Newspaper clipping from the Brooklyn Eagle dated Monday, July 21 [1873 or 1879]. The article heading is "YACHTING," and is subtitled "Annual Cruise of the Brooklyn Club: Glen Cove, Huntington, New Haven." The clipped article describing the rendezvous on Friday, July 18th is incomplete, but appears to have been saved because of the listing of captains which includes Charles S. Stratton, Captain of Maggie B. Stratton is better known by his stage name, "Gen. Tom Thumb," a little person performer who was employed for many years by P. T. Barnum. Stratton was 35 years old in 1873, and had become a wealthy international celebrity. His first yacht, Maggie B., was purchased in 1872 following a very successful three-year world tour with his wife, Lavinia Warren Stratton. It was a second hand vessel acquired from Henry R. Bishop, and Stratton bought it with intent to fix it up and outfit it for racing. The article classifies it as a sloop yacht and Stratton himself worked the tiller. Barnum's grandson Clinton Seeley recalled being on the vessel when he was a child, so we may infer that Stratton invited Barnum and his family to join him on board. Barnum and Stratton were lifelong friends. Stratton was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1838, and "discovered" by the showman in late 1842. Barnum recognized the boy's innate talent for acting, and the value of his bright and personable manner, so in 1843 brought him to New York City to Barnum's American Museum. At that time Stratton was less than two feet tall and perfectly proportioned. He was taught acting, and quickly became a very popular and sought after attraction at the museum. His salary was increased accordingly, and from 1844 to 1846 he and Barnum went on tour in Europe, both of them achieving fame and fortune. Stratton married in 1863. In 1883 he passed away at age 45, his death caused by a stroke; he is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut, diagonally opposite the Barnum family's monument.
