Sailboat “Golden Rule” Aims to Trace 1958 Anti-Nuclear Voyage to the Pacific

In 1958, a group of peace activists, mostly Quakers, sailed the 39-foot wooden sailboat “Golden Rule” from California to Oahu with the intention of traveling to the Marshall Islands to protest and disrupt the trials of American nuclear weapons.

It was a spirited and daring plan – but the four-member crew never went further than Hawaii.

The Golden Rule made no secret of its goal of sailing to Enewetak, and the Coast Guard was there to stop the boat – twice – as it attempted to leave Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

The crew members still made their point when they were arrested, jailed and tried in Honolulu, generating international news.

A demonstration took place outside the Federal Courthouse to demand a halt to the bombing trials by the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union and the release of the crew.

Sixty-one years later, the Golden Rule returns to Ala Wai Boat Harbor and attempts to reach the Marshall Islands again – with plans this time to carry its anti-nuclear message to Hiroshima, Japan. , August 6, 2020 – the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing.

Among the goals of the Veterans for Peace organization, which holds the golden rule, is the ratification of the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which lacks signatures from countries with nuclear weapons, including including the United States.

“We are working on the global ratification of the treaty,” said Helen Jaccard, head of the Golden Rule project. “As soon as 50 countries have ratified it, it becomes international law, and we are working on it now, as we travel.”

In Hawaii, the group is looking to build support in the county and state legislature for the treaty, and for it to pass to the federal government, Jaccard said during a visit to the Golden Rule.

So far, 33 countries have ratified the treaty – which likely wouldn’t be followed by nuclear-weapon states anyway.

Jaccard acknowledges that this is probably the case, “but it is also a way to educate people that nuclear weapons are still there and that we always need to get rid of them before they accidentally get rid of. intentionally from us “.

She calls it “the other existential threat” in the sense that “we have climate change and the possibility of nuclear exchange.”

The white and blue wooden sailboat – with a large peace sign on its stern sail – is a natural conversation starter for the group’s anti-nuclear and anti-militarization message.

Its 1958 mission to the Marshall Islands was intended to try to stop nuclear tests in the atmosphere. America detonated 67 nuclear weapons on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls between 1946 and 1958, with the 15-megaton Castle Bravo test in 1954 that rained fallout over more than 6,800 square miles, according to the Organization for a complete ban on nuclear testing.

Castle Bravo was the largest thermonuclear detonation ever carried out by the United States. Scientists miscalculated the yield, which turned out to be 1,000 times more powerful than the bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The coconuts on Bikini are still radioactive because the palm trees soak up cesium-137 from the soil that passes into the fruit, the testing ban group said.

A 2004 US government report estimated a 9% increase in cancer rates among Marshallese who were exposed during testing.

In total, the United States carried out 1,032 nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underground and underwater between 1945 and 1992 at several sites on the continent and the Pacific, according to the test ban organization. The last US nuclear weapons test took place underground in Nevada in 1992.

The historic anti-nuclear sailboat – which may have been named after the golden rule of ‘Do to others what you’d like them to do to you’ – was rescued and restored after being neglected and sunk two times. times in Humboldt Bay in California.

The rule of thumb is a small boat – which makes her latest sailing plan seem much bigger in comparison.

The bathroom is tiny. There is no shower ‘and we do not have a refrigerator either. But it’s okay, ”said Victoria Southwell, who helps take care of the boat. The vessel has a tiller rather than a steering wheel.

Retired Sub-Captain Tom Rogers, who eventually became a nuclear weapons abolitionist, was one of four crew members on the July 11-31 trip from California to Hilo.

The boat first sailed in May, but returned with an engine full of seawater. Further repairs were made and the Golden Rule again sailed with a professional Polish sailor at the helm.

On the third day at sea, a large wave threw Rogers, 73, against a life raft container, injuring his ribs.

“The movement of the boat was constant,” Rogers, who lives in Washington state, said in a telephone interview. “It was pitch, roll and corkscrew 24/7. There was always movement and it was always a lot more than you wanted. The trip was relentless core training with constant balance, he said.

The Golden Rule arrived in Oahu on September 28 and will depart on Monday to tour the island, with educational stops along the way.

The sailboat is scheduled to depart in late December for the Marshall Islands to interact with the people there, and then head to Guam and Japan.

Jaccard said the small wooden boat with the peace sign on its sail attracts many curious people. He has been in four wooden boat shows.

All this means that thousands of people are introduced to the golden rule “then they hear the story and hear about the nuclear problems which are still relevant today”, she declared.

“It is an icon for peace,” she added. “And there aren’t many, and that’s part of why this boat just needs to be preserved – so that it can continue to sail and physically bring a message of peace.”