Intermittent SQL0443 when invoking HTTP_GET_BLOB

Folks:

I'm working on a RPG program that invokes the HTTP_GET_BLOB sql function to
retrieve an image from a https website address.

I'm getting an intermittent SQL0443 with details:
AXISC ERROR : HTTPTransportException: Cannot initialize a channel to the
remote end. Failed to establish SSL connection to server, the
operation gsk_secure_soc_init() failed. GSKit Error is 415 - Peer not
recognized or badly formatted message received..

I've implemented a simple retry loop that waits a second and retries the
HTTP_GET_BLOB function. So far it succeeds on the first retry.

The host I'm retrieving from is storage.googleapis.com.

Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

The program USED to use SYSTOOLS.HTTPGETBLOB, but my program is now
invoking a java method to do some manipulation of the images, but the
SYSTOOLS function also uses java and there was an environment conflict.

Thanks!

david