Albert Bigelow

Albert Smith Bigelow was a pacifist and former United States Navy Commander who came to prominence in the 1950s as the skipper of the Golden Rule, the first vessel to attempt disruption of a nuclear test in protest against nuclear weapons.

Through the Religious Society of Friends, Bigelow and his wife Sylvia housed two of the Hiroshima Maidens: young Japanese women, disfigured by the atomic bomb, who were brought to the United States to undergo plastic surgery. Bigelow became active in the anti-nuclear movement, initially attempting to deliver a 17,411 signature petition to Cabinet Secretary Maxwell M. Rabb. When Rabb ignored them, Bigelow began engaging in direct actions. On August 6, 1957, on the 12th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Bigelow and twelve other members of the newly formed Committee for Non-Violent Action were arrested when they attempted to enter the Camp Mercury nuclear test site in Nevada, as part of a nonviolent vigil against the testing.

In February 1958, Bigelow set sail for the Eniwetok Proving Ground, the Atomic Energy Commission's atmospheric test site in the Marshall Islands, in the Golden Rule, a 30-foot sailboat. While the Golden Rule was en route to Hawaii, the Atomic Energy Commission hastily issued a regulation banning US citizens from sailing into the Proving Grounds. When they arrived in Hawaii, the crew of the Golden Rule were issued a court summons, resulting in a temporary injunction against any attempt to sail to the test site. Bigelow chose to break the injunction on May 1, but the Golden Rule was intercepted by the US Coast Guard only 5 nautical miles (9 km) from Honolulu. A second attempt on June 4 was also unsuccessful – the crew were arrested, charged with contempt of court and sentenced to sixty days in jail.

Bigelow continued to take part in non-violent protests during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was a participant in the Freedom Rides organized by the Congress on Racial Equality in 1961.