Sailing the Seas of Conscience

The resilient voyage of the Golden Rule.

Growing up in the United States in the 1950s, my Catholic grade school classmates and I were drilled with the Sermon on the Mount maxim, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The nuns told us that sacred saying was called “the Golden Rule.” We even had twelve-inch rulers with “the Golden Rule” inscribed on them. Little did we know that while we practiced “duck and cover” drills to be prepared for a nuclear attack, another Golden Rule—a ship—had set sail in 1958 on a mission to stop nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands.

Fast-forward to 2023, and the Golden Rule, once derelict with no masts or engine and at anchor, is again braving the winds and waves, propelled by crew and volunteers from Veterans for Peace (VFP) and motivated by the same timeless mission that first set the ship sailing.

“We realized that in order to get rid of the threat of nuclear war, we have to address the aggressive nature of the culture of war,” Helen Jaccard, a VFP member and project manager of the Golden Rule, tells The Progressive. “We need to build a movement that dismantles the warrior culture and instead works on a cooperative culture with other countries.”

By December, this renovated boat will have sailed throughout all the navigable waterways of the United States, including the Great Loop, which includes the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. Its mission is to warn people about the growing danger of nuclear war and build support for the total abolition of nuclear weapons, demonstrating a sustainable legacy of peace and nonviolence. Sixty-five years on, the Golden Rule is a floating testament to the enduring power of human conscience and the unyielding quest for a world free of nuclear menace. And it’s a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do.

“If we don’t change the path we’re on, we’ll end up where we’re headed,” says Alfred Meyer, a longtime anti-nuclear activist who joined the Golden Rule on its New York leg in July (see his article in this issue, page 44). “Nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and climate change are a prescription for annihilation. We’re running out of time.”

Originally designed by Hugh Angelman, the thirty-four-foot, gaff-rigged wooden ketch was first crewed by a group of Quakers whose destination was the Marshall Islands, a nation comprising twenty-nine atolls between Hawai‘i and Australia. Their goal was to end the twelve-year siege of nuclear bomb testing on the islands by sailing into the proving grounds.

The Golden Rule’s skipper was Albert Bigelow, a former Navy commander who ended his commission in protest of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during World War II. He was joined by three other Quaker activists: David Gale (who became ill and was replaced by Orion Sherwood, George Willoughby, and Bill Huntington, as well as non-Quaker activist James Peck. Bigelow was resolute. “It was time to do something about peace, not just talk about peace,” he wrote in the book a href=”https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Golden-Rule-Experiment-Truth-ebook/dp/B07H2KMGSF” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>The Voyage of the Golden Rule</em: An Experiment with Truth.

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the Golden Rule just outside Honolulu, and Bigelow and his crew were arrested. Their efforts made a significant impact, though, as many private vessels soon joined the movement by entering nuclear test zones in protest. One of these, The Phoenix of Hiroshima, was captained by Earle Reynolds, a University of Wisconsin-trained anthropologist. He and his family and crew had been to Hiroshima, where Reynolds spent three years studying the effects of radiation on the growth of Japanese children. The Phoenix of Hiroshima crew was so inspired by the Golden Rule’s mission that they sailed sixty-five miles into the Marshall Islands testing zone themselves. They, too, were arrested.

But much to the government’s dismay, the Golden Rule’s voyage was widely publicized—so much so that news of the crew’s arrest led to a global outcry to “Free the Crew of the Golden Rule” and “Stop Nuclear Tests.” The anti-nuclear movement’s numbers and involvement grew, steering President John F. Kennedy and leaders of the Soviet Union and United Kingdom to sign the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which banned nuclear testing in the air, water, and outer space. Testing underground was allowed to continue, although most current nuclear testing by the United States is reportedly done via computer simulation.

The Golden Rule’s sailing days seemed over, for a time. It was sold and faded from view until it was discovered in Northern California in 2010. Lacking masts and an engine, the Golden Rule had sunk during a gale in Northern California’s Humboldt Bay. It was later “rescued” and given a temporary home in Leroy Zerlang’s boatyard. Zerlang, who had thought about using the boat to start a bonfire, was convinced to restore the Golden Rule after some research and securing funding from Veterans for Peace. It took five years of meticulous restoration by VFP, Quakers, and boat enthusiasts, but the Golden Rule was ready to return to the water and once again sound the alarm about the growing danger of nuclear war.

“The Golden Rule puts smiles on people’s faces,” Condon says. “It delivers a creative, committed, and hopeful message.”

According to Golden Rule crew member Gerry Condon, the former president of VFP, once the restored sailboat “splashed down” in Humboldt Bay in June 2015, it spent several years sailing up and down the West Coast, holding scores of educational events in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Canada, and Baja California, Mexico.

Captain Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa, a Hawaiian native, adds that today’s sailing in the Golden Rule is “bumpy, wet, cold, and fun.” He was asked to help when the Golden Rule visited Hawai‘i in 2020, and he believes that making this journey is a way to demonstrate that “you don’t have to be a diplomat or a physicist in Geneva or the United Nations in New York to do something about this.”

Equal portions historic, symbolic, and cautionary, the Golden Rule voyage that began in September 2022 will wrap up this December, having visited more than 100 cities and towns over the course of 10,000 miles.

“As a catalyst for change, the Golden Rule is more of an educational vessel than a protest boat,” Jaccard says. “People love this boat. You can see us coming from a mile away, and the excitement keeps building.”

That excitement translates into congratulatory events in cities up and down the Great Loop. From a Peacestock event in Red Wing, Minnesota, to a chance encounter with heavily nuclear-armed Trident submarines at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, to riveting welcoming proclamations by mayors like Sharon Harker of Beaufort, North Carolina, the Golden Rule is having an impact once again. Veterans for Peace Chapter 102 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, spent several months planning and fundraising for the boat’s upcoming visit there over Labor Day. VFP lead organizer Bill Christofferson is thrilled by the outpouring of support by the community, including Peace Action of Wisconsin, Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Milwaukee, Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community, and others. Janet Hilliker, of the Milwaukee Friends Meeting, told the Milwaukee VFP that the Friends were “grateful to have such a strong community to promote the Golden Rule’s visit and the worthwhile task of preventing nuclear war.”

Every stop has been special and memorable. But, according to Condon, one was in a class by itself.

“When we stopped in Dubuque, Iowa, we were joyously greeted by the thousand-strong Marshallese community living there,” he recalls. “These were the descendants of the same Marshall Islands residents the Golden Rule was trying to save from U.S. nuclear bomb tests in 1958.”

He adds: “There was not a dry eye in the harbor.”

The Golden Rule crew, along with VFP members from three states, spent two days of celebrations with the Marshall Islands community, whose members are refugees from the destruction wreaked upon their island homes by nuclear bombs, ongoing radiation poisoning, and now rising tides from climate change.

Meyer believes the Golden Rule is making a difference.

“It’s what Pete Seeger said: A boat forms a relationship with people; it gets you into a conversation . . . . It can change somebody’s mind. The Golden Rule connects us to an important anti-nuke history and emphasizes today’s threats, dangers, and injustices.”<

From 1958 to today, the Golden Rule challenges the apathy and complacency that have settled over a world teetering on the brink of nuclear destruction. Its aim was—and is—not just to protest, but to awaken the slumbering collective conscience of humanity, to kindle a flame of awareness and resistance against the devastating potential of weapons of mass destruction.