One
dark night the Russians succeeded in launching out undetected. That
day they hid, but daybreak of the next long pull showed them a ship in
the folds of the mountain coast--Korovin's vessel. They reached the
ship on the 30th of March. Poor Shevyrin soon after died from his
wounds in the underground hut, but Korovin's troubles had only begun.
Ivan Korovin's vessel had sailed out of Avacha Bay, Kamchatka, just two
weeks before Pushkareff's crew of criminals came home. It had become
customary for the hunting vessels to sail to the Commander
Islands--Bering and Copper--nearest Kamchatka, and winter there, laying
up a store of sea-cow meat, the huge bovine of the sea, which was soon
to be exterminated by the hunters. Here Korovin met Denis Medvedeff's
{98} crew, also securing a year's supply of meat for the hunt of the
sea-otter. The two leaders must have had some inkling of trouble
ahead, for Medvedeff gave Korovin ten more sailors, and the two signed
a written contract to help each other in time of need.
In spring (1763) both sailed for the best sea-otter fields then
known--Oonalaska and Oomnak, Korovin with thirty-seven men, Medvedeff,
forty-nine.
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