The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1920-09-30
Pioneer Sea Captain Had His Own Methods of At
to Little Details Such as Legal Processes

In these days when American ships
manned by the finest American boys
trained in our merchant marine sail
the seven seas, the little old wooden
traders that once carried on the local
traffic are forgotten. And forgotten,
too, are the ways and means used
to secure their motley crews, whose
manner of living gave to sailors in
every port an unsavory reputation.
Captain jeremiah Thomas, whose
cruises are now limited chiefly to his
backyard in Seattle, smiles whimsical
ly when he reads and hears of the
training the high school boys now get
before they go to sea, and OF their
roomy, airy quarters with steel hunks
and good food.
The captain sits and looks out over
the harbor from his garden up there
on the hill, and it is hard to tell from
the look in his shrewd old eyes
whether he is seeing some huge liner
berthing along the immense piers, or
some little moss-grown brig dragging
into the bay to be beached and scraped
before she takes on load of lumber
at the old Yesler mill of the pioneer
days and sails again for the Hawaiian
Islands. Still rugged looking, as he
sits and smokes on a pipe the essence
of which is itself reminder of early
periods, Captain Thomas is an ency-
clopedia of early Pacific shipping,
closed encyclopedia, for only on rare
occasions will he tell of his expert
ences and those of his fellows.
However, the comparison of the
present-day sailor and his opportuni-
ties and ships stirred the old captain
deeply, and he told this story of the
handicaps of his day on the salt water.
Sailors was sailors when | first
went to sea- he said. But then Pu-
get Sound has changed, too so l sup
pose the sea and her ways should be
altered some
And then he went on to tell of
when he first sailed in this vast inland
sea in the early sos, mate of a little
brig that had brought a party of Cali
fornia prOspectors north to take part
in the Frazer River gold rush.
I'D seen em go into the California
gold rush and come out busted, SO l
didn't take to this one great DEAL
he said. But he did take to the idea
that the gold seekers would need pro-
visions, and took what little money
he had and ventured it on shipload
of foodstuffs and clothing, which he
brought north for the miners.
On the results of that trip Captain
Thomas decided to start in for him
self, and built ship on the upper
sound, where the city of Bellingham
now stands.
The captains experience with YES
sells of various rigs only increased his
affection for the kind on which he first
went to sea. So he decided to build
a schooner from the best of Douglas
fir, and named her The Lady Thomas.
Il got into trouble with her on her
first trip around the Sound and the
old captain smiled as if in pleasant
recollection. 1--WE were in some small
town on the upper sound don't
surely remember which-and the crew
pulled their usual job of going ashore
and getting drunk. At that it would
have been. all right, but the mate,
stubby little Irishman, got into fight
in an eating house and cleaned out
the place with a chair.
I'VE sailed the next day for down
the coast, and | did not think any
thing more about it, but when we got
back on the Sound again | found out
what the word law meant in a new
settlement. There was a scamp here
in Seattle who had come from back
east to make an easy living in the new
place, and | guess he had found pick
ings scarce. lie had happened to be
up Sound the day my crew went on
a rampage, and what did he do but
get that bum cook to sue me for dam
ages.