On April 12, 1930, Templeton Crocker’s friend, Academy Award winning screen actress Marie Dressler, was called upon to christen the vessel. Some say that Ms. Dressler had sampled the Champagne beforehand explaining why the bottle missed the bow of the schooner as it slid down the ways. Properly christened or not, Zaca was born into a charmed life.
On June 7, 1930, less than two months after her launching, Crocker amazed society by taking his new schooner,

and a few friends, on a yearlong cruise around the world.
Departing from the St. Francis Yacht Club, Zaca — now under the command of Garland Rotch — set sail for the Marquesas, Tahiti, Fiji, Singapore, Ceylon, and across the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal, Cannes, Gibraltar, then across the Atlantic through the Panama Canal, returning to San Francisco May 27, 1931, the first west coast schooner to circumnavigate the world.

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