The Zahma


Archie M. Andrews Buys the Yacht Zahma

This article in the December, 1920, issue of The Rudder magazine describes the purchase of The Zahma by Archie M. Andrews:

The Rudder Magazine, December, 1920

    95-foot auxiliary ketch, Zahma, sold for F. I. Jenckes of Providence, R. I., to A. M. Andrews of Chicago. Zahma was recently delivered to her new owner at Los Angeles. Mr. Andrews contemplates an early cruise to the South Sea Islands.

This article about the purchase of the Zahma in The Pasadena Star, September 7, 1920, provides a lot more detail about the purchase, as well as Andrews' business life:
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

   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.


California Life Magazine
November 6, 1920


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.



An article in the October, 1920, issue of The Rudder magazine corroborates the California Life article:

Zahma Makes Record Run To Colon
The Rudder Magazine, October, 1920

A.M. Andrews of New York and Pasadena, Cal., recently purchased the auxiliary ketch Zahma and sent the yacht to Los Angeles by way of the Panama Canal. Zahma made a very fast run to Colon making the distance 1972 miles from New York in 13 days 20 hours. This, Mr. Andrews thinks is a record for that part of the voyage.



An article in the December 24, 1924, issue of The Catalina Islander magazine documents that Archie M. Andrews still owned The Zahma as of December, 1924:

The Catalina Islander, December 24, 1924

Archie M. Andrews, with a party of friends, came over for the week-end on board the Andrews beautiful yacht Zama. They visited the Tuna Club, of which Mr. Andrews is a member.



Mr. William Schumacher of Chicago was kind enough to share this photo of The Zahma, dated 1930, which he picked up in a resale store in Alexandria, VA, in 1984. The back bears the stamp of a frame store in Hollywood, CA, and the notation "Dodge":




Zahma Info from the Department of Navy
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

(Retrieved from http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/z1/zahma.htm on 2008-03-08)

Zahma

(Ketch: t. 75 (gross); l. 93'; b. 20'7"; dph. 9'10"; dr. 7'9" (mean); s. 8 k.; cpl. 6)

Zahma — a wooden-hulled ketch with an auxiliary engine — was designed by B. B. Crowninshield and completed in 1915 at Neponset, Mass., by George Lawley and Son, Corp., for John H. Cromwell of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N.Y. 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 from R. J. Rheem on 13 February, Zahma was placed in service on 26 February 1942. Classified as a miscellaneous axiliary 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, Zahma's name was struck from the Navy list on 18 July 1944.



last updated 12/11/2011
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