Historical:

118 foot Schooner “Zaca”, which means “peace” in Samoan, was designed by Garland Rotch and built by Nunes Brothers Boat and Ways Co., Sausalito, California, for Templeton Crocker (grandson of Charles Crocker, one of the “big four” who built the Central Pacific Railroad.) Zaca was Launched in 1929 and christened by Academy Award winner Marie Dressler. Crocker sponsored expeditions to Polynesia, traveled the world in his yacht and helped rejuvenate the California Historical Society. Garland Rotch was Zaca’s first captain and her maiden voyage in 1930 was the first time a private yacht circumnavigated the globe from the West Coast. The crew included, scientists, about a dozen professional sailors as well as a photographers. In 1941, every seaworthy private yacht over 75′ was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy. Templeton Crocker was paid just $35,000 for his beloved $350,000 schooner. Zaca was never renamed, except in World War II where she was “IX-73”

In 1946 Zaca was purchased by Errol Flynn who proceeded to do a full, much needed restoration and de-militarization. The Zaca was Errol Flynn’s pride and joy throughout the years of ownership until October 14th, 1959 the day he passed away. What followed was a horrendous crime! Errol Flynn’s estate was for 14 years in probate totally inexcusable. The Zaca suffered dreadfully – she was so badly abused and suffered outrageous indignities during this time.. She was sold, she was stolen, she was robbed of all her values, respect and distinctions. She was left to decompose! But as Errol was a survivor, so was the Zaca she held out til one day her rescuer Roberto Memmo found and restored her to more than her former glory!

World War II Service

Due to the need for local patrol and rescue craft in the busy waters in the San Francisco area during World War II, the schooner was acquired by the Navy from Templeton Crocker on 12 June 1942. Placed in service on 19 June 1942 and assigned to the Western Sea Frontier, Zaca, classified a miscellaneous auxiliary and designated IX-73 operated as a plane-guard ship, standing ready to rescue the crews of any planes downed nearby.

Eventually relieved by the frigates (PF’s) of Escort Squadron 41, Zaca was placed out of service at Treasure Island, California on 6 October 1944; and her name was struck from the Navy list on 13 November 1944.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner/Guardian: 1990 – Roberto Memmo, Monaco
Owner/Guardian: 1990 – 1990 – Phillip Coussins
Owner/Guardian: 1965 – 1990 – Bernard Voisin, Villefranche
Owner/Guardian: 1959 – 1965 – Freddie Tinsley
Owner/Guardian: 1946 – 1959 – Errol Flynn, San Francisco
Owner/Guardian: 1945 – 1946 – Joseph Rosenberg, San Francisco for $14,350
Owner/Guardian: 1945 – 1945 – War Shipping Administration
Owner/Guardian: 1942 – 1945 – Navy – Name IX-73
Owner/Guardian: 1929 – 1942 – Templeton Crocker

In the Wake of the Zaca from SailFlix on Vimeo.

Wartime designation: Zahma (IX-63)

Type: Auxiliary Ketch

Ex; Thespian

LOA: 93′ 0″ / 28.00m – LWL: – Beam: 20′ 7″ / 6.27m – Draft: 7′ 9″ / (2.36m – Displacement: 75 tons – Sail Area: – Original Owner: John H. Cromwell, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. – Original Name: – Year Launched: 1915 – Designed by: Bowdoin B. Crowninshield – Built by: George Lawley & Son, Neponset, Massachusetts – Hull Material: Wood – In service: 26 February 1942 – Out of service: 13 April 1943 – Complement: 6 officers and men

Historical:

A wooden-hulled ketch with an auxiliary engine, she was designed by Bowdoin B. Crowninshield and completed in 1915 at Neponset, Massachusetts, by George Lawley & Son, for John H. Cromwell of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. Inspected by the Navy at the entry of the United States into World War I for possible service as a patrol craft, the vessel was rejected as “unsuitable for naval use.”

A quarter of a century later, the exigencies of war changed the Navy’s evaluation of the graceful craft, as she was again inspected, this time at the 11th Naval District, in early 1942. Acquired by the Port Director of San Diego, California, from R. J. Rheem on 13 February, Zahma was placed in service on 26 February 1942. Classified as an unclassified miscellaneous vessel and designated IX-63, Zahma was based at San Diego and operated as a local patrol craft into the spring of 1943. Placed out of service on 13 April 1943, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 18 July 1944.

