Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1913-06-11
Eccentric New York Yachtsman
Was Generous Giver.
hermet Of Magnificent Vessel Kept
His Well Paid Crew In contin.
ual 1urmoiI-Ready to Sail
But Never Started.

New York, N. Y.-The weird career
Of McEvers Bayard Brown is drawing
to q close. He Is an eccentric million
aire New Yorker, who for twenty-four
years has led q grotesque existence
aboard his magnificent yacht, the Val
freya, anchored In Brightlingsea har-
Dor. The doctors say he is critically
Ill and likely to die, says on London
correspondent of the New York Eve
ming World. IN.
The squirt gun, with which he glee-
fully shot icy water into the ears OF
sleeping sailors. the thick sticks with
which he belabored long suffering
members Of the crew and the iron 20.
ker with which he has long delighted
to thump the second engineer have all
been laid aside.
The beggars who for years have
gone out in boats to the Valfreya and
wheedled money from her strange
owner with tales of imaginary fires In
their homes, the death Of children
that never existed and the untimely
demise of cows and horses that had
no existence save in fancy. are now
forbidden to board the yacht.
Brightlingsea is Respondent over
the prospect of losing the odd char
Eacter who has been free with his
money. after q wildly capricous fash
ion, for more than two decades.
| Twenty-four years ago the Valfreya,
then spick and span and new, an
choyed in the mouth Of the Colne, a
1lttl1. ~ -ox,o rt1 ,3r }rtos ho 400 of
the Essex coast. A new master from
Brightlingsea was hired with the un-
derstanding that he must be forever
ready to set sail at once, though. he
was told, 1t was hardly likely that the
anchor ever would be lifted again. At
first a crew of forty-three men was
kept aboard the yacht Now only half
. dozen are there. The yacht IL
crusted inches thick with barnacles
today. '5t Il
The master has prospered. He owns
three tugboats and houses in the
town. But those who know Mr..
Browns peculiarities say he has
earned the money. 81 .gst
Word long ago reached Brightling-
sea that the yacht owners father was
the late Alexander Speers Brown, "a
very wealthy New Yorker. and that
he was . grandson OF the late Robert
Bayard. 1t was said his cousins. w.
Bayard Cutting and r. Fulton Cutting
OF New York. managed his estate in
America, sending him the income,
which he spent or gave away on the
Valfreya. &, I.
( He paid his sailors unheard OF
prices, with the stipulation that they
should never complain of treatment
received. He got great fun out OF catch
Ing men alone and unawares and beat
ing them with sticks. At other times
he would invite the whole crew to
drink ale with him and. after the
draught had been disposed Of, would
fall to right and left. with HE cudgel,
beating the y men until. weary and
laughing, he would sink into seat.
He particularly delighted to beat
second engineers with iron pokers.
These strange propensities on his part
made 1t difficult to keep men aboard
the; yacht despite the ridiculously
high wages paid.
He also loved to empty buckets OF
water on sailors as they slept and he
had q two-quart syringe Of tin with
which he squirted water into the ears
OF men slumbering soundly in their
bunks. 81
Sometimes all night long he would
prance about the decks on all tours
mewing like cat. For a period he
imagined he and the ship had been
surcharged with electricity and at an
other time had the hallucination that
blue devils" had stolen his lungs.
On some occasions he would admit
beggars who came in boats. but a.
often as otherwise would stand at the
rail and pelt those in the boats with
potatoes and cabbages, berating them
with his tongue meanwhile.
He gave parks to several towns on
the Essex coast and also has long
maintained several libraries.