HERBERT E JULYAN
In 1886 I joined George Wilson of Glasshouse Street, Piccadilly Circus. My new employer was well known to yachtsmen all over the world. He was a most extaordinary man. One of the most interesting sales we effected was the sale of the Reveler, 1,150 tons. Mr Algar of the Packard Car Company wanted a large Diesel motor yacht; there was nothinig suitable for sale, so he decided to build from Cox & Stevens' designs. Krupps captured the order. I do not know how much money they lost in accepting it.
Before this £75,000 yacht was finished or furnished Mr Algar died, and the yacht was for sale. We advised she should be sent to England, certainly the best market for large yachts. The new yacht, which was called the Reveler, was sent to Southampton and we communicated with everybody in Europe we thought might buy.
We had a good response to our letters. Reveler was inspected by quite a number of well-known people whom I make a point of meeting - Baron de Forest, Norman Woolworth, T.O.M. Sopwith, the late Chairman of the National City Bank of New York, a number of other interested American yachtsmen, and Lord Beaverbrook, whom I did not meet.
An amusing episode happened during my visit with the rich banker. A well-known American yachtsman was being shown over the yacht by my son. When in the chart-house he asked if it was possible to have a drink aboard. My son sent for a bottle of whisky, and whilst they were drinking this the steward announced I was aboard with the banker. On hearing this the American said: "Julyan, if the Chairman of the National City Bank comes up here tell him the whisky is yours."
I wonder if he had a big overdraft!
The man who eventually purchased the Reveler never saw her before doing so. He was Charles E.F. McCann, who married one of F.W. Woolworths daughters. We received a wire from Germany; he wanted pieces of wood painted with the colour of the decorations in each cabin sent to him at Claridges Hotel within three days. As he was returning to the States by the Bremen, could we have the Reveler brought alongside the ship in Southampton Water, where he could look over her?
The pieces of wood were sent to the hotel. I wrote pointing out that it would cost about four hundred pounds to pull Reveler off the mud, put her alongside the Bremen and put her in her mud berth again; but if Mr McCann would take a fast car from London to Southampton the morning Bremen sailed I would have a fast launch ready, take him aboard the Reveler and then catch the Bremen.
The reply was, "Meet me at Claridges Hotel."
I called on Mr McCann at Claridges at 10.30 next morning. He received me in his dressing-gown and said he was very busy, people had offered him castles, dogs, horses, etc. He wanted to know the lowest price of the yacht; I told him, and his reply was: "I am through, you can tell Cox and Stevens. Nobody can afford to keep a yacht like that nowadays. We had to sell Woolworth's house at a tremendous sacrifice, it was so big nobody could afford to maintain it."
I spoke no longer about Reveler but commenced talking about various subjects. It is not often one has the chance of talking to the president of such a tremendous company as Woolworths. Mr McCann had just come from Germany. I was anxious to obtain his opinion of Germany and the Germans. I also thought it would be most interesting to know what was the general effect on the retail trade in a town where Woolworths opened a branch there. Mr McCann was a fluent talker. It was twenty-five to one by the time we had finished our most interesting conversation. I thanked Mr McCann for the way he had received me and cabled Mr Cox to meet Mr McCann's steamer on it's arrival in New York. He did, and Mr McCann purchased Reveler, changing her name to Chalena, Mrs McCann superintending the furnishing of the yacht.
herbert e julyan - "sixty years of yachts" - 1950