Welcome “Golden Rule” historic sailboat to Hilo Wed. July 31st at 1:30PM Wailoa pier near Suisan
PRESS RELEASE:
Retired Nuclear Submarine Commander on Historic Anti-Nuke 34-foot Sailing Boat “The Golden Rule” arriving in Hilo July 31 from San Diego
Ship will go to Hawaiian Islands, Marshall Islands, Guam, Okinawa and Japan to Arrive Hiroshima by August 6, 2020 – 75th Anniversary of US Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Contacts:
Helen Jaccard, Operations Manager, 206-992-6364, helen.jaccard@gmail.com
Gerry Condon, National President of Veterans for Peace, 206-499-1220, gerrycondon@veteransforpeace.org
Ann Wright, Veterans for Peace-Hawaii, 808-741-1141, annw1946@gmail.com
Jim Albertini, Malu ‘Aina Center for Nonviolence Education and Action, 808-966-7622; ja@interpac.net
Photo of The Golden Rule by Helen Jaccard
Please join us at a press conference at 11am on Friday, August 2 at the Suisan Fish Market docks, 93 Lihiwai St., Hilo, HI 96720
to welcome the Golden Rule historic anti-nuke sailing ship after a 25 day sail from San Diego on the first leg of her one year voyage through the Hawaiian Islands, Marshall Islands, Guam, Okinawa and finally to Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.
Captain Milosz Kaczorowski and First Mate retired US Navy Captain and nuclear submarine commander Tom Rogers and two other crew members, set sail from San Diego, California on July 6 beginning a 15-month voyage from California to Japan on the Veterans for Peace historic anti-nuke boat, the Golden Rule. http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org/
Photo of Captain Milosz Kaczorowski (center, seated) and crew L to R Chris Mayer, Tom Rogers,Tate Furr by Helen Jaccard
On July 6, the historic anti-nuke, the Golden Rule set sail from California to Hawai’i. Captain Milosz Kaczorowski, 30, is a professional sailor from Poland. He has extensive ocean experience on the US West Coast, the Mediterranean, the North Sea and Atlantic crossings.
First Mate Tom Rogers https://www.gzcenter.org/2018/05/09/can-a-patriot-still-protest-nukes/ 73, of Keyport, Washington is a retired U.S. Navy Captain who was the commander of nuclear submarines. After he retired from the U.S. Navy, he became a peace activist and is a volunteer with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action https://www.gzcenter.org/ which is near the Trident nuclear submarine base in Bangor, Washington. The Trident submarine base at Bangor represents the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S. and is the home port for 8 of the Navy’s 14 Trident ballistic missile submarines. The Trident bases at Bangor and Kings Bay, Georgia together represent just over half of all the nuclear warheads deployed by the United States. When asked why he wants to eliminate nuclear weapons, Rogers said http://www.nukeresister.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NR188web.pdf,
“Our kids deserve to grow up in a world without nuclear weapons. It is a failure of our generation that they must live in fear of nuclear annihilation and bear the cost of a massive modernization of our nuclear weapons complex.”
Crew member Chris Mayer, 58, from Belmont, California worked on electronics and as a crew member on west coast voyages of the Golden Rule. Chris enjoys building robots that teach themselves to walk. He frequently sails in San Francisco Bay and teaches celestial navigation.
Crew member Tate Furr, 19, from Greensboro, North Carolina has a captain’s license for the Neuse River, where he teaches youth to sail. He’s been on two ocean voyages and will enter his sophomore year at Appalachian State University this fall.
1958 Golden Rule Captain and crew: William Huntington, Captain Albert Bigelow, Orion Sherwood and George Willoughby Photo from Swathmore Peace collection
61 years ago, in 1958, the Golden Rule’s crew attempted to stop U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands by sailing from California to the Marshall Islands.
U.S. Coast Guard boat stopping The Golden Rule off Honolulu. Photo from Swathmore Peace collection
However, the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu, Hawaii stopped the Captain and crew twice, arresting and jailing them.
Photo of protests in Honolulu of nuclear tests & of the arrests of the Golden Rule crew. Photo from Quaker House, Honolulu, collection.
