WEALTHY YACHT HERMIT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 20

WEALTHY YACHT HERMIT

I LIFE AND DEATH IN A PALATIAL CRAFT. Mr. Bayard Brown, an American bachelor millionaire hermit, who for 3S years lived in a palatial yacht on the Essex coast, died at the age of 73. Once well known in American society, Mr. Bayard Brown, for reasons best known to himself, left Now York and became a recluse on the yacht" Valfreyia, a handsome craft of over 700 tons, built for King Edward when Prince of "Wales, which was for about 20 years anchored off Brightlingsea, says tho "Morning Post." During the war the Admiralty ordered the yacht to move higher up the river, and she went into dry dock at Wivenhoe. Regular watches were kept, stores ordered, aiid steam kept up in readiness to leave at a moment's notice, but no order to sail over came.

Mr. Bayard Brown lost liis old skipper, tlio lato Captain FioMgato, some years back, and this was a blow -which affected him, causing liis greator rotirement. Residents tell of one night on shore which Mr. Bayard Brown spent at a local hotel. Elaborate arrangements were made for his comfort, but he never repeated the experiment. He greatly disliked leaving his yacht, and only consented to sleep ashore because of renovations and alterations aboard.

His eccentricities were many. To applicants for appointments as chefs or sailors he behaved' in an extraordinary way. Sometimes he sent men away after engaging then, and recompensed them by throwing coppers into their hats, which he had asked them to hold out. To one disappointed sailor he said, '' Go and play nap.'' Money he gave, freely on occasions, and often to good purpose.

The great marble staircase at the Town Hall, Colchester, is reputed to be his anonymous gift, and Brightlingsea owes to him its mayoral chain and numerous gifts, _ including ferry shelters and a recreation, ground. Ho gave annually £10 for the relief of the local unemployed, and his custom was to write "Anonymous ten pounds M.8.8."