Information from Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw

Email from Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw, February 3, 2010:

If it would be less confusing to people, you can use the name Reynolds instead of Renshaw in the URL and just mention on the site itself that I am now Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw. (It's confusing enough that I have had books published under all three names!)

Earle Reynolds building the Phoenix in Hiroshima. Photo from UC Santa Cruz.

Ted, Barbara & Jessica Reynolds about 1954. Photo from One Globe Publishing.

John Gardner & the Phoenix near Lodi, CA, March 2007. Photo from Recordnet.com.

Right click image to enlarge.

K E T C H

1954 - "Phoenix of Hiroshima," North Fork of Mokelumne River, off Tyler Island, Lodi, California (USA?). "John Gardner (phoenixofhiroshima @comcast.net, 209-570-4070) has already rescued the Phoenix (bottom image) after seeing it listed for free on craigslist [in late 2006 or early 2007], its San Francisco owner simply wanting to get rid of it to avoid paying any more fees to the Oyster Point Marina. Gardner paid a San Francisco boater to tow it to its current location." Constructed in Hiroshima (Japan) by American Quaker Earle Reynolds [1910-1998] (top image). "1954 brought the realization of a dream for Reynolds when he, his first wife Barbara Leonard Reynolds [1915-1990], and their three children began an around the world voyage on the Phoenix. They stopped at over one hundred ports, and Earle gave lectures on conditions in Hiroshima. Young Jessica [middle image] documented this trip in her book, which was later published [1958]. When they arrived in Hawaii in 1958, they met the crew of the Golden Rule (qv), Quakers who were on trial for their attempt to sail into the nuclear test zone near Bikini Island to protest nuclear weapons and atmospheric testing. They had been arrested and prevented from completing their mission. After talking with the crew of the Golden Rule, Dr. Reynolds and his family decided to complete the mission in their place. He also believed that the government did not have a right to restrict access to the open ocean. After sailing into the restricted zone, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. This verdict was appealed and eventually overturned." Earle Reynolds founded the Peace Resource Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1975. Barbara Reynolds founded the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima (Japan) in 1965 and the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College, Ohio, in 1975.

K E T C H

1958? - "Golden Rule," Eureka, California (USA). Now out of water and for sale by Leon Zerlang (humtug@gmail.com). Asking price is $9,500. Email Jan. 19, 2010 from Wendy E. Chmielewski, PhD, George Cooley Curator, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore. Pennsylvania (USA): "The sailing ship that in 1958 [Quakers] Albert Bigelow [1906-1993], James Peck [1914-1993], George Willoughby [1914-2010] (who just passed away two weeks ago), attempted to sail into the atomic testing grounds near the Marshall Islands. The ship has been repossessed by Leon Zerlang, the ship yard owner (from the bankrupt actual owner). Leon is aware of the ship's history and would like to help save The Golden Rule, but needs ideas and help on what to do to save this ship. Several years ago I received an almost identical email from another ship owner trying to save The Phoenix (qv), a sailing ship with a similar history. I don't know the fate of The Phoenix. It would be a shame to lose still another piece of peace movement history. Ideally something like The Golden Rule, a beautiful sailing ship, should be preserved by the Smithsonian, but I don't know that they have any interest in it." Right image shows Earle Reynolds [1910-1998], his second wife Akie Nagami, Phil Drath, Betty Boardman, Bob Eaton, Horace Champhy, and Ivan Massar embarking from Misaki, Kanagawa (Japan) on February 16, 1967, en route to North Vietnam with medical supplies. "In 1959, Bigelow published a book, "Voyage of the Golden Rule: An Experiment with Truth," which documented his journey. The story would go on to inspire fellow Quaker Marie Bohlen to suggest the use of a similar tactic to members of the Vancouver-based Don't Make a Wave Committee (later to become Greenpeace) in 1970."

