The Zaca
Among my father’s nasty habits there’s one particular thing he does that really makes me angry. Whenever Dad gets his hands on anything that belongs to my mother’s side of the family he snags it for himself. Doesn’t matter if it’s antique furniture, books, photos, or whatever. If he doesn’t personally care for an item he’ll ditch it either by giving it away to someone he knows or selling it for practically nothing. He never asks my Aunt if that’s okay with her nor does he offer the stuff to my sister or myself. Thanks to him we’ve lost a large amount of family belongings. Other times he uses family heirlooms like they are bait. Stuff that Mom wanted my sister and I to have when she’s no longer with us are being confiscated by Dad. He’s been making recent claims that Mom has changed her mind about leaving us some specific things. I suspect Dad is either making that shit up or he’s manipulated Mom to it. Makes me crazy just thinking about it.
My Grandfather Hugo had a rather large collection of books many of which date back to the early 1700s. There’s some impressive stuff in his library which Mom inherited and then Dad quickly appropriated. One of the more unusual items was a seven volume photo history of a black sailing ship called The Zaca. Hugo had a close friend named Garland Rotch and for some reason unknown to us Hugo ended up with most of Garland’s personal belongings. This included those seven books, a Zaca crew ring, and dozens of tribal artifacts from the South Pacific like daggers and wooden clubs. Nobody in the family knew anything about Garland or this ship and as the years slipped by it’s mysterious past became more intriguing to Mom. I enjoy history and I like a good mystery so I decided to take The Zaca on as a project and do some research for her.
At the time I had a good friend who was a manager and captain working for the Maritime Museum in San Francisco. After talking with him about the ship and mentioning Garland’s books he invited me to spend some time in the Museum’s research library at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Fort Mason is located right next door to the St. Francis Yacht Club in the city’s Marina district. I knew exactly where it was and drove there after making an appointment with the Museum’s library staff. Once I arrived the librarians were very helpful with locating any information concerning The Zaca. What I learned that day really surprised me.
In the late 1920s one of San Francisco’s wealthiest men desired to have a custom built racing yacht. His name was Templeton Crocker. Mr. Crocker employed Garland Rotch to design and build a schooner worthy of round-the-world sailing and endurance racing. Garland chose the Nunes Bros. shipyard in Sausalito to construct the ship. At a total cost of $200,000 and christened “Zaca” (a Native American word which means “Peace”) the ship was completed and passing it’s first sea trials along the California coast by 1930. Mr. Crocker chose to have The Zaca painted black above the water line which gave his made to order yacht a sleek yet ominous appearance. Garland Rotch was The Zaca’s first captain.
During the summer of 1930 Mr. Crocker made a historic journey with The Zaca. It was the first time a private yacht circumnavigated the globe from the West Coast. The crew included about a dozen professional sailors as well as a photographer and of course, Garland. It was a good thing Mr. Crocker invited Garland along for their year long trip around the world because while they were in the South Pacific Templeton Crocker fired Zaca’s captain. Garland resumed those duties immediately afterward and remained as captain for the rest of their cruise. Upon returning to San Francisco Mr. Crocker published a book about his adventure simply titled, “The Cruise of the Zaca” which was published in 1933. As I turned through that book’s pages in the Maritime Museum’s library a chill went up my spine. All of the photos in “The Cruise of the Zaca” were in Garland’s seven volumes of books at home. I instantly recognized them.
Templeton Crocker continued to sail The Zaca until World War Two broke out. Because of fear that the Japanese might attack California and due to a lack of available patrol ships the US Navy seized all privately owned ships over 70 feet in length. The Zaca was 118 feet long. Rapidly converted for military use ships like Zaca were outfitted with anti aircraft machine guns and stationed off the California coast to patrol for enemy ships and rescue downed pilots. When the war ended Zaca was in poor shape and auctioned off for a mere $14,350. In most cases the US Navy did not return private ships back to their original owners. Star actor Errol Flynn, known for his roles as a swashbuckling hero later purchased The Zaca (while drunk as usual) and had a complete restoration of the ship completed. By the time of his death in 1959 Zaca was once again in bad shape and left to rot somewhere along the coast of Spain.
Wow, fascinating story. Crocker Banks were subsumed by Wells Fargo in the mid-80s, any relationship?
yeah. Crocker bank was founded by his family.
Hmm… no entry on Templeton Crocker at wikipedia.
there are some california history websites that have some pretty good info on him. also if you search for Zaca you’ll get a few relevant hits. most of them grabbed content i wrote for the first Zaca website. Luther Greene has grabbed a bunch of stuff since then but i haven’t dealt with him much as he seems fixated on $. kinda bunk.
i have a bunch more info on the ship but this was strictly a condensed version. would have made for too long a post. so waddya wanna knoe?
