On November 25^th at 4:30 pm, the public is invited to a ceremony at St. Andrews Picnic Area on Jekyll Island in remembrance of the survivors of the slave ship, The Wanderer, that landed on Jekyll 150 years ago. One of the speakers at the ceremony will be author Erik Calonius, whose book “The Wanderer” The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails.” Mr. Calonius, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, became interested in the Wanderer about 7 years ago during a visit to a museum on Jekyll Island. A painting of the ship set in motion his quest to find out as much as he could about this vessel. The ship began as an extremely luxurious racing yacht built in 1856, but was refitted with an enlarged cargo capacity and was sent out to the Congo and filled with 480 slaves. The Wanderer returned to the U.S. and landed the 400 surviving slaves on Jekyll on November 28, 1858. This was in violation of federal laws banning importation of slaves. The federal case that ensued from this event was heard in Savannah’s U.S. Customs House. As the Wanderer case played out in Savannah, another slavery related situation happened that made national news---John Brown’s seizure of the armory at Harpers Ferry, VA. Mr. Calonius’ view is that these two happenings were integral in the timing of the Civil War conflict.