The first Airstream Wally Byam African Caravan was in 1959.
In the late 1950’s, before embarking on the first of these incredible adventures, he made plans for retirement. He turned over the keys to the California factory to Art Costello, and Andy Charles was chosen to lead in Jackson Center.
A separate sales division organized the Caravans and managed the Wally Byam Caravan Club. My mother, Helen Byam Schwamborn, would continue the Caravans and assist the WBCCI.
But until his retirement, scheduled to take place after he returned from Africa, he was still in control of the corporation.
He had big plans for retirement. Growing up, he read Conrad, Kipling, Jack London. He served as a cabin boy up the Pacific Coast, from Oregon to Alaska. Later, he traveled the Pacific and spoke often of Tahiti.
His knowledge of the sea came in handy as manager of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He once posted a sign that said STEAK TONIGHT. After dinner, one of his brothers commented that the steaks tasted salty.
Any Airstream aficionado knows Wally and Airstream used nautical names for products: Clipper, Tradewind, and Land Yacht are but a few. Within the trailers, you’ll find bulkheads and a galley. Wally envisioned his gleaming travel trailers as if they were land-based ocean craft.
In 1955, while scouting for the next year’s Caravan through Europe, Wally’s wife Stella wrote to Helen Byam Schwamborn from Marseilles. “Wally is quite the sailor,” she wrote. “We went out sailing for the afternoon, and I was impressed by his knowledge in our excursion.”
Wally also had great interest in the sailing adventures of Irving and Electa Johnson. They were a married couple who circumnavigated the globe seven times, were featured in National Geographic, wrote a number of books, and later gave a series of touring lectures.
So he decided after he retired he wanted to sail. He had an attorney and friend, Jack Garmhausen, procure a yacht before he left for Africa, and as it was prepared, Wally would communicate with Jack at mail stops as they traveled across the continent.
When Wally returned to the States after the Caravan, it was full steam ahead on his ketch. It was aptly named the Caravan.
The design was complete, and there is a target date for the main-mast stepping. In ancient times, the tradition was to place a coin underneath the ship’s mast. It was believed that if the ship sank, it was payment to Charon, the fare paid to cross the river Styx. As legends go, it was placed under the mast as a tribute to the gods for the ship’s successful construction.
The Schwamborn family asked Wally if we could furnish the coin, and he agreed. I remember the day my mother and I went to Wickersham’s Jewelry in Bakersfield, California to purchase the gold coin.
Unfortunately, Wally became terminally ill. The Caravan had passed all trial runs and was ready to sail. But when the time came to sail across the Atlantic, through the canal, and up the western coast of the Pacific to Los Angeles, it was too late for Wally to come aboard.
When the ketch arrived in Long Beach, there was a picture of the boat on the freighter Esperanza with a short description. It read,
$195,000 YACHT – The 52-foot 40-ton ketch Caravan just built in Amsterdam for Wally Byam, owner of Airstream Trailer Co, was brought here piggyback on the Hamburg-America Line’s Esperanza. The yacht is designed to sleep 11 and is the latest in luxury, costing $195,000. It is air conditioned, has an all-electric galley, is steam heated even to bathroom towelracks, has deepfreeze, hydraulic anchor lifts, hinged masts which lower flush with the deck to allow it under bridges and diesel auxiliary power. It was designed by Sparkman and Stevens, designers of the America Cup defender Columbia, and has teakwood decks and steel hull. It was unloaded at Berth B12 in Long Beach under the direction of Capt. O. W. Hay of San Pedro and will be kept at Southwind Marina.
Wally was able to make one motorized ride on the Caravan around the harbor. He passed away on July 22, 1962.
There is a distinct difference between the Wally I knew and the man described when he’s mentioned today. What would Wally say? What would Wally do? He has become a patch, a logo, a mention in articles.
Wally was, and always will be, my cousin, mentor, employer, friend, and benefactor. Knowing his retirement was imminent, it was sad to walk the Caravan’s deck and walk through the cabin, knowing Wally was dying and would never have a chance to sail Europe’s waterways or head to Tahiti.
Several years ago, I mentioned Wally’s retirement and his ketch Caravan. The person asked why I hadn’t written about his sailing and his ketch.
That Sunday, I began to write a story. The information was later used by Fred Coldwell in his Airstream Life article about the ketch Caravan. I took a long shot late that evening and sent an email to Sparkman-Stephens requesting some information.
When I woke up and turned on my computer, there was a response from the company’s president. Attached: the sail configuration, cabin and hull plans, interior and exterior photographs, and trail run.
May the tradewinds always caress Wally’s face as he travels on distant heavenly shores.
Dale “Pee Wee” Schwamborn has silver in his blood. Each week, Pee Wee shares one of his many stories, including his experiences on the iconic Airstream Caravans, his time spent working in the Airstream factory, and the many Airstreamers he’s befriended, far and wide.