Hard to say. The un-abridged version?
try charles templeton crocker
Wad- here is a news article John Skoriak and myself contributed to for the San Mateo County times. their reporter asked both John and i for some additional info and photos of the zaca. just dug this up from my filing cabinet. i’m still looking around for some of the first articles i wrote from way back when. if i find ‘em i’ll post them here for ya.
The San Mateo County Times November 6,1998.
“Reality of Crocker Travels Takes On Legendary Color”
By June Morrall
Hillsborough millionaire Templeton Crocker did things ordinary men could only dream about. By the time he reached his mid-40s in the 1930s, the bespectacled Crocker had seen an opera he composed performed on stage at Monte Carlo, amassed a one-of-a-kind collection of California history and supervised construction of his lavish, 37-room Peninsula palace the “Uplands,” modeled after an Italian villa. Everything he undertook, the discerning Crocker did stylishly, without sparing expense.
To Crocker, most gratifying was the respect he earned sponsoring scientific expeditions to the little researched exotic South Seas aboard his black hulled 118-foot schooner, the famous “Zaca”.
Templeton Crocker’s private life, however, was not as successful. On social and financial grounds, his marriage to Helene Irwin seemed well matched. He was the grandson of titan Charles Crocker, one of California’s “Big Four,” a man who spearheaded construction of the Central Pacific Railroad; her father’s riches came from a Hawaiian sugar fortune. The wedding ceremony uniting the couple, whose combined wealth approached a staggering $28 million, was witnessed by the city’s elite at the San Francisco home of the bride’s parents in 1911.
Rumors circulated that Templeton spent too much time on his creative interests, neglecting his marriage, leading to a divorce in 1927. Two years later, film actor Larry Kent, a bond broker and friend Dr. Max Rothschild accompanied the 47-year-old sun-tanned and physically fit Crocker on a fishing cruise to Baja California.
Perhaps Templeton was at a loss when the American consul instructed his party to cancel its trip “as there was a revolution going on.” Leaving his magnificent yacht, the Zaca, behind at La Paz, the Crocker party headed for San Jose del Cabo, where they turned home aboard the Panama City mail liner “City of San Francisco.”
As was his style, Crocker totally focused on his fishing trip, paying little notice to the revolution in Mexico. “After we got back to Los Angeles,” said Templeton, “we learned from the newspapers Mazatlan had been captured the day before we arrived there.” He noted that “it was odd picking up a revolution while aboard the Zaca, for Zaca, you know, is an Indian word meaning peace.”
It is said Templeton Crocker owned three yachts called the Zaca. The last Zaca, accommodating a crew of 10 officers and several passengers, was built at the Nunes Brothers Sausalito shipyard, in consultation with Captain Garland Rotch. Rotch was well known as a “personality of the South Seas,” probably influencing Crocker’s future interest in thoe southern waters.
The millionaire Templeton Crocker was also a sportsman who intended to enter the Zaca in a summer race from the West Coast to Tahiti. Built at a cost of $200,000 the Zaca was rated as one of the finest crafts in its class. But the race was hardly sufficient challenge, and he considered cruising around the world instead.
For the technically literate, the Zaca’s power “propulsion plant consisted of two six-cylinder, six-inch bore, 10-inch stroke Hill Diesel engines, each developing 125 horsepower at 800 revolutions per minute. Both engines were connected to a propeller shaft through a reverse gear and a hydraulic clutch fitted with remote control for operation from the deck.”
Tall ship
The Zaca had a “considerable spread of canvas,” and her galley and interior furnishings were the finest in pleasure craft equipment.
A shake-out cruise to Mexico was planned for May 1930, but at the christening of the third Zaca in Sausalito’s Hurricane Gulch, observers had some moments of fear that the expensive yacht was jinxed. The champagne bottle refused to shatter, then the big black hull got stuck in the mud. The day ended when the Zaca was towed out to her mooring. When the yacht was taken around the harbor to set her compasses, the port engine stopped, the cause said to be a “frozen” shaft thrust bearing.
Crocker was prepared to sail to Mexico with one engine, but the skipper said no and the Zaca was towed for repairs to the Alameda dry dock. Even after mechanics worked tirelessly on the yacht, more problems arose as a “stuffing box” gave way, allowing water to gush in so fast only hand pumps kept the Zaca afloat until safe in the dry dock again.
