'Golden Rule' Ketch Arrested Soon After Sailing From Hawaii

HONOLULU, May 1--The Coast Guard intercepted the ketch Golden Rule skippered by former Lt. Cmdr. Albert Smith Bigelow '29, Thursday and took it in tow a short time after it had set sail from Honolulu in a defiant attempt to reach the U.S. nuclear test zone in the Pacific.

A Coast Guard cutter stopped the 30-foot sailing boat about 1 1/2 miles off shore half an hour after its pacifist crew cast off despite a federal order forbidding it to leave.

The crewmen faced a charge of criminal contempt of court.

As the Golden Rule was being towed back to Honolulu Harbor, Bigelow related the short-lived voyage to the Associated Press by radiophone.

"We were about a mile and a half off shore when we were hailed by a Coast Guard cutter. We were asked to heave-to and we did," Bigelow said.

"An officer, who identified himself as Robert Hanson, said he had an order for our arrest and told us to accompany him. We said we could not do this, and they attached a tow line and towed us in."

The arrest was based on a federal court order restraining the Golden Rule and its crew from leaving Honolulu and forbidding it to enter Eniwetok atoll in protest of nuclear bomb tests there.