...urse toward the Aleutian Islands, entered Behring Sea on the next day, and almost immediately fell in with a couple of New Bedford whalers. One of them, the William Thompson, was the largest out of New England , and valued at $60,000. These ships were burned. The following day five vessels were sighted near an ice floe. The Confederates hoisted the American flag, bore down upon them, and ordered the n...