Circumnavigates globe
According to Sausalito yacht broker and free-lance marine photographer John Skoriak, the Zaca’s cruise in the summer of 1930, under the command of Captain George Goldrainer, was historic. It was the “first private yacht to circumnavigate the globe from the West Coast,” notes Skoriak. Newspapers reported Crocker’s arrival at Pago Pago in Samoa. While at Papeete in Tahiti, Templeton reportedly decorated the Zaca in bright, colored lights to celebrate the French Revolution and the fall of the Bastille on July 14. An island chief entertained Crocker and his guests with native dances.
Collector of batiks
During this world cruise, Templeton Crocker began to collect batiks and textiles from Java and Bali, known as “the Pearl of the East,” and “the last Paradise.” On the island of Java, batiks were considered a highly perfected art, a laborious process of dying cloth by applying designs in beeswax.
To Crocker’s delight, most families in Java performed in their homemade theaters, using as actors carved wooden dolls with elaborate gem-studded headdresses and shadow puppets whose silhouettes were cast against a light colored screen. Other artifacts, including tapas, musical instruments and boat models were among the treasures making up the collection later loaned by Templeton Crocker to the M.H. deYoung Memorial Museum.
Rare finds
Crocker’s voyages began to take a more serious nature, and one of the early scientific expeditions was to Baja California in 1931. Dr. J.T. Howell, a botanist from the California Academy of Sciences, reported obtaining many rare specimens of plant life on Guadalupe Island, but Crocker the sportsman was ever-present. Templeton hauled in a 300-pound marlin swordfish after a long battle off Cape San Lucas. Reportedly, Crocker brought the “monster” back home on the yacht, frozen in a cake of ice, promising to present the fish to the California Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium so that the large fish and other “curious trophies” of the expedition could be viewed.
The Zaca was gaining a reputation as a scientist’s floating laboratory, this time sailing under Captain Garland Rotch, on the first of two expeditions to the Galapagos Islands, off the Ecuadorian coast. Made famous by Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands were home to the iguana, frigate birds and elephant seals. Templeton Crocker involved himself in the serious work of the scientific team composed of a highly esteemed botanist, aquatic zoologist, ornithologist and ichthyologist from the California Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium. Also on board was artist Toshio Asaeda, the Zaca’s official photographer.
Golden grouper
During the several months-long expedition, the scientists planned to capture specimens of fish from as deep as 250 fathoms, rare birds, plants, sea shells, termites, beetles, and butterflies. Four temperature-controlled tanks with running sea water were placed on the deck to bring back alive 21 varieties of 154 fish such as the “golden grouper,” a species not seen in aquariums before.
In May 1932, a radiogram announced that Crocker, Captain Rotch and other members of the Zaca’s scientific expedition climbed a 2,690 foot-high mountain on Indefatigable Island in the Galapagos. It was a feat never before accomplished, and the mountain was named “Mount Crocker” in Templeton’s honor.
The ‘Crusoes’
In the natural surroundings of the Galapagos, the scientists encountered Dr. Frederick Ritter and his common-law wife, voluntary castaways living “a Robinson Crusoe existence in a state of almost complete nudity.” Crocker said he and his guests found Dr. Ritter, who had left his native Germany two years earlier, “hard at work rearranging the geography of their garden home by diverting a stream to clear the site for a new house.” Dr. Ritter’s principal difficulty, added Crocker, was to keep the wild pigs and insects out of his cultivated land.
On the return trip home, the Zaca crew and scientists stopped at Acapulco where they brought aboard an ocelot named “Castina,” which quickly became the ship’s pet. (Castina later bit a guest at the Sausalito harbor, causing great embarrassment for Crocker).
Easter Island
Templeton Crocker wrote a book called “The Cruise of the Zaca” and made other scientific expeditions to the South Seas in the 1930s. There was a voyage to Eater Island, off the coast of Chile, a mysterious place that baffled ethnologists and archaeologists unable to identify the origin of the carved stone remains of houses, towers and 60-foot statues.
In part to study the unusual version of spoken English, the Crocker expedition visited Pitcarin Island, famed as a final refuge of the English ship “Bounty’s” mutineers.
On the sixth expedition, a leisurely cruise down the California coast to Mexico and central America in the late 1930s, Templeton was accompanied by author Dr. William Beebe from the New York Zoological Society. Known for his under water research in a “bathysphere,” Dr. Beebe intended to collect and observe marine life. A rare find was a tiny sailfish 1 and 1/4 inches long and a slightly larger “rooster fish.”
