieth year and getting ready to hold their 234th  meeting. The Harpooners are a local Sherlock Holmes society ( a recognized literature society of the Baker Street Irregulars) that examines the cases and life of the fictional Sherlock Holmes.  They treat each meeting as an exercise to study Sherlock Holmes as if he were the first consulting detective (who arrives at his conclusions by the process of deductive reasoning), and as if he and Dr. Watson shared lodgings on Baker Street (Watson complained that Holmes was “one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow lodger to distraction”).
Each month a member of the group presents a paper or discussion on one of the 64 Sherlock Holmes stories and novels.  The paper can be about some clue or fact presented in the case, or it can be on some social or historical observation of Victorian life.  Past discussion was held on what type of dog the Hound of Baskervilles may have been, or what type of pipe Holmes may have smoked.  All Sherlockians (Americans who study Sherlock Holmes) know he did not smoke the kind of pipe seen in most images associated with him. There have also been presentations on the history of the martini and on bees (When Holmes retired, he took up beekeeping).
 
 
Members are quite earnest in their desire to pursue details about the famous sleuth, and some have even traveled to England to visit the sites described in the stories.  The Harpooners have brought two Sherlockian conventions to St. Charles over the years, drawing people from all over the country.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud!
Members usually meet for dinner at 7 P.M. at the Mother-In-Law House at  500 South Main Street, St. Charles. The meeting begins at 8 and continues for an hour and a half.  Except on rare occasions, the Harpooners meet on the fourth Friday of each month.  A complete schedule and more details about the programs and history can be found at www.harpooners.org  You can even link to 60 stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  Come join the lively discussion centering on Holmes’ intriguing    personality and his remarkable ability to solve mysteries.  “The Game is afoot!”
 



St. Charles County Arts Council, Copyright 2007
To contact by phone, call  636-928-1280
Webmaster:  Patrick Vaughn

Have fun!

THE GAME IS AFOOT
By Valerie Schremp Hahn
Of the Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Mar. 22 2005

Sherlock Holmes fans
find clue to fun

Sherlock Holmes fans What: An organization called the
Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn.
Where: St. Charles.
Next meeting: Friday.
Information: Call John Foster at 636-946-4319 or visit online at
www.harpooners.org


Holmes fans gather
to honor the detective


It doesn't take much deductive reasoning or powers of observation to figure out that this group is simply wild about Sherlock Holmes.

John Foster of St. Charles named his dogs Sherlock and Dr. Watson. Tom Crammond of Alton figures he's read the Sherlock Holmes mysteries at least 20 times. He
once read all of them over 10 days in 1970 as he recovered in bed from pneumonia.

Foster, Crammond and a dozen or so other lively characters make up the Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn, a St. Charles-based group of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.

A few other Sherlock Holmes groups exist in the metro area, but none meets as regularly as the Harpooners, its members say. The Harpooners usually meet once
a month for dinner at the Mother In Law House restaurant on Main Street in St. Charles, and they follow dinner by socializing and discussion of the stories of
Sherlock Holmes.

The Harpooners take their name partly from the story "The Adventure of Black Peter," who was a whaler killed by a harpoon. They also take their name partly
after Harpoon missiles, which were once made at the McDonnell Douglas plant, now Boeing Co., in St. Charles, where Harpooners President Michael Bragg used to work.

The group is always looking for new members, and they're going through a period in which they need a "shot in the arm," said Bragg, a safety and health manager
for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Members don't need to have read Sherlock stories before. In fact, all you need is to read the pre-assigned story scheduled for discussion at the meeting. At
that rate, it would take only six years to get through the Canon, and the group has already been through that twice since it first met in 1988, Bragg points
out.

Different people like the stories for different reasons, the Harpooners say. Some love trying to solve the mysteries. Some love the Victorian era. Some
groups get together simply to wear Sherlockian costumes.

"I can't solve my way out of a paper bag," Foster said. "The mystery part is over my head. I just like the history part."

Bragg agrees. "I like the Victorian people," he said. "It was calmer and quieter, and I'd much rather take the train than fly somewhere. I'm tired of
doing everything at 90 miles an hour."

The Harpooners' most recent meeting began with dinner at the Mother In Law House, and then members left to join at Foster's house on Water Street. He had
just rehabbed a room in his home to look like an English Pub, and it seemed like the perfect place to screen Grenada Television's version of "The Sign of
Four," a mystery revolving around a stolen treasure from India.

After watching the film, the official part of the meeting began with a toast to Victoria -who still reigns as queen in the Harpooners' lives. The toast
culminated in a hearty, "Hear, hear!"

Bragg shared general announcements and items of interest, such as the obituary of a real-life Sherlock Holmes, who died recently at age 94 and an article
about fox hunting in England.

Members were also encouraged to wear Victorian or Indian garb to the meeting. Bill Cochran, who rode 150 miles on his motorcycle from his home in Du Quoin,
Ill., for this night, dressed up like the detective himself - an outfit he changed into after the ride. Cochran presented a paper called "Signs of An
Addiction," about Holmes' drug use in "The Sign of Four" and other stories.

Though Cochran's presentation was of a scholarly bent, those who wanted conventional entertainment - say, a musical revue - weren't disappointed. Andy
Basford of St. Charles presented "Sherlock Holmes, Superstar," a sampling of songs about "The Sign of Four" sung to Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes.

Basford prerecorded the songs and played them on a portable stereo. One went to the tune of "The Music of the Night" from the musical "The Phantom of the
Opera."

"In this English nation, his powers of observation, on the blackest darkness shed some light. Yes, Holmes will solve the mysteries of the night."
The group laughed, some sang along, and all applauded him at the end.

Soon, the meeting wrapped up the way it always does. The members stood for a recitation of "221b," a sonnet by Vincent Starrett dedicated to Holmes and his
trusty companion, Dr. Watson.

The poem speaks of swirling fog and ghostly gas lamps, and its last lines go like this: "Here, though the world explode, these two survive.

"And it is always 1895."
Reporter Valerie Schremp Hahn
E-mail: vschremp@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 636-255-7211