Rainbow Warrior is a schooner (sailing ship) operated by the Greenpeace organization. She is named after the Greenpeace flagship of the same name that was sunk by the French secret service in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on July 10 1985.

The three-masted vessel was built from the hull of the deep sea fishing ship Grampian Fame. Built in Yorkshire and launched in 1957 she was originally 44 metres long and powered by steam. She was extended to 55.2 m in 1966. Greenpeace gave the vessel new masts, gaff rigged, a new engine and a number of environmentally low-impact systems to handle waste, heating and hot water. She was officially launched in Hamburg on July 10 1989, the anniversary of the sinking of her predecessor.

The first Rainbow Warrior

The first Rainbow Warrior, a craft of 40 metres and 418 tonnes, was originally the MAFF trawler Sir William Hardy, launched in 1955. She was acquired for £40,000 and was renovated over four months, then re-launched on April 29 1978 as Rainbow Warrior. She was named after a Native American prophecy. The engines were replaced in 1981 and the ship was converted with a ketch rig in 1985.

Rainbow Warrior was used as a support vessel for many Greenpeace protest activities against sealing, whaling and nuclear weapons testing during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1985, she had travelled to New Zealand to lead a flotilla of yachts protesting against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. During previous nuclear tests at Mururoa, protest ships had been boarded by French commandos after sailing inside the shipping exclusion zone around the atoll. With the 1985 tests, Greenpeace had intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to do this. The French Government infiltrated the New Zealand organisation and discovered these plans.

Rainbow Warrior was sunk just before midnight on July 10 1985 by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of French intelligence (DGSE). Of the twelve people on board, one, photographer Fernando Pereira, was drowned when he attempted to retrieve his equipment.

The New Zealand Police immediately initiated a homicide inquiry into the sinking. With the assistance of the New Zealand public, and an intense media focus, the police quickly established the movements of the bombers. On July 12 1985, two of the six bombers who had operated under orders, were found, interviewed at length, arrested and sent to trial, and eventually imprisoned for 5 years. The others, though identified and although three were interviewed by the New Zealand Police on Norfolk Island, where they had escaped in the yacht Ouvea, were not arrested due to lack of evidence. Ouvea subsequently sailed for Nouméa but disappeared. Most of the agents remain in French government service. In 1987, under heavy international pressure, the French government paid $8.16 million compensation to Greenpeace.

Rainbow Warrior was refloated on August 21 1985 and moved to a naval harbour for forensic examination. Although the hull had been recovered, the damage was too extensive for economic repair and the vessel was scuttled in Matauri Bay , Cavalli Islands on December 2 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and fish sanctuary. The move is seen as a fitting end for the vessel.

The Name

The name Rainbow Warrior comes from a Native American prophecy of the "Warriors of the Rainbow", keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs. These warriors, who would be mankind's key to survival are prophecised to appear at a dark time when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.

External links

• http://www.greenpeace.org.au/rainbow_warrior/index.html
• History and specifications
• The Rainbow Warrior Affair