Alpert: Historic peace ship, Golden Rule, is coming to Portsmouth June 21-25

The tiny group of pacifists wasn’t planning an act of civil disobedience when they informed President Dwight Eisenhower early in 1958 that they were heading for the American nuclear weapons testing zone in the Pacific.

“Four of us,” they wrote, “plan to sail a small vessel into the designated area in the Pacific by April 1st. We intend come what may to remain there during the test period in an effort to halt what we feel is the monstrous delinquency of our government in continuing actions which threaten the well-being of all men.” They bought a boat, a 30-foot ketch, named it “Golden Rule,” and equipped it for the voyage.

The nuclear arms race was in full swing and the United States was detonating hydrogen-bombs in the air above the Marshall Islands. Leading scientists had been spreading the alarm about the health dangers associated with radiation, but the government was undeterred.

Soon after Golden Rule embarked from San Pedro, California, the federal Atomic Energy Commission adopted rules barring anyone from the testing zone. When the ship left port in Honolulu, the 4-man crew was arrested. After a week in the local jail, they tried again, only to be arrested again and returned to the Honolulu jail, this time for two months. Their dramatic and nonviolent act ignited a wave of sympathy demonstrations across the United States, which in turn helped touch off a movement that won a global ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons several years later.

Achievement of the partial test ban agreement displayed the potential of nonviolent people-power and the importance of treaties to limit nuclear risk, but it didn’t restrain the nuclear powers for long.

Testing moved underground, where it continued for years, and the nuclear arms race, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, went on. Through the fits and starts of arms control, the nuclear “club” has grown, with North Korea its latest member. Conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, China and Taiwan, and India and Pakistan have us on the brink of catastrophe. The United Nations has approved a new agreement, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which declares nuclear weapons to be illegal, but thus far the nuclear powers have looked the other way.

As for Golden Rule, it disappeared from notoriety until 2010, when members of Veterans For Peace found its degraded hulk in a California boatyard. Knowing its history and determined to help revive a people-powered movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons, they spent five years making it once again seaworthy.

To Veterans For Peace (VFP), the Golden Rule project is a fitting expression of its mission, which includes ending the arms race, eliminating nuclear weapons, and educating people about the harmful impact of militarism, according to Helen Jaccard, the project’s coordinator. “We're spending $2 trillion on completely replacing the US nuclear weapons systems,” Jaccard said, money VFP says would be better spent on programs that meet human needs.

Jaccard’s husband, Gerry Condon, added, “The threat of nuclear war is greater than ever, probably even greater than during the Cuban Missile Crisis, because of the current conflict in Ukraine, which has the two nuclear superpowers facing off in an ever-escalating war.”

Getting people to acknowledge and wrestle with the threat of nuclear war is a challenge, said Condon, VFP’s former president. But Golden Rule is “an amazing teaching tool,” he said, a “gorgeous, classic, wooden sailboat” with an amazing story that’s a “legacy of courage and resistance to nuclear war.”

Since 2015, the Golden Rule has been up and down the west coast. A trip to the Marshall Islands was halted by the COVID pandemic, but the boat made it back to Hawaii for a lengthy visit and has been to Cuba. At every one of more than 150 stops, crew members and local host committees have held events to raise awareness about nuclear dangers and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Last fall Golden Rule sailed from Minneapolis down the Mississippi to Cairo, Illinois, then via the Ohio, Tennessee, and Tombigbee River system to Mobile, Alabama. From there, as part of its Great Loop Tour, the ship sailed around the Florida peninsula and up the east coast. Now in Boston, Golden Rule will reach Portsmouth on June 21 and dock for four days at Prescott Park.

Portsmouth’s mayor, Deaglan MacEachern, will offer an official welcome at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 22. The City Council has already approved a resolution backing worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons and specific steps to reduce nuclear threats, said Sandra Yarne, a member of Seacoast Peace Response and one of the organizers of Golden Rule’s local visit. Nine other New Hampshire communities, including Barrington, Exeter, Lee, Dover, and Durham, have approved resolutions calling for the United States to step “back from the brink,” she said.

Yarne said anyone interested in visiting the Golden Rule and meeting its volunteer crew members can stop by during the days of June 22, 23, and 24. (More information on the Golden Rule’s visit to Portsmouth can be found at https://nhpeaceaction.org/goldenrule/

“Golden Rule’s visit to Portsmouth is a great opportunity to raise awareness about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” Yarne said. “The story of the Golden Rule is that our actions can alter the course of history.”

Arnie Alpert is a freelance writer and a longtime anti-nuclear activist.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Alpert: Historic peace ship, Golden Rule, is coming to Portsmouth, NH