Origin

The current Rainbow Warrior was launched on 10 July 1989. The original vessel was sunk in 1985 by agents of the French government in an attempt to foil protests of their nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific.

The plan backfired, sparking worldwide outrage, and the rebuilt ship proved that "you can't sink a rainbow" when it returned to battle successfully against the testing programme. Nuclear testing ended at Moruroa in 1996.

The ship's name was inspired by a North American Indian prophecy which foretells a time when human greed will make the Earth sick, and a mythical band of warriors will descend from a rainbow to save it.

History

Greenpeace converted the Rainbow Warrior into a motor/sailing vessel by constructing three masts on the hull of a North Sea fishing trawler formerly called the Grampian Fame.

It is an ocean-going vessel equipped with the latest in electronic navigation, sailing and communications equipment.

Actions

The Rainbow Warrior's decks have been graced by the Dalai Llama and members of the rock band U2. She has challenged environmental crimes, relocated the population of a South Pacific Island contaminated by radiation, provided disaster relief to victims of the 2004 Tsunami in South East Asia, and sailed against whaling, war, global warming, and other environmental crimes on every ocean of the world.

Arguably, the Rainbow Warrior's greatest moments were in her decades-long struggle to end nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Despite being rammed, bombed, and subject to every form of intimidation and opposition imaginable, she carried on the fight for a nuclear-free Pacific.