Zahma (IX-63)
1942-1944
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Ketch: tonnage 75 (gross); length 93'; beam 20'7"; depth of hold 9'10"; draft 7'9" (mean); speed 8 knots; complement 6)
Zahma -- a wooden-hulled ketch with an auxiliary engine, designed by B. B. Crowninshield -- was completed in 1915 at Neponset, Mass., by George Lawley & 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, however, rejected as "unsuitable for naval use."
A quarter of a century later, in World War II, the exigencies of war changed the Navy's evaluation of the graceful craft, as she was again inspected, this time at the Eleventh Naval District, in early 1942. 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.
