 Rainbow Warrior docked in 1979. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |  Greenpeace (1978–1985) |
| Port of registry | Aberdeen,United Kingdom[1] |
| Builder | Hall, Russell & Company, Aberdeen, UK |
| Yard number | 846[2] |
| Launched | 29 November 1954[2] |
| Acquired | 1977 |
| Identification | IMO number: 5329786 |
| Fate | |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Trawler |
| Tonnage | 418 GT |
| Length | 40 m (131 ft 3 in) |
| Draught | 4.6 m |
| Propulsion | 2 engines, 620 m² of sails |
| Speed |
|
Rainbow Warrior was aGreenpeace ship involved in campaigns againstwhaling,seal hunting,nuclear testing andnuclear waste dumping during the late 1970s and early 1980s. TheDirection Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (the French intelligence service)bombedRainbow Warrior in thePort of Auckland,New Zealand on 10 July 1985, sinking the ship and killing photographerFernando Pereira.
Rainbow Warrior was commissioned by theUK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) as atrawler calledSir William Hardy. It was built in 1955, inAberdeen,Scotland. It was later purchased by theenvironmental organizationGreenpeace UK.
In 1977 the ship was acquired byGreenpeace UK at a cost of £37,000 and underwent a four-month refit. It was re-launched on 2 May 1978 asRainbow Warrior. The ship was named by Greenpeace co-founderSusi Newborn after the bookWarriors of the Rainbow which she had been given by anotherGreenpeace co-founder,Robert Hunter. After a series of high-profile campaigns in the North Atlantic, including two escapes from captivity in Spain resulting in the resignation of the Admiral of the Spanish Navy,Rainbow Warrior made its way to North America where it underwent modification in 1981 and the fitting of sails in aketch rig in 1985.
In early 1985,Rainbow Warrior was in the Pacific Ocean campaigning against nuclear testing. In May, it relocated 300Marshall Islanders fromRongelap Atoll, which had been polluted by radioactive fallout from past American nuclear tests at thePacific Proving Grounds.[4][5]
It then travelled toNew Zealand to lead a flotilla ofyachts protesting againstFrench nuclear testing at theMururoa Atoll in theTuamotu Archipelago ofFrench Polynesia. During previous nuclear tests at Mururoa, protest ships had been boarded by Frenchcommandos after sailing into the shipping exclusion zone around the atoll. For the 1985 tests, Greenpeace intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to monitor the blasts.
DGSE agent Christine Cabon infiltrated the Auckland offices of the organisation and secretly monitored communications fromRainbow Warrior, collected maps, and investigated underwater equipment. French agents posing as interested supporters or tourists also toured the ship while it was open to public viewing.[6][7]
Rainbow Warrior, then captained byPeter Willcox, was sabotaged and sunk just before midnight NZST on 10 July 1985, by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of the French intelligence service (DGSE). One of the twelve people on board, photographerFernando Pereira, returned to the ship after the first explosion to attempt to retrieve his equipment, and was killed when the ship was sunk by the second, larger explosion.
A homicide inquiry began after the arrests of two French agents. The revelations of French involvement caused a political scandal and the French Minister of DefenceCharles Hernu resigned. The captured French agents were imprisoned, but later transferred to French custody. They were confined to the French military base on theIsland of Hao for a brief period before being released. After facing international pressure, France agreed to pay compensation to Greenpeace, and later admissions from the former head of the DGSE revealed that three teams had carried out the bombings. In addition to those successfully prosecuted, two DGSE divers, Jacques Camurier and Alain Tonel, had carried out the actual bombing, but their identities have never been officially confirmed.[8] On 22 September 1985, the French Prime MinisterLaurent Fabius summoned journalists to his office to read a 200-word statement in which he said: "The truth is cruel," and acknowledged there had been a cover-up, he went on to say that "Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders."[9]
Following the sinking, Greenpeace and the French Republic entered into an agreement to submit Greenpeace's claims against France to international arbitration. The arbitral tribunal, seated in Geneva, Switzerland, was composed of three members (Professor Claude Reymond, SirOwen Woodhouse and Professor François Terre) and rendered an award in 1987 in favour of Greenpeace, ordering France to pay it US$8.1 million.David McTaggart, Greenpeace's chairman, described the award as "a great victory for those who support the right of peaceful protest and abhor the use of violence."[10] Greenpeace was represented byLloyd Cutler andGary Born ofWilmer Cutler & Pickering.[10]
The wreck ofRainbow Warrior was refloated on 21 August 1985 and moved to a naval harbour forforensic examination. Although thehull had been recovered, the damage was too extensive for repair and the vessel was scuttled inMatauri Bay in theCavalli Islands,New Zealand, on 12 December 1987, to serve as adive wreck andartificial reef to promote marine life.[11] The hull is now covered with a large colony of varicolouredsea anemones.[12] The masts were salvaged and now stand outside theDargaville Museum. A second ship, also namedRainbow Warrior, was acquired in 1989 whilst athird ship of the same name was built from scratch and launched in October 2011.
