Sailing for peace: the anti-nuclear voyage of Everyman III into Soviet territory, 1962

Abstract

In the Autumn of 1962, a crew of twelve committed pacifists decided to sail into Soviet territory in order to protest against the resumption of nuclear testing at Novaya Zemlya. Without visas for their final destination the voyage was, by the crew’s own admission, a study in ‘civil disobedience by boat’, meant to draw the eyes of the world to the dangers of nuclear weapons. With the assistance of European Quakers, Gandhians and other sympathisers at ports along the way, the voyage met with initial success. Hopes of global attention were dashed, however, when the Cuban missile crisis broke out just as Everyman III was detained by the Soviets at the port of Leningrad.