Zaca’s bounty
At Culebra Bay, Costa Rica, the Zaca’s seines drew from a tide pool 6,832 fish from 27 species in a single day. The hauls were so great, more collection bottles, vials and vats were requested. Until World War II, the Zaca was owned by Templeton Crocker, according to Jason Grainger, who became fascinated with the history of the yacht when he inherited Captian Garland Rotch’s seven volumes of photos from the early scientific cruises.
Commissioned in ‘42
Grainger, a 27-year-old Hewlett Packard employee, says the U.S. Navy acquired the Zaca in 1942, assigning the yacht to the western sea frontier. “The ship was used by the U.S. Navy for patrol and rescue,” explains Grainger, noting that the Zaca’s wooden hull meant she was not easily detected by radar. Two years later, the Zaca was turned over to the War Shipping Administration and auctioned for $14,350 to a San Francisco man.
Flamboyant actor Errol Flynn purchased the Zaca in 1946. No scientific expeditions this time as the old ship was the centerpiece for a sensational sex scandal involving the controversial Hollywood star with underaged girls. Templeton Crocker passed away at age 64 in 1948, and was spared witnessing the disgrace focused on the Zaca.
The movies
The Zaca provided the backdrop for several movies, notably “The Lady From Shanghai” (1948), starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. After Flynn’s death, the old craft was abandoned, left to rot in the South of France where it was purchased by art patron Robert Memmo, who fully repaired and restored it. He now keeps the Zaca in the port of Fontveille at Monte Carlo, where Templeton Crocker’s opera performed decades earlier.
Awesome! Thanks for posting that.
Wad- np. here’s part of an article i wrote for the first zaca website. i noticed today a couple of navy sites snagged this. heh.
The second Zaca—a wooden-hulled, schooner-rigged yacht with an auxiliary engine—was designed by Garland Rotch and completed in 1930 at Sausalito, Calif., by Nunes Bros. 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 planeguard 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, Calif., 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 “swash buckling” roles in numerous movies. Flynn owned the yacht until his death in 1959.
thanks for the info on the Zaca. It was useful to me as I am researching a copy of the book which I own.
I am enjoying your blog…I have a used & rare bookshop in Seattle and would be interested if any of those family books you mention ever come up for sale. Feel free to email me any time!
John
hi john.
garland rotch’s seven volumes of photos from the 1931 round the world zaca cruise will more than likely stay in the family. if you have obtained a copy of Templeton Crocker’s “Cruise Of The Zaca” many of the private collection photographs are included in it’s pages. i think that if we do ever give up Garland’s books they should probably go to a museum. thanks for the comment and interest though. i hope you enjoy reading the zaca book. it’s a good story.
What a marvellous treat to have found this website after so much time having been spent search for information.
I would very much like an opportunity to communicte with you one-on-one regarding Zaca.
She has a marvellous history. My interest is in the Flynn years, but I have started an entire section on yachts because once you get into it you realize that they are their own story.
thanks,
Andrea
Sorry, re-read a post and realized that there is some misinformation regarding Errol Flynn and the reported indignities that he subjected poor Zaca too.
There is reference made to a ’sensational sex scandal …” regarding the Zaca whilst Flnn was her skipper relating to ‘underage girls’. In reality the Flynn statutory rape trial was well before he owned Zaca. The charges were brought in 1942 when he owned Sirocco. What’s more, based on inaccuracies of the young ladies stories, their descriptions of the yacht, conflicting details and eye-witnesses reports etc, he was acquitted of all charges – basically, it broke his spirit and he was never the same again, delving head long into self distruction after the humiliation of the charges and trial.
Damning stories about Flynn surfaced after his death when the poor rogue couldn’t defend his name or his reputation. While many who knew him, and others who have conducted years of research on the allegations, people would still rather believe ‘those’ stories than the reality. After all, we live in a world the loves sensationalism and appears to thrive on scandal and titillation.
If anyone is interested there is a website that is quite interesting and does a fine job of portraying Flynn as a real person – http://www.errol-flynn.com
Andrea,
thanks for the comments. i admit i have not looked further into that particular rape case involving Errol Flynn and the Zaca so my information regarding it has always come from sources i thought reliable. it probably wouldn’t hurt to double check the facts. however i am not a fan of Errol Flynn or a Flynn apologist. in my opinion he was a fairly rotten guy and a notoriously bad drunk. sure his swashbuckling films are entertaining to watch i’ve just never thought of him as a great guy in real life.
one of my favorite stories about Errol Flynn comes from members of the St. Francis Yacht club in San Francisco who personally observed Mr. Flynn drunk out of his mind when he came to the Yacht Club to inspect the Zaca. Members of the club that i spoke with told me they observed Flynn staggering down the pier toward the Zaca completely polluted with booze. he proceeded to get further tanked at the Yacht Club’s bar then came back outside where the Zaca was moored and proceeded to fall into the bay. St. Francis club members had to fish him out of the water before he drowned.