ALTADENAN BUYS FINE YACHT
A. M. Andrews Bringing Big Pleasure Craft to This Coast
TO MAKE CRUISE
IN SOUTH SEAS
California Hotel Company
Official Predicts Big
Pasadena Season

The Pasadena Star, September 7, 1920

With the news that he has purchased one of the finest yachts on the Atlantic Coast which is now on its way here, A. M. Andrews of Altadena, inter-nationally known banker, vice-president and one of the chief owners of the California Hotel Company, returned home today after a summer passed in the East. Mr. Andrews will be here but a day or two, and will then go to San Diego to greet his family, which is staying there, and welcome his new yacht, which is expected at that port shortly.
Since Altadena is not a deep sea harbor, it cannot be the home port of the beautiful new yacht, which is named the Zahma, but the nearest harbor, that of San Pedro, will shelter the big new boat except when it is on cruises. One of those cruises, to be undertaken early next year, will be an extensive tour of the South Seas, bearing the Andrews family and friends. That voyage probably will last six or eight months.

Ideal Yachting Climate

“California and the Pacific Coast have the ideal summer yachting climate,” declared Mr. Andrews today. “It was for that reason that I am having my new yacht brought to this coast. Cruising will be a greater pleasure here than along the Atlantic.”

Mr. Andrews is greatly pleased with the record made by his new boat on the trip from New York to the Panama Canal, which it negotiated in thirteen days and twenty hours, setting a new record for yachts on that voyage. He expects a similar new record to be established by the Zahma on its run up the West Coast.

The new Andrews yacht is 95 feet long and 21 feet beam. It is ketch-rigged, with power equipment also, and will be, with the possible exception of Capt. John Barneston’s yacht at San Francisto, the largest pleasure craft in California. It has five staterooms, is palatially finished and a beautiful sea home.

Mr. Andrews already was the owner of a fine yacht in the East, which he now intends to sell. In that craft he attended the international yacht races off Sandy Hook.

Business conditions, none too good in the East in early summer, are improving rapidly, Mr. Andrews reports, and his opinion bears the stamp of authority through the fact that his banking house is one of the largest investment establishments of New York and Chicago.

Many Visitors Coming

“California will have the greatest influx of visitors in its history,” Mr. Andrews said today. “This is not a merely empty prediction, it is a statement of fact. I look for the biggest hotel season Pasadena has ever known. As I just arrived I’ve had no opportunity to check over hotel conditions here, but am gratified to hear of how good the summer season has been.”
Mr. Andrews plans to remain in California only until about October 1, when business will again necessitate his return to the East. He will, however, be back early in the winter. Mrs. Andrews accompanied her husband on his summer trip East, but their children were left at San Diego.

Marylanders at Home and Abroad
California Life Magazine, November 6, 1920

With a brilliant world-breaking record behind her, the palatial yacht, Zahma, owned by Mr. A. M. Andrews, vice president of the California Hotel Company, recently sailed into Pacific waters via the Panama Canal, her time from New York harbor in Crystobal this summer being thirteen days and twenty hours.

Just now she is resting from her labors and is being thoroughly overhauled, as Mr. and Mrs. Andrews expect, shortly, to use her in cruising the Mexican coast.

The Zahma, ketch rigged, is ninety-four feet in length and, beside her crew, sleeps eight people. She is finished in all the latest and most luxurious appointments, and combines the beauties of a sailing vessel with the convenience of twin engines.

The Andrews, who have a beautiful 84-foot gasoline boat on the east coast, the Sachem, plan to keep the Zahma for western waters entirely, as the yachtsman firmly believes the west coast is only just beginning to be recognized, its ideal summer and winter climate proving a magnet for cruising.

Several short cruises were made on the Zahma before she went into dry dock, Mr. Andrews himself taking the wheel in a run to San Francisco and return. Among his guests on this occasion were Mr. Garfield Jones of Pasadena and Mr. George Kirkwood of San Rafael Heights. Mr. Charles Hewitt of the Maryland was a delighted guest on a flying voyage to Catalina Island and back.