Several books have been written about both the history ofGreenpeace and the genesis ofRainbow Warrior.A Bonfire in my Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior by Susi Newborn was published in 2003 and Rex Wyler'sGreenpeace: An Insider's Account. How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World in 2004. In 2014, Pete Wilkinson's bookFrom Deptford to Antarctica – The Long Way Home was published.
Books that have been published about the bombing ofRainbow Warrior includeEyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, which was produced the year after the sinking and written by shipboard authorDavid Robie.[13]
Books in French includeL'affaire Greenpeace, inLes grands énigmes de notre temps, Jacques Derogy, Éditions de Cremille, Geneva, 1990, which notes (at p. 82) that the affair cost France 115 million francs, in addition to being the most serious scandal during the Mitterrand presidency.
Documentaries made aboutRainbow Warrior includeThe Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island (2009),Departure and Return (2006) andThe Women who Launched the Rainbow (2005).
Several fictionalised films have also been made about the ship, includingThe Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy[14] (1989),The Rainbow Warrior (1992), two French filmsOpération Rainbow Warrior[15] andLe Rainbow Warrior[16] (both 2006), andBombshell (2016).[17] TheSteven Seagal-directedOn Deadly Ground, an action film inspired by Greenpeace's activities, had the working titleRainbow Warrior.
Musicians and bands who have referenced the originalRainbow Warrior and the sinking, include the Danish/American bandWhite Lion and their song "Little Fighter", Australian bandMidnight Oil, Belgian bandCobalt 60, theNew Zealand bandThe Bats ("Green" onSilverbeet), the Irish folk-rock singerLuka Bloom, theFaroese metal bandTýr, and theArgentinian metal bandRata Blanca.Geffen Records released a double album,Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors,[18] in 1989 and included songs from artists such asU2,INXS,The Pretenders,Talking Heads,Peter Gabriel, and White Lion. Germanpunk bandDie Toten Hosen also referenced the sinking in their song "Walkampf", although not by name.
"Anchor Me" is a 1994 single by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds which a charity supergroup of New Zealand artists recorded in 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bombing of theRainbow Warrior. The song peaked at #3 in the New Zealand singles chart.
A GreenpeaceRainbow Warrior benefit concert was held on 5 April 1986 atMt. Smart Stadium, Auckland, includingHerbs,Neil Young,Jackson Browne,Graham Nash,Topp Twins,Dave Dobbyn and aSplit Enz reunion.[19][20]In 2013 theRainbow Warrior travelled the islands of Indonesia with elders of the Mentawi Islands, the visit included a stop on the island of Bali where popular independent rock band Navicula[21] filmed their hit song Busur Hujan. The video filmed by Erick Est included footage from the history of Greenpeace and the originalRainbow Warrior. The video, shared on YouTube, brought the story of theRainbow Warrior into the popular culture of Indonesia's youth movement.[22]
Rainbow Quay inRotherhithe, London, is named after the vessel, which was moored in this part of the Greenland dock prior to the development of residential flats also named Rainbow Quay.[23]
'Murder in the Pacific' is a three-part documentary about the sinking of the ship, directed by Chloe Campbell. It was broadcast onBBC2 in March 2023.[24]
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1987 | |
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34°58′29″S173°56′06″E / 34.9748°S 173.9349°E /-34.9748; 173.9349
