The Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace's protest vessel, has arrived in Bangladesh to be refitted as a hospital ship.
The environmental campaign group has donated it to the Bangladeshi NGO Friendship, which specialises in operating "floating hospitals" for marginalised people in remote areas of the country.
The Rainbow Warrior II, the second Greenpeace flagship, commissioned after the first was sunk by the French in New Zealand in 1985, docked at Chittagong port in Bangladesh on Monday.
Mike Fincken, the captain of the ship for the past five years, said he was happy the Rainbow Warrior was being converted into a hospital ship serving Bangladesh's coastal belt.
"The ship will be delivering primary, secondary and emergency medical assistance to some of the most vulnerable communities of the world, people who are not only disadvantaged but also experiencing the effects of climate change," he said. "Greenpeace has acted responsibly in donating the boat."
The 55-metre three-masted schooner has been renamed the Rongdhonu, which means rainbow in Bangla. Over the past few days, the ship's bell has been removed, its dolphin mascot taken down and its name painted over, but it still has the aura of a ship that has carried the banner of "climate action" for 22 years.
The Rainbow Warrior travelled the globe, as the 88 national flags on board testify. It blocked the Russian whaling fleet in the strait of Gibraltar, protested in Mururoa against French nuclear tests and stopped ships carrying coal and palm oil. The vessel relocated the population of the tiny island of Rongelap in the Marshall Islands after radiation contamination, and helped in the clean-up of oil spills. It provided humanitarian aid in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and its most recent mission was monitoring radiation levels off the coast of Fukushima in Japan.
"This ship has stood as an icon of hope over pessimism and as an emblem of action over complacency," said Fincken. "It is time to pass that task on."
Runa Khan, the co-founder and executive director of Friendship, said the spirit of the Rainbow Warrior would sail on with the Rongdhonu. "We're tremendously excited to have such an iconic ship as part of our fleet. After we have renovated the ship, it will not only be a floating hospital for the coast but an emergency medical ship for the region."
Greenpeace has commissioned a new Rainbow Warrior, which is scheduled to join the organisation's fleet in October.