104 MusEUM AND ART Noss.

Apropos of wind or lack of it rather, about the time Thermopylae was in these
waters, a scow-schooner, the Maid of Oregon, traded between Puget Sound ports and
the Columbia River. The Maid was a serviceable vessel enough, but no clipper. Her
captain and owner was a lanky chin-whiskered farmer, the mate a Dutchman (in
sailing-ship days anyone who said “Yah” for “Yes” was so-called), and if memory
serves aright, one lone youth was cook and crew. Once when sailing down the Straits
the skipper had turned in, leaving the mate at the wheel. After a couple of hours he
poked his head out of the companion-way to find the same point of land, to which he
thought he had bid good-bye some hours previous, still in sight. He hadn’t noticed
that it was nearly dead calm as in a rage he turned on the mate, “You gol-darned
Dutch fool,” he bawled, “what are you trying to do with my ship. Why in the Sam
Hill ain’t you down to Flattery.’” The mate took a look at the sails flapping in the
light airs, then turning to his raging skipper coolly enquired, “Vell, Capt’in, how de
hell a man goin’ to sail midout vind?”

It is hardly fair, perhaps, to bring clipper ships into such comparison, but had
Thermopylae been in sight at the time, Capt. Winchester could have given a demon-
stration. But many masters of fine ships would have had to remain dumb to the
problem presented by the chief officer of the Maid of Oregon.

The Portuguese, having taken over Thermopylae, stationed her on the Tagus to
be used as a naval training ship for boys, her name being changed to Pedro Nunes.
Senor Nunes may have been quite an important individual in his own right, but his
name could add no lustre to the fame of the old tea clipper. No record of service in
her new sphere is available, but she surely must have at least made occasional short
cruises to give her cadets some sea training during the decade that she served them.
In 1907 she was declared unsuitable (no doubt she must have required frequent
pumping), and was condemned. But the Portuguese must have some sense of fitness
beyond the ordinary, for instead of sending the famous clipper to the breaker’s yard
they gave her a naval funeral. Beyond the bare statement that she was towed to sea
and used as a target nothing appears to be known. One writer has claimed that she
was decorated with flags for the occasion. One would like to think that such was the
case and that the grand little ship went down with colors flying into the depth of
ocean which had treated her not unkindly.

Beauty and strength, speed and endurance, faithful service! By all of these
Thermopylae is entitled to a place of honor in the front rank of the finest ships that
ever sailed the seas.