The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-06-07
Eccentric New York YaChtsman
Was Generous Giver.
Hermet Of Magnificent Vessel Kept
His Well Paid Crew In Contin-
uaI Turmoil-Ready to Sail
But Never Started.

New York. n. Y.-The weird career
of McEvers Bayard Brown is drawing
to . close He is al eccentric million
aire New Yorker. who for twenty-four
years has led a 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.
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 po-
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
ucIIlSc vi CO"o I'LL oOo thAt iieh'
no existence save in fancy, are now
forbidden to board the yacht.
Brightlingsea is respondent over
the prospect of losing the odd char
acter who has been free with his
money, after a wildly capricous fash
ion, for more than two decades.
! Twenty-four years ago the Valfreya
then spick and span 'and new, an
chored in the mouth of the Colne, 6
little river emptying into the sea a
the Essex coast. A new master from
Brightlingsea was hired with the un
Outstanding that he must be forever
ready to set sail at once, though, h
was told, it was hardly likely that th'
anchor ever would be lifted again. A
first a crew of forty-three men wa
kept aboard the yacht. Now only hal
dozen are there. The yacht i
crusted inches thick with barnacle
today
The master has prospered. He own
three tugboats and houses In tn
town. But those who know MI
Browns peculiarities say he ha
earned the money.
Word long ago reached Brightlinf
sea that the yacht owners father wa
the late Alexander Speers Brown.
} very wealthy New Yorker. and tina
he was a grandson of the late Rober
Bayard. 1t was said his cousins, "
Bayard Cutting and r. Fulton Cuttin
, OF New York. managed his estate !
. America. sending him the income
which he spent or gave away on tn
, Valfreya.
He paid his sailors unheard {
prices, with the stipulation that the
, should never complain Of treatmeI
received. He got great fun out of catcl
ing men alone and unawares and bea
ing them with sticks. At other time
[ he would invite the whole crew I
{ drink ale with him and, after ii
, draught had been disposed of. woul
{ fall to right and left, with his cudge
h beating the men until, weary an
:. laughing, he would sink into seat.
t He particularly delighted to be-
/. second engineers with iron poker
= These strange propensities on his pa
# made 1t difficult to keep men aboal
" the yacht despite the ridiculous
|. high wages paid.
II He also loved to empty buckets
+ water on sailors as they slept and
d had a two-quart syringe Of tin wi
W which he squirted water into the ca
il of men slumbering soundly in the
d hunks.
= Sometimes all night long he won
prance about the decks on all fou
mewing like a cat. For a period
imagined he and the ship had be
e surcharged with electricity and at 4
IT other time had the hallucination tn
n. blue devils" had stolen his lungs.
r. On some occasions he would adm
n. beggars who came In boats, but
70 often as otherwise would stand at t
n. rail and pelt those in the boats wi
,e potatoes and cabbages, berating thu
with his tongue meanwhile.
as He gave parks to several towns
tx the Essex coast and also has 10
n maintained several libraries.