The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-06-07
A Mystery Of the Sea.
CONCLUDED.
CT ooK here, Deroll, y said he, in a

of the sea, and you've got to make the
best of it. dare say now Captain Cor
ham will give you and your two men a
passage home in the ship, as he is SO
very short handed, and may even agree
to see that you are paid wages for work
ing your passage, If that is any object
But the ship and cargo are certainly n
partial loss, at least, to her owners, and
to you, and the salvors must have their
share first of all out of the heap"
Captain Deroll, finding himself alone,
was compelled to submit to his fate,
though with an i'll grace; and one of
the boats being sent back to the Drdco,
an adjournment was made to the cabin
of the bark, where a series of mutual
explanations followed, though without
fully clearing up the mystery.
1t appeared that the three boats of the
Bohemia, in charge, respectively, of
Captain Deroll and his two mates, had
been lowered in pursuit of sperm whales
on the day indicated by the last entry
made in the log-book.
The bark was left in the care of old
Scott, the ship keeper, he having the
cooper, the black cook, and two Portu-
gese boys to assist him in working her.
A whale had been taken during the
forenoon, and secured alongside, but
as more were in sight, it was determined
to go in pursuit of them, deferring the
operation of cutting in. The captains
boat struck another whale which proved
to be racer, and ran him several miles
to windward at such q rate that the
other two boats were unable to get near
him, and the last time that Captain
Deroll had noticed them, they were
still far to leeward of him, and tugging
away at their oars. After this, he made
up his mind to go alone at any risk;
and after hard and long siege, he sue
ceeded in checking the speed of his
whale by a mortal wound. But now,
for the first time he became conscious of
what, in the excitement of his work he
had notGhserved, that fog-bank had
crept down upon him, and the ship was
hidden from view. Still he hung on a
while longer, hoping the. mist might
lift again, for it was hard to givelip and
lose the whale now, after all the strGsg Gle
for victory; but night was closing in,
nothing could be seen, and no sound
could be heard in response to frequent
blasts of his own fog-horn. He was
driven to the mortifying necessity of
cutting from his prize and now shap-
ing his course with the best judgment
he could, by the little boat.compass, and
the wind, he began this tedious search
for the ship.
But from that hour he had never seen
either the bohemia or the other boats
AS shown by the log book, the Bohemia
was at that time several degrees south of
the position where she had been picked
up by the EndcaOor, but was, neverthe-
less, north of the usual cruising ground.
Captain Deroll knew that there were
several vessels cruising between him
and the islands, and his best chance of
safety lay in making his way southwark
so if he did not meet vessel he could
certainly make the land in a few days.
After suffering much from hunger and
exhaustion, he was picked up by the
Drdco, which having spoken with
several other vessels, and heard nothing
of the Bohemia, left for another cruis-
ing ground more to the westward. She
had distributed part of the men into
the other whalers, as usual in such cases
so that only two beside Captain Deroll
now remained. They had done ships
duty with the Draco'S crew, and as the
mate had met with an injury, and was
temporarily off duty, Captain Deroll
had volunteered to take charge of his
boat, and thus had chanced to be so near
his own ship as to recognize her at
sight.
He had up to this time felt no con-
cern abont the safety of the Bohemia,
or of her crew. Mr.. Clark was COM
petent man to take charge of her, and
the captain expected in few weeks to
return in the Draco to Fayal, where he
would, doubtless, find his own vessel
waiting for him, since the mate would,
of course, have learned that he and his
other vessels of the fleet.
The statement of Gorham as to the
place and circumstances of the finding
seemed strange one, but there was the
og-book before him with his mates
handwriting up to the fatal date; then a