There were no qualified bids for the historic ship Falls of Clyde.

The deadline to submit a bid was 11 a.m. Thursday. State officials gathered before the 140-year-old Scottish ship at Honolulu Harbor on Thursday afternoon to open the sole offer received by mail, and it turned out to be a hoax.

“We were optimistic a bidder would step forward and purchase this ship, however we did not receive any qualified bids that were able to meet the requirements,” said Derek Chow, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation Harbors Division, in a statement. “While a lot of people may want to see the ship restored, paying for it remains an issue.”

The only bid — a typed letter mailed through the U.S. Postal Service with no return address — offered 25 cents and was signed by someone pretending to be Vladimir Putin, president of Russia. It came with a quarter taped to the paper letter, but did not come with the $1.5 million performance bond required by the state Harbors Division.

The state Harbors Division on Feb. 7 issued the notice of public auction for the sale of the Falls of Clyde, requiring the buyer to provide a $1.5 million performance bond and guarantee the removal of the ship from Honolulu Harbor within 60 days of purchase.

There was no minimum bid, so a 25-cent offer with the required bond would have been accepted from a serious bidder, according to HDOT spokesman Tim Sakahara.

With the auction officially closed, Sakahara said the state will now consider other options, such as selling by negotiation or donation of the ship to a governmental agency. Both options would come with the stipulation that the ship be removed within 60 days.

The last option after all other avenues are exhausted, he said, would be to put out a request for bids for the ship’s removal.

The state is offering a request for bids for the removal of a neighboring ship, the Kulamanu, from Pier 6 on the other side of the former Hawaii Maritime Center, after its owner was unable to sail it to Cali­fornia last year.

On Thursday, David O’Neill, director of Save Falls of Clyde International, wrote a letter to Chow asking the state to continue working with his group to negotiate an acceptable lift plan to get the ship back to its birthplace of Scotland.

O’Neill said the group was unable to secure the performance bond but was still engaged with two lift operators to transport the ship from Honolulu Harbor to the River Clyde. Both contractors indicated the lift will have to be in June or later.

Bruce McEwan, president of Friends of Falls of Clyde, the registered owner of the ship, said he hoped the state would give O’Neill a chance and “consider letting the Scottish plan continue to develop.”

Built by Russell &Co. in Port Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878, the Falls of Clyde is believed to be the only surviving, sail-driven oil tanker in the world, and the last of a fleet named after Scottish waterfalls.

Sakahara said the letter, while appreciated, confirmed that the group did not have the funds needed and that June or later would be too late for the Falls of Clyde’s removal.

The state’s goal is to have the historic ship removed before June 1, the start of the hurricane season.

“Given the deteriorated state of the ship and how many holes were patched up,” he said, “we worry and have concerns that if this is an active hurricane season that it may not survive a severe storm.”