Seamen will reunite to recall Stranger days

Deepa Bharath

It was a voyage that changed many lives.

Sixty-five years ago, Allan Fainbarg was a wide-eyed Sea Scout. He

was offered food, board and $10 a month to sail aboard the motor ship

Stranger for a year to collect exotic animals for the San Diego Zoo.

“I begged to get on the ship,” said Fainbarg, 84, a longtime Lido

Isle resident.

Today, 30 of the old-timers will meet at Fainbarg’s home and

reminisce about their days aboard the 221-foot yacht that was a

Newport Beach landmark for many years. They will probably talk about

how they roped iguanas or held little sea turtles in their hand

during their Galapagos Islands adventure.

But they will all agree that the months they spent aboard the

Stranger provided a voyage of discovery and education, and an episode

forever gilded in their collective memory.

Each Sea Scout on the Stranger became a seaman for life, Fainbarg

said.

“We all stayed close to the water or had something to do with

boats,” he said.

Among the men lucky enough to be part of the group’s 65th reunion

today are Lloyd “Swede” Johnson and Vic Alleman, both of Costa Mesa.

Alleman hosted the group’s 50th reunion.

Alleman was 16 and had just received his Eagle Scout badge when he

traveled on the Stranger to the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tahiti.

“It was all one big highlight,” he said. “That trip changed the

way I looked at my life. I had goals after that. I really started to

love the outdoors and have had boats all my life since then.”

Johnson is a retired sailmaker from the loft of Baxter and Cicero,

a member of the Balboa Yacht Club and has been active in setting

marks for Olympic yachting and other major regattas. In 1985, Johnson

was named Newport Beach Yachtsman of the Year and received the Edward

Kennedy Award from the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club.

The group will sorely miss one man: Corona del Mar’s nautical

legend John Blaich died of cancer in March at age 84. Blaich’s

friends say it was his time aboard the Stranger that made him the

seaman that he was. Blaich was a renowned sailing instructor and

boating historian.

The Stranger was owned by Fred E. Lewis, also the ship’s captain.

He brought the ship to Balboa in 1935. The Stranger was built in

Sweden in 1916 as a four-hatch cargo ship with two well-decks. In

1929, it was purchased by the president of Armour meat packing

company, who converted it into a yacht. At that time, it was used for

scientific studies in the Caribbean for National Geographic.

Lewis brought it in 1935 from its New London, Conn., berth. Blaich

was one of the 13 Sea Scouts who accompanied Lewis to the East Coast

to bring the Stranger to Balboa. Lewis was a multimillionaire and

one-time owner of the Diamond Bar ranch. He built the well-known

brick mansion on the peninsula bay front that later came to be known

as the Bartholomae home.

Fainbarg also accompanied Lewis on a three-month voyage to Alaska.

“It was an adventure, no doubt,” he recalled, glancing fondly at

the walrus tusks and other ivory items he had placed on his home bar

counter.

“We traded the tusks and ivory with the Eskimos for things like

combs, hair oil and wristwatches.”

Fainbarg said this is probably going to be the group’s last

reunion.

“It was a special year for us,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed talking

about it. If I live long enough, I’m going to miss the reunions.”