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.