Just at present Mr. Andrews is in the east, but his winsome wife and two lovely kiddies, after several weeks at Coronado, are once again at their luxurious home in Altadena.

WWII service

Acquired by the Port Director of San Diego, California, from R. J. Rheem on 13 February, Zahma was placed in service on 26 February 1942. Classified as an unclassified miscellaneous vessel and designated IX-63, Zahma was based at San Diego and operated as a local patrol craft into the spring of 1943. Placed out of service on 13 April 1943, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 18 July 1944.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Notable Guest, and Reunion Information):

Ex; Thespian

Owner/Guardian: (1915-1919) – John H. Cromwell, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York.
Owner/Guardian: (1919-1920) – F. I. Jenckes of Providence, R. I.
Owner/Guardian: (1920-1929) – Archie M. Andrews, Altadena (inter-nationally known banker, vice-president and one of the chief owners of the California Hotel Company.)
Owner/Guardian: (1929) – Carl Schilling, Beverly Hills, California. (California Yacht Club)
Owner/Guardian: (1934,1938) – Donald Crisps and Jane Murfin
Owner/Guardian: (1941) – R. S. Rheem, Orinda, Calif (Newport Harbor Yacht Club)
Owner/Guardian: (1942-1944) Eleventh Naval District, Acquired by the Port Director of San Diego, Calif., from R. J. Rheem on 13 February 1942, Zahma was placed in service on 26 February 1942. Classified as a miscellaneous axiliary and designated IX-63, she was based at San Diego and operated as a local patrol craft into the spring of 1943. Placed out of service on 13 April 1943, Zahma was stricken from the Navy List on 18 July 1944.
Owner/Guardian: (1960) – Waldo Waterman
 

Historical:

The John G. Alden designed Cutter Zaida was the third vessel of the same name for George Ratsey of Ratsey & Lapthorn. Mr. Ratsey was the great-grandfather of Greenport residents Jane Ratsey Williams and her brother Colin Ratsey.

Due to the cruising and racing success of Mr. Ratsey’s previous boat, Zaida has practically the same underbody. Her draft slightly deeper, waterline, overhangs carried out, and her freeboard increased.

“Her construction is heavy and to the highest standards. Her backbone is of selected white oak, frames and beams of oak, planking is single mahogany and the deck of Port Orford cedar fastenings are of Everdur, as are chainplates and diagonal hull straps.”

Originally rigged as a Marconi main and gaff fore schooner, until 1935 as a Marconi rugged cutter; her speed increased notably. During her war years she served her country proud as a yawl.

WWII service

WWII Wartime designation: USCG 1941 – CGR 3070 – Picket Patrol — (nine-man crew) A part of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary made up of motor boats, yachts and other small craft.

Zaida, became legendary in December 1942 as it was ending its week-long patrol, the 58-foot yawl with her crew of nine nearly rolled on its beam in gale force winds that snapped the mizzen mast and caused other damage. Skipper Curtis Arnall, one of the radio voices of comic book hero, Buck Rogers, was able to send a distress message. Then he headed the boat southwest, running sometimes with winds so strong that they sailed barepoled. Over the course of the next twenty days, more than twenty-five planes and ships of the U.S. Army and Canadian Air Forces, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. and British navies searched for the sturdy craft. During this time, all the while experiencing a number of wrenching failed rescue attempts, Zaida sailed 3,100 miles from off Nantucket Shoals to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. Finally the boat was sighted fifteen miles from shore by a blimp and was taken in tow by a Coast Guard cutter. The hunt for Zaida constituted the largest search and rescue operation in the Atlantic by Allied Forces during World War II.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

• Owner: (1937) – George Ratsey, Ratsey & Lapthorn sailmakers.
• Owner: (1942) – U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
• Owner: (1978 – current) – David Lish
• Commander: Curtis Arnall

Resources

• Bravo Zero: The Coast Guard Auxiliary in World War II
  By C. Kay Larson
  National Historian
  United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
• Old Time Radio DVD
• Motorboating 1937

Historical:

Designed by Thomas F. McManus of Boston and built at the John F. James & Son Yard in Essex, Massachusetts, for Captain Jeff Thomas of Gloucester, Adventure was one of the last wooden sailing vessels of her kind built for the dory-fishing industry.

