24 April 2008
Rainbow Warrior playground for fish
Posted by Debo Hobo under: International-Destinations .
New Zealand: Greenpeace’s original Rainbow Warrior, sunk by French agents trying to prevent its use in protesting nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific, is now a playground for divers and fish alike.
Background
In the 1980s, the direction of military applications of the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique was developing new nuclear warheads for the new M4 SLBM, which were tested in underground explosions in the French Polynesian atoll of Moruroa.Greenpeace was opposed to testing and had planned to lead a flotilla of yachts to the atoll to protest against the test, including an illegal incursion into French military zones. The Rainbow Warrior had not previously visited New Zealand, but David Lange’s New Zealand Labour Party government opposed nuclear weapons development and had banned nuclear armed or powered ships from New Zealand ports. (As a consequence the United States was in the process of withdrawing from its ANZUS treaty obligations of mutual defense.)
Sinking of the ship
Agents had boarded and carefully examined the ship while she was open to public viewing. Explosions were calculated that would be sufficient to cripple the ship, but, they hoped, precise and small enough not to take life.Two limpet mines attached to the hull of the ship detonated 10 minutes apart, at around 11:45 p.m., and the ship sank in four minutes.
The agents failed to allow for the less rigorous safety procedures on the Greenpeace vessel. Some people below decks did not evacuate the ship but returned below decks to salvage belongings and make a film record of events. A Portuguese-Dutch photographer, Fernando Pereira, drowned in the flooding that followed the second blast while attempting to fetch his equipment. The other ten crewmembers evacuated on the order of Captain Peter Willcox, or were thrown into the water by the force of the explosion. Read more at Wikipedia
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2 Comments so far...
Popular Wealth Says:
24 April 2008 at 11:15 pm.
Visiting this site is definitely one of the things i’d like to do if/when I visit new zealand. Both sides went too far in my opinion but when it comes to nuclear weapons - neither can back down can they.
[Reply]
Debo Hobo Says:
25 April 2008 at 12:25 pm.
Popular Wealth- I guess we humans won’t be happy until we completely destroy the earth one way or another. Thanks for visitng Debo Hobo I hope you come back and comment more. 
[Reply]
