Sail Number: 91
Type: Schooner
LOA: 58’0″ / 17.67m – LOD: 50’ 0” / 15.24m – LWL: 42’0″ / 12.80m – Beam: 13’7” / 4.14m – Draft: 7’5” / 2.26m – Design Number: – Designer: Frank M. Prothero – Current Owner: Adam Weissmuller – Year Launched: 1931 – Built By: Frank M. Prothero – Hull Material: Wood – Displacement: 23 tons – Former name(s) Santa Guadalupe – ON: 231002 – Engine: Detroit 353 – Home Port: San Diego, CA
Historical:
In 1927 Bob Prothero and Ernest McDonald opened the Prothero & McDonald Boat Company in a floating seaplane hangar, and Frank Prothero came aboard as shop foreman in 1930. In 1931 the brothers built for their own use the 42-foot schooner Allure, which they later sold to Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), an Olympic swimming Gold Medalist also known for playing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape man Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s.
The Prothero & McDonald Boat Company was on the west side of Lake Union, at 2046 Westlake Drive W., where the Electric Boat Company is today: see the site from the air on Google Here
Tarzan, My Father” by Johnny Weissmuller, Jr
“Almost every weekend, he [Johnny] raced his Allure to Catalina Island against Humphrey Bogart in his Santana and Errol Flynn in his Sirocco. All three would bet on the outcome. On one of these excursions, after they had anchored at Catalina, Dad went aboard the Sirocco to collect money from Flynn, who had lost the race. Errol was drunk and belligerent. The Sirocco had a small, old-fashioned cannon mounted on her bow — the kind that had a fuse at the touchhole — and Flynn pointed this cannon at Johnny’s boat, took the cigar from his mouth, and lit the fuse, muttering, ‘I’ll sink you, you sumbitch!’ Johnny ran over and kicked the muzzle upwards (it was actually a tiny thing, mounted on a swivel, so he’s lucky he didn’t break his foot), and the two men stood there in awe as the cannonball shot straight up in the air and then descended vertically. It missed them by a scant few feet and dropped cleanly through the upper deck of the Sirocco. After a few seconds, Flynn burst into uproarious laughter. The cannonball was not the explosive kind, and the boat was rafted up, so there was no danger of her sinking, but even so it could have been a disaster.”
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1931) Prothero & McDonald Boat Company
Owner/Guardian: (1935) – Johnny Weissmuller – renamed Allure to Santa Guadalupe, in honor of his wife Lupe. Divorced in 1939, changed vessel name SANTA GUADALUPE back to ALLURE, official number 231002.
Actor: Errol Flynn
Actor: John Wayne
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Actor: David Niven
Owner/Guardian: Guy S. Folsom
Owner/Guardian: Adam Weissmuller