But their attempt gained international publicity to the dangers of the atmospheric nuclear testing and helped mobilize citizens throughout the world to put pressure on their governments to stop the testing. Atmospheric and underwater nuclear testing was finally stopped in 1963 with the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty https://www.britannica.com/event/Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty
by the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
Graphic by Helen Jaccard
The first leg of the voyage began on July 6, 2019 as the Golden Rule sailed from San Diego headed for her first stop– Hilo, Hawai’i. The trip will take approximately 3 weeks with the Golden Rule arriving in Hilo on July 31, 2019. The Golden Rule will stay in the waters around the Big Island of Hawai’i for the month of August (Hilo Aug 1-27 and Kona Au 29-Sept 8) before heading for the island of Maui on Sept 11 where she will remain until September 29. She will visit Lanai October 1-8and Molokai October 10-17. She will be in Oahu waters October 20-December 1. She will be in Kauai December 4-15 before departing from the Marshall Islands. In each of the islands, crew members will be speaking in schools and to civic groups about the continuing dangers of nuclear weapons to the safety of our planet.
Voyage is planned for Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Guam, Okinawa and Hiroshima, Japan. Other locations listed on map are other potential ports-of call on nuclear issues. Graphic by Helen Jaccard
Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, 1954.
In the Castle Bravo test the U.S. detonated a 15-megaton device equivalent to a thousand Hiroshima blasts. Photo from Swathmore Peace Collection
In December, 2019, the Captain and crew of the Golden Rule will sail to the Marshall Islands where the U.S. nuclear testing from 1946 to 1958 blew up several islands and atolls and radiated many Marshallese who are still suffering from the effects of the nuclear explosions. The combined explosive power of all the bombs dropped on the Marshall Islands during that 12-year period equals 1.6 Hiroshima-size explosions per day. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/11/27/a-ground-zero-forgotten/?utm_term=.e03eb9486001
After a month in the Marshall Islands the Golden Rule will sail to Guam where the U.S. military is increasing the size of U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine and U.S. Air Force facilities. The next stops will be Saipan and Okinawa, the site of many U.S. military bases.
The Golden Rule will arrive in Hiroshima, Japan prior to the August 6, 2020 commemoration the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of that city and of Nagasaki.
On May 1, Hawaiian elder Puna Kalama Dawson from Kauai flew from Hawai’i to San Diego to give an invitation and a blessing for the Golden Rule to come to Hawai’i. She thanked Veterans for Peace, the Captain and crew for their commitment to peace in the world and for using the vessel as an educational vehicle for discussions about folly of nuclear weapons.
In its four years of sailing along the West Coast of the United States, the Golden Rule has visited communities in Humboldt Bay, Eureka, San Francisco, Monterrey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Long Beach, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Bremerton, and Bangor. The Golden Rule has sailed twice to Ensenada, Mexico to visit with Deported U.S. veterans.
The Golden Rule was found derelict in Humboldt Bay, California in 2011. A local shipyard owner Leroy Zerlang discovered the history of the boat and asked for help in restoring her. Two Veterans for Peace chapters in Northern California volunteered. With Chuck Dewitt as project manager, many volunteers helped with the restoration over the next four years.
“Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule” https://vimeo.com/250517563
is a 25-minute documentary about the Golden Rule’s history and current mission. The 1958 mission of the Golden Rule is chronicled by the Golden Rule’s Captain Albert Bigelow, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, in the book, “The Voyage of the Golden Rule: An Experiment With Truth.”
In speaking about the mission of the Golden Rule, Gerry Condon, National president of Veterans For Peace said, “We are sailing for a nuclear-free world and a peaceful, sustainable future. Now it is time for us to visit the island nations of the Pacific, which have suffered so much damage from nuclear testing and military bases.”
You can follow the Golden Rule’s voyage on a map https://share.garmin.com/goldenrule
that updates every 10 minutes and with a daily blog https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/grdaily.
Email vfpgoldenrleproject@gmail.com to receive the blog link by email.
