The Golden Rule peace boat is a 39-foot wooden ketch which four peace activists sailed toward the Marshall Islands in 1958 to protest U.S. nuclear weapons testing there. However, the crew was arrested on May 1 off Hawaii by the U.S. Coast Guard and never got to the test zone, but global outcry over the arrests and jailings joined with rising public awareness of radiation dangers of nuclear weapons tests, eventually prompted President Kennedy’s signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty with USSR and UK in October 1963.
Unfortunately, the boat sank in a storm off California in 2010, and Veterans For Peace and others salvaged and restored her. Since 2015, her crew has appeared at hundreds of educational events up and down the West Coast.
Use this link to learn more about the Golden Rule Peace Boat.
Now the Golden Rule is sailing the “Great Loop”: down the Mississippi, around Florida, up the East Coast through the Great Lakes to Chicago, a voyage of over 15 months, 11,000 miles and 100 ports-of-call, including Annapolis, Baltimore and Havre de Grace.
You are invited to participate in the events below while the Golden Rule peace boat is in New York and New Jersey, May 17-24.
- May 17, afternoon. Arrival, Docking and greeting of the Golden Rule. Chelsea Piers Marina @ 18th Street, Pier 59. Public walkway just above its slip. Feel free to view the ketch.
- May 18, 11 AM to 3 PM (Closed event, but live streaming from Golden Rule) Five environmentalists sail with VFP to Newark Bay, to discuss their work. Pick up at Liberty Landing Marina, Jersey City.
- May 19, 6-8 PM Riverfront Park, Newark. The Golden Rule will share their message of disarmament and demilitarization victories and highlight the ongoing environmental injustice struggles of Newark, Jersey City and other Passaic River Communities that have wrestled for too many years with the toxic polluting legacy of the industrial and military complex, as well as current pollutions that still persist in overburdened diverse communities.
- May 20, 11 AM to 1 PM Liberty State Park, Jersey City. New Jersey environmental and social justice groups along with VFP NJ and Golden Rule gathering. Golden Rule will dock for all to see.
- May 21, noon. Meet outside Riverside Church, NYC. Peace Walk of area. (Some may wish to attend 10:30 AM service) Stop in Riverside Church, walk to Sr. Megan Rice’s childhood home, visit Pupin Hall and hear Columbia University professor speak of the origins of the atomic research. Other stops, one to include the 15 ft. statue that survived the Hiroshima blast, a gift of peace and hope to New York City in 1955.
- May 23, 6:30 PM, 15th Street Meeting House. Rutherford Place War Resisters League and Society of Friends (Quakers) co-host a presentation of the Golden Rule and their history. Program will include Joanne Sheehan of WRL, and Larry Huntington relative of the original crew, among others.
- May 24, 10 AM, Amalgamated Bank (Limited event for VFP members and Golden Rule) Breakfast, presentation, honoring both a bank with no lending to armament policies and supporting environmentally sound companies, as well as social justice, and the Golden Rule.
- May 24, 2 to 3 PM, The Peoples Forum, 320 West 37th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenue) “A movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities to build unity across historic lines of division” present the Golden Rule and Q & A together. All welcome.
- May 26, Golden Rule sets sail in morning from Chelsea Piers through our harbor, up the East River, and past the United Nations. Managers stay in NYC for two events today. Kayaks, boaters welcome to accompany. Or wave from the shoreline.
- May 26, 1 PM, New York City Hall Park. New York City Council honors the Golden Rule and vice versa, highlighting two Council bills supporting the TPNW, divestment, and Move the Money from militarism to our true security and needs, on the site Dorothy Day and others protested.
- May 26, 8 PM, Maryhouse, 55 East 3rd Street. The Catholic Worker presents their history and the Golden Rule’s together.
- July 4, Golden Rule returns for a day sail in NYC harbor, then continues onward up the Hudson on July 5. Presentation TBA.