 Zaca | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name: | Zaca |
| Builder: | Nunes Brothers |
| Launched: | 1930 |
| Acquired: | 12 June 1942 |
| In service: | 19 June 1942 |
| Out of service: | 6 October 1944 |
| Stricken: | 13 November 1944 |
| Identification: |
|
| Fate: | Sold |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 122 tons |
| Length: | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Speed: | 9 knots |
| Complement: | 10 |
USS Zaca (IX-73) is a wooden-hulled, schooner-rigged yacht with an auxiliary engine.
She was commissioned by the self proclaimed explorer, Charles Templeton Crocker, to a design of Garland Rotch, and built by Nunes Brothers Boat and Ways Co. as a vessel for sailing around the world with all the modern conveniences of the time. When his new boat was completed in 1930 at Sausalito, California, Crocker wasted no time in making full use of it, spending the 1930s sailing the Zaca around the world on various expeditions, primarily in the name of scientific discovery and on behalf of the California Academy of Sciences, where many of his records sit now. From the Palmyra Atoll to the Galapagos, Crocker collected and documented plant and animal life with a small crew of scientists and artists, including noted photographer and Japanese artist, Toshio Asaeda. [1] [2]
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 was classified a miscellaneous auxiliary and designated IX-73. She was the second ship of that name to serve in the US Navy, and 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.
Turned over to the War Shipping Administration on 21 May 1945, Zaca was acquired in 1946 by Errol Flynn, an actor famed for his "swashbuckling" roles in numerous movies. Zaca is featured prominently in the 1947 Orson Welles film The Lady from Shanghai . A documentary short film Cruise Of The Zaca which features Flynn and his father Theodore Thomson Flynn, an eminent marine biologist, collecting marine samples in the semi-tropics, was made in 1952 and has been shown on the Turner Classic Movies TV channel. Flynn owned the yacht until his death in 1959.
As of 2008, Zaca is privately owned by Roberto Memmo and berthed in Monaco. A skipper and crew of four regularly sail Zaca to ports such as Punta Ala, Gaeta, Capri, Cagliari, and throughout the Aegean Sea. The Zaca is frequently seen at prestigious sailing races in the Mediterranean. Her winter port is in Port de Fontvieille, Monaco. In 2009, the Sailing Channel (now the Nautical Channel) dedicated a program to the entire history of the Zaca from original construction to the present entitled "In the Wake of the Zaca".
Palmyra Atoll, also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands. It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii and American Samoa. The nearest continent is almost 3,355 miles to the northeast. The atoll is 4.6 sq mi (12 km2), lying in the equatorial Northern Pacific Ocean. Its 9 miles (14 km) of coastline has one anchorage known as West Lagoon.
Freedom (IX-43), an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the second ship of the United States Navy of that name. An auxiliary schooner, she was acquired by the Navy in 1940, and assigned to the United States Naval Academy where she served in a noncommissioned status through 1962.
USS El Cano (IX-79), an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Elcano (PG-38). A schooner, she was acquired on 8 August 1942 as Pioneer, renamed El Cano on 17 August 1942, and served in a noncommissioned status in the 11th Naval District during World War II.
Geoanna was a steel auxiliary schooner built in 1934 by Craig Shipbuilding Company in Long Beach, California. Geoanna was requisitioned during World War II for service briefly with the U.S. Navy before transfer to the U.S. Army for Southwest Pacific operations. There Geoanna served as a United States Army Signal Corps communications ship with a mixed United States Army, Navy and Australian civilian crew through the New Guinea and Philippine campaigns. The ship remained in the Philippines after post war disposal.
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Crocker's sea snake is a species of venomous snake in the subfamily Hydrophiinae. The species L. crockeri is found in Oceania.
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Charles Templeton Crocker was a past president of the California Historical Society and a member of the board of directors for over twenty years. He also wrote the first American opera that was produced in Europe; helped popularize French Art Deco in America; and funded and headed expeditions with the California Academy of Sciences and other academic institutions aboard his personal yacht Zaca. The town of Templeton is named after him.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.
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