The Golden Rule, a 34-foot wooden ketch and the first boat to engage in environmental direct action in the world, will be docking at Rockwell Park this Tuesday, June 13, at 11 a.m. A national project of Veterans for Peace, the Golden Rule is currently sailing up the Eastern Seaboard, spreading its message of hope for a world free of nuclear weapons and a peaceful, sustainable future for all.

“It’s got a really fascinating history,” said Nancy Hood, founding mother of East Bay Citizens for Peace (EBCP), who learned that the boat was coming to Providence and arranged for the detour to Bristol. St. Michael’s Church is co-sponsoring the visit along with EBCP.

The Golden Rule was the very first of the environmental and peace vessels to go to sea. In 1958, a crew of Quaker anti-nuclear weapons activists set sail in an attempt to interrupt U.S. atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. They ran into a series of hardships and never made it. The crew was arrested and jailed in Honolulu, but according to the Veterans for Peace, “their example helped to ignite a storm of world-wide public outrage against nuclear weapons that resulted in the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, and which has continued down to the present in the many organizations still working to abolish weapons of mass destruction.”

Eventually, the Golden Rule sunk off the coast of California; it was raised and restored by Veterans for Peace, and relaunched in 2015.

“It’s a very cool and creative way to bring attention to an issue that a lot of people have become blind to,” said Hood.

The welcoming ceremony, beginning at 11 a.m., will take place at Rockwell Park or in the Bristol Maritime Center in the event of rain, followed by a community potluck at St. Michael’s Parish Hall. There will be remarks, music, and a proclamation of welcome, as well as an opportunity to meet the crew and board the boat. A community potluck and presentation by Project Manager Helen Jaccard will follow at 12:30.