Adventure, named for one of the fantasy fleet of ships drawn by Captain Thomas’s young son, is a knockabout (spoonbow) schooner, designed without a bowsprit for the safety of the crew. The McManus knockabout design was regarded by maritime historian, Howard I. Chapelle, as “the acme in the long evolution of the New England fishing schooner.” Launched on 16 September 1926, Adventure measured 122 feet (37 m) from bow to stern, sported a gaff rig and carried a 120 horsepower (89 kW) diesel engine, and a crew of twenty-seven. She fished the once bountiful Grand Banks of the North Atlantic from her home port of Gloucester from 1926 to 1953 under Captain Jeff Thomas and later, Captain Leo Hynes. Adventure was the biggest money-maker of the time, landing nearly $4 million worth of cod and halibut in her fishing career. Her retirement marked the end of the American dory-fishing schooner in the North Atlantic.

In 1954, Adventure was sold to Donald Hurd, Dayton Newton, and Herbert Beizer and refitted for the windjammer tourist trade, carrying vacationing passengers up and down the Maine coast. The fish pens were converted into cabins and the engine removed to make room for sleeping quarters. Adventure’s prowess in the Gulf of Maine earned her the nickname “Queen of the Windjammers.”

In 1964 she was sold to Captain Jim Sharp of Camden, Maine, who continued her career in the tourist trade for nearly twenty-four years.[citation needed] In 1988, Captain Sharp donated Adventure to the people of Gloucester to be preserved as Gloucester’s historic tall ship, to be used to educate the public about the role of fishing in American history.

In 1988, the non-profit group, Gloucester Adventure, Inc., was formed to preserve the schooner as a monument to the history of Gloucester. Through the efforts of the Gloucester Adventure, Inc. and dedicated volunteers, Adventure is now a destination site on the Essex National Heritage Area Maritime Trail, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated National Historic Landmark. In 1999, Adventure was selected as an Official Project of Save America’s Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner: Captain Jeff Thomas (1926–1954)
Owner: Donald Hurd, Dayton Newton, and Herbert Beizer (1954-1964)
Owner: Captain Jim Sharp (1964-1988)
Owner: The people of Gloucester (1988-1988)
Owner: Gloucester Adventure, Inc (1988–)

Historical:

Adventuress is a 133-foot (40.53m) gaff-rigged schooner launched in 1913 in East Boothbay, Maine. She has since been restored, and is listed as a National Historic Landmark. She is one of two surviving San Francisco bar pilot schooners.

Adventuress was built for John Borden, the founder of Chicago’s Yellow Cab Co. at the Rice Brothers’ Boatyard in East Boothbay, Maine, and was designed by B.B. Crowninshield. Borden intended to sail to Alaska to catch a bowhead whale for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Aboard this maiden voyage sailed the famed naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews. During the voyage, Chapman stopped on the Pribilof Islands and captured film of fur seals, which led to efforts to protect their colonies. Borden’s efforts to catch a whale failed and he sold Adventuress to the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, which marked the beginning of her career as a workboat. For 35 years, she transferred pilots to and from cargo vessels near the Farallon Islands. During World War II, she was a United States Coast Guard vessel, guarding San Francisco Bay.

Around 1952, Adventuress was brought to Seattle, where she went through several owners. Eventually, she wound up in the care of Monty Morton and Ernestine Bennett, who managed a non-profit sail training organization called Youth Adventure. Under their ownership, the boat was restored to most of her original lines, which had been altered during her years as a working vessel. In 1988, Sound Experience began conducting educational programs on the vessel, and the following year she was listed as a National Historic Landmark.

