Maritime Mysteries by Bill Jessome Page A

offshore the day before. What they found was a strange-looking man, perhaps in his mid twenties, sitting in the sand with his back against a large boulder for support. When they got closer, they noticed that his legs were gone. The remaining stumps just above the knees were wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. The fishermen attempted to communicate with the stranger, but he did not, or could not, speak. They realized if he didn’t receive immediate medical attention, he would surely die.
    The two men carried the stranger to the Gidney home, not far from where he was found, and immediately put him to bed and provided him with medical attention. Officials questioned the stranger as to his identity and asked how and why he ended up on Sandy Cove Beach. It was evident from the start that any attempt to establish a dialogue with this man of mystery was futile. The only word he uttered sounded like “Jerome.” From that moment on, he was known by that name only.
    It was decided that perhaps if he were sent to the Acadian region of the bay, someone there may be able to converse with him in his own language. It was thought that because of “Jerome’s” dark complexion, he was perhaps either Italian or Portuguese. The logical home for him, then, would be in Meteghan with the Nicholas family. John Nicholas was a Corsican who spoke several languages and certainly would have great empathy for this pathetic-looking young man. Nicholas fought in the Crimean war, he was captured, then escaped, and made his way to Nova Scotia and found a new life within the Acadian community.
    Nicholas felt certain that Jerome understood Italian. When he spoke to him in that language, he could see a reaction to his questions in Jerome’s eyes. During one period of questioning, Nicholas thought he heard a word from Jerome that sounded like “Trieste.” One thing was clear to Nicholas—this mystery man was living in great fear.
    In the months to come, Jerome’s health improved and he was able to move around on his stumps. He spent many hours sitting on the cliffs looking out to sea. What was he thinking? Was he expecting a ship to come and rescue him? Or was he afraid that someone out there on the high seas was coming to murder him?
    Jerome’s stay with the Nicholas family lasted for seven years, but when John Nicholas’s wife died, Jerome was forced to move in with a Mrs. Dedier Comeau of St. Alphonse de Clare, then known as Cheticamp. At the Comeau home Jerome settled in quickly and instantly became friends with the Comeau children. According to the children, when the adults were out of the house, he would speak to them, but would fall silent again when the older folk returned. Once, the children asked him why he wouldn’t talk to grownups, and Jerome shook his head, saying, “ No, no.” And when the children asked him how he lost his legs, he said, “Chains. Sawed off on table.”
    The government of Nova Scotia paid for newspaper advertisements in the hope that someone might know the identity of Jerome. As a result, many people visited the Comeau home, but for the most part, these people were merely curious and only wanted to look at the mysterious “Jerome.” The government notices even reached the Mahoney family, living in New York City. The two Mahoney sisters wrote the Comeaus, thinking that Jerome might be their brother who had run away from home when he was eleven years old. The Mahoney family had spent their life savings trying to locate their lost brother. In the end, however, it turned out that the Digby County Jerome was not the Jerome of New York City. Many other theories about Jerome’s identity were proposed. It was even suggested that Jerome was a ward of the province of New Brunswick, and that to avoid paying for his keep, New Brunswick officials had had him dumped on the shores of Nova Scotia.
    Many of the children who had known Jerome when they were young visited