Rainbow Warrior Destroyed

Police seek evidence at the site of the partly submerged Rainbow Warrior

July 10, 1985 — In a shocking act of state terrorism on this day French secret service agents who had entered New Zealand blew up and sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior as she lay moored in Auckland harbour.

The Greenpeace campaigners had been hoping to disrupt planned nuclear weapon tests by the French at nearby Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia.

It later emerged that two of the French agents, dressed in diving gear, attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior below the waterline. Two explosions, 60 seconds apart, ripped through the ship and she sank in four minutes. A Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, was unable to get out in time and was drowned.

At first the French denied any involvement but an inquiry established the truth and two French agents captured by New Zealand police were charged with murder, arson, conspiracy to commit arson and wilful damage. The scandal led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister.

The agents were tried and imprisoned in New Zealand before later being transferred into French custody. They were then confined to a French military base on the Island of Hao where they were released after what Greenpeace described as a “mockingly brief” term of two years. In 1987, an international tribunal ordered France to pay Greenpeace US$8.1 million in damages.

The Rainbow Warrior wreck was placed on the seabed in nearby Matauri Bay, in the north of New Zealand. Over the years, she has become a haven for sea life and a popular destination for divers.

The ship began her work for Greenpeace in 1978. Before then, she had been a fishery research vessel for the UK Government. Her first voyage for Greenpeace was to Iceland in a protest against commercial whaling. Later, Rainbow Warrior moved to the Pacific Ocean to campaign against nuclear testing.

According to Greenpeace, the ship was named after a Native American saying that in a mistreated world “people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow….”

Rainbow Warrior II entered Greenpeace service in 1989, making way in 2011 for Rainbow Warrior III. The new ship was purpose-built as a protest campaign vessel. She is nearly 200 feet long (61m) and can carry a crew of 30. There is storage space for eight tons of scientific equipment.

Greenpeace says small boats can be launched in high waves from the ship; she has a helicopter pad; and has state-of-the-art communications systems. She is powered largely by the wind (five massive sails on an A-frame mast system), boasts energy-efficient hull and engines, and disposes no waste into the water.

Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by a small group of people who set sail to Amchitka island off the coast of Alaska in an attempt to stop a US nuclear weapons test. Their old fishing boat was called The Greenpeace. Today, the campaigners are present in over 40 countries mounting protests against nuclear testing, whaling, inhumane fishing, climate change and other environmental issues.

Published: June 3, 2023
Updated: August 25, 2023