Adventuress 1913

The bronze bell, that reads “Adventuress 1913,” has been in the possession of Alfred R. “Nick” Lemos since he received it as a boy in 1936. He has kept the bell ever since, until this spring when Lemos asked his adult children to help him find out the fate of the ship named on his bell. Their internet search quickly found that the ship, which was built in 1913 in Maine for an Arctic mission for the American Museum of Natural History, was not lost or wrecked. In fact, the ship had a decades-long career with the San Francisco Bar Pilots and was still sailing in the Seattle region. It was then that Lemos picked up the phone to call Sound Experience, the nonprofit that sails Adventuress as a youth environmental education ship, to say, “I think I have your bell.” Sound Experience’s Executive Director, Catherine Collins, was stunned when she received the call. “Not in our wildest imaginations did we think that her original bell still existed,” said Collins.

Indeed, such a find is a rare opportunity, according to San Francisco-based National Trust for Historic Preservation Field Director Anthony Veerkamp. “Reuniting an artifact with its original home is always exciting,” says Veerkamp. “Together, Adventuress and her bell are greater than the sum of their parts, prompting us to look at the stories that they hold with fresh eyes.”

According to Lemos, the bell was given to him when he was ten years old by a police boat captain who patrolled San Francisco’s waterfront during Prohibition. The captain was dating Lemos’ grandmother. Laughing, Lemos recalls, “I think he gave me the bell to keep me quiet.”

How the police boat captain found the bell remains a mystery. However, it may have been lost in June 1915 when Adventuress caught fire at the dock just a year after entering the service of the San Francisco Bar Pilots. Following extensive repairs, the ship went back into service in October 1915. Adventuress’ current ship’s bell reads “Bar Pilots 1915,” likely commemorating her return to service following the fire.

“The San Francisco Bar Pilots Association used sailing schooners such as Adventuress from the Gold Rush up until the early 1970s to board ships and navigate them safely into San Francisco Bay,” says Captain Dan Larwood of the San Francisco Bar Pilots. “The Bar Pilots have been keeping station 10 miles west of the Golden Gate to serve inbound and outbound ships since the California State Legislature first created the Association in 1850. Adventuress served the San Francisco Bar Pilots faithfully day and night, in good and bad weather, for 35 years.”

As much as the bell means to him, Lemos wants to restore the bronze artifact to where it belongs, aboard Adventuress. For their part, the San Francisco Bar Pilots are pleased that their former schooner has found a new life in Puget Sound. Says Captain Larwood, “We are especially glad that her original bell – without which no pilot boat is complete – is being returned to her.”

Collins, and documentary film maker John Leben, sat down with Lemos at his Belmont home to hear his story about the bell. Once their interviews are complete, the bell will be taken to the National Park Service’s San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where curators will inspect the bell to verify its identity as the bell that was aboard Adventuress when she was launched 101 years ago in East Boothbay, Maine.

“This is an exciting discovery,” says Stephen Canright, Curator of Maritime History at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. “Bells were an important part of traditional sailing vessels’ outfit. They would be rung in fog or reduced visibility situations, and were used to keep time, marking the passage of the four-hour watches, or duty periods. But as an artifact, Adventuress’ bell is important for another reason,” Canright emphasizes, “It clearly marks, for future generations, the fact that pilot schooners served on the San Francisco Bar every day, 24/7, for over 120 years.”

The timing of this find is extraordinary, coming just after the completion of a successful multi-year, $1.2 million hull restoration for the historic ship. As all work was done to the 50-year standard set by the Secretary of the Interior for historic vessel preservation, Adventuress will literally sail for generations to come. Adventuress is one of only two National Historic Landmark sailing ships, along with the 1891 scow schooner Alma, that are still in active service on the West Coast. Remarks Collins, “Finding the bell is the icing on the cake.”

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

• Owner: (1913-1914) – John Borden II
• Owner: (1914) – San Francisco Bar Pilots
• War service – U.S. Coast Guard
• Owner: San Francisco Bar Pilots
• Owner: (1952) – O.H. “Doc” Freeman
• Owner: (early 1960’s) – Monty Morton, and Ernestine Bennett (Youth Adventure)
• Owner: (1988) Sound Experience, Sound Experience, a platform for environmental education about Puget Sound. She sails from March into October, on trips ranging from 3 hours to 7 days. Paid employees and volunteers perform office, crew, and maintenance work

Resources:

• Sound Experience, a nonprofit founded by Barbara Wyatt and Morley Horder
• Wikipedia
• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
• National Park Service