an agreement could not be reached, Helms filed a lawsuit against the BCL in the London Chancery court. Several attempts were made to settle out of court but were unsuccessful and in December, 1876, the court ruled in Helms' favor, the judge directing that the Sarawak branch of the company should be liquidated, if necessary, to pay him and appointing a receiver. All BCL business in Sarawak was temporarily suspended in December, 1876, due to the court order, causing significant confusion and concern in Sarawak, but business appears to have resumed by January, 1877, when Helms and the Directors settled out-of-court. The settlement appears to have been quite advantageous for Helms, allowing him to retire from BCL employment. White Sea In 1877, Helms was asked by friends to investigate the potential of reopening some abandoned mines in the White Sea. The mines were rumored to have been opened around 1732 by Baron Curt Alexander von Schömberg, a Saxon working for the Russian government, and then been abandoned several years later when Schömberg fell out of favor with the Russian court. In July 1877, Helms traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to investigate the validity of the claims and obtain permissions from the Russian government. He found the records to be legitimate, and the government willing to allow it: The concession embraced more than a dozen localities on the coast of Russian Lapland, and on islands in the White Sea. For a specified time we were to be at liberty to examine and work these, and on the expiry of that time we had the refusal to take them over for a certain consideration. Helms intended to investigate two abandoned mining areas: copper mines on the far eastern coast of the Kola Peninsula at Rusinga Creek just north of the Ponoy River; and silver mines on Bear Island in the Kandalaksha Gulf near Umba. Helms planned the venture for the summer of 1878, during the brief period when the weather was suitable for travel and work in the extreme northern regions where the mines were located. He purchased the steamship Vestfold in Christiania, Norway (now Oslo) in May 1878, and ordered supplies to be delivered to Trondheim, Norway, and Arkhangelsk, Russia. He recruited a crew in Christiania, and traveled north to load supplies in Trondheim. He continued north, recruiting Norwegian miners at the Alten Copper Mines at Kåfjord, and traveling around the