Herb Caen got wind of the incident shortly afterward and wrote a ridiculous column in the newspaper about Flynn going to see the Zaca heroically diving into the bay and swimming the length of the ship to see if the Zaca was worthy of purchase. it was pure bullshit of course like most of Herb Caen’s writing…
at the time of Flynn’s death the Zaca was a wreck. he neglected the ship for many years. shortly afterward it sank in shallow water off the coast of Spain if i remember correctly. what a waste. the good news though is a man by the name of Roberto Memmo bought the Zaca and had her completely restored and now is kept in Monaco. in the mid-1990s sailing magazine Latitude 38 did a series of articles on the Zaca some of which included the restoration effort. you may be interested in those articles because it goes into the backstory detailing how much damage was done to the ship.
hope that helps you out. stay cool.
Hi there, I can not argue with the first hand stories you got from the Yacht Club, but I can tell you that the stories of Errol Flynn neglecting his beloved Zaca are not true.
In fact, Zaca was his home for many years and he put tons of money into keeping her seaworthy and a comfortable home.
After Flynn’s death Zaca sat for years, caught in the middle of estate battle and yes, deteriorated somewhat from neglect during that time. What’s more, I have heard stories that during this time, Flynn’s wife arranged to have the crew sail Zaca back to Jamaica where she should be cared for and believe it or not, according to sources his lawyers who he owned money to pulled a modern day piracy and absconded with the ship.
Zaca sat in limbo for much longer than is good and healthy for a ship because of all this, and it is true that the Zaca became a wreck. Patrice Wymore,Flynn’s wife finally got ownership of Zaca and sold her to a fellow by the name of Tinsley who said that he would take care of her. He proceeded to strip her bare of absolutely everything of any value aned abandoned her in the south of France.
The shipyard owner finally took over Zaca for non-payment where she sat some more until Roberto Memmo bought her, hired the best of the best and resurected her to her former glory.
Flynn loved that ship. Apparently Flynn’s apparition was seen on the Zaca for decades after his death. Many different people reported seeing Flynn, lights on the ship and could hear wild parties.
She was finally given an Anglican and Protestant exorcism. If anyone on this blog knows about such things, it is an incredibly difficult thing to arrange and requires a great many first hand, eye witness reports, phsyical proof (whatever that may be) to get the church do participate in such a thing.
Anyways, you are right. Flynn was an all too human, human being, with many faults as well as virtues. He was certainly a tortured soul.
Hope you find some interest in this.
Andrea
Hi I am trying to contact Jason, who uses to work for HP and had an email called “evilsizer” or something like that. I met you in Sausalito some years ago and saw all your memoraobilia from Garland Roch and your photos etc. I lost your email contact and haven’t been able to locate you. I am still keeping up with Zaca history and still writing a lot of articles for Latitude 38 sailing magazine and others. I hope you csn contact me and we can get together and share some more Zaca stories. John Skoriak
Howdy John. reply email sent earlier… good to hear from you.
Hello John
I’m very late to this party, but my father was the last living member from Crocker’s crew so I grew up with endless tales from his time on the Zaca which started in 1931 and ended in 1939. The Zaca has been restored from the keel up and is now the personal yacht of Italian industrialist Roberto Memmo. Luther Green made a wonderful documentary called In the Wake of the Zaca which was completed in 2005. The film features my dad’s narration for the first third and brought all those years to life for me in a way I never thought possible. There are a lot of good stories in that DVD, but the really good ones are all in my dad’s journals.
Flynn was not drunk the day Zaca purchased. Some interesting posts here.
Some of you will recall who I am wb
Pareidolius,
I did not see the Luther Green short film so I am curious which one of the original crew was your dad? I’m indirectly related to Garland Rotch, Zaca’s designer and captain. I have all of Garland’s personal Zaca memorabilia including tons of photos from the 1931 world cruise. All of the crew are featured in those pictures so I would like to know which one he was…
Thanks for your comment!
Wallace,
With all due respect, the story concerning Errol Flynn disgracefully falling off the dock when viewing Zaca for purchase was related directly to me by St. Francis Yacht Club members. They were eye witnesses during the incident. I obviously can’t vouch for the authenticity of what they spoke about but due to their candor I felt what they were telling me was the truth. Perhaps you were also present that day and saw something entirely different?
I hope you are well.
fp