Email from Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw, February 3, 2010:

"I have not yet been able to see the website [http://peace.maripo.com/p_boats.htm] and assimilate what you have there but I am impressed at the scope of what you are doing. A number of things seem to be coming together. Charlotte [Pack] and I had been discussing putting Earle, Barbara and the Phoenix on Wikipedia, and I have a draft of my dad's life and accomplishments almost ready to post. Have to add documentary sources first. I'm also in the middle of scanning into our computer pictures, articles, etc. for a DVD about Mum for anyone who would like copies for the cost of production. The Peace Resource Center is planning to publish "To Russia with Love," my book about our voyage to Nakhodka in 1961 to protest Soviet nuclear testing (previously published only in Japanese translation) as soon as my niece finishes the foreword to it.

"I assume you know (maybe the website will mention) that the Hiroshima hibakusha are very close to erecting a monument to my mother in the Peace Memorial Park. It has been designed and approved by the Riji-kai (the survivors' 'elders' group) for some time; I think only money is delaying the ceremony. The email containing the information and photos of it were lost with all the rest of my email in December, but I'll dig out the hard copy I pasted into my journal, scan it and send you a copy.

"Mr. Kohler, the Phoenix is 50' long, 14' wide, a "double-ender," that is, pointed at both ends, made of Japanese woods and of a heavy, Norwegian Colin Archer (fishing boat) design. (Described in more detail in the May 7, 14 and 21, 1956, issues of The Saturday Evening Post: "We Crossed the Pacific the Hard Way.") When my husband Jerry [Renshaw] and I saw the boat nearly three years ago [in San Francisco], everything had been stripped from it -- both masts, the figurehead, bowsprit, sternsprit, deckhouse, wheel, stanchions, everything on deck that would have helped identified it as a ketch or even a yacht -- and the belowdecks had been gutted -- no separate cabins, galley or head. Just a gigantic diesel engine amidships. The deck and hull were originally white with green trim; now the deck had some kind of coating on it that felt like sandpaper. Soon after that, John Gardner had it towed up the Sacramento River to what looked like (in pictures he sent us) a meadowy sort of place a friend of his owned. (Would that be Lodi? I don't have a map in front of me.) The PRC has a small piece of [the Phoenix], a chunk gouged out of the side by another boat. Hope it doesn't become a relic, drawing worshippers!

"P.S. A propos of the Golden Rule, I was saddened to hear recently of the passing of George Willoughby [1914-2010]".[whose memorial service will be Saturday, February 6, 2010, from 2-5 pm, at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA.]"

Email from Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw, February 3, 2010:

"Your website [http://peace.maripo.com/p_boats.htm] is very accurate on the whole. You might change my 'book' to my 'journal.' Strictly speaking, it wasn't a real book until it was published. My parents also wrote books about the trip around the world, "All in the Same Boat" (by Earle and Barbara, non-fiction for adults) and "Cabin Boat" and "Extra Ballast" (Barbara, fiction for children) and about the trip into the Pacific test zone, "The Forbidden Voyage" (Earle). I can get you publishers and dates when I am not so tired and when I can read your letters over less hurriedly. (I see I was asked only for the size of the Phoenix and supplied way more information than was needed!)

"Only two of us three children, Ted (who navigated the yacht -- at 16!) and I, went on the trip around the world. Our eldest bro, Tim, was (by choice) in boarding school in the States.

"Dad's lectures and articles during the circumnavigation were only about our travels. That trip was a pleasure cruise. Although the boat was built in Hiroshima and we had three yachtsmen from that city aboard, it never occurred to us to discuss or debate Hiroshima or nuclear weapons until we got back to Hawaii and met the crew of the Golden Rule. Dad and Mum didn't become Quakers until then, either.

"Leeann South at ourtribes @ yahoo.com was the one who first told us about John Gardner. She may know where he and/or the Phoenix is now.

"Jessica"

Email from Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw, February 3, 2010:

"Boy is my memory flawed! I would have been accurate if I'd said the original bowsprit, sternsprit, cabin top, etc. are gone. Here are photos of the Phoenix last time I saw her." [NB: Left image appears to be from Lodi, not San Francisco. Taken by John Gardner and sent to Jessica?]

Email from Jessica Renshaw, February 3, 2010:

[The second scan] has the wording on the monument, in Japanese and English:

"'I, too, am a hibakusha' with my mother's signature in her own handwriting. Then 'Hibakushas, that is the start of my peacemaking and everything. My heart is always with Hiroshima. I pray that humankind will hear and that their hearts may be moved to renounce war and preparations for war forever.'"