The Rainbow Warrior
The Rainbow Warrior
The name "Rainbow Warrior" has a moving story behind it.
In 1971, when the first Greenpeace members were traveling to the island of Anchika, Robert Hunter, a journalist accompanying them, was looking through a small book of Indian myths and legends that he had brought with him. He came across this amazing prophecy: An old Cree woman told her great-grandchildren a story in which the tribe predicted that the world would enter a period in which the white man would plunder the earth's resources. Before it was too late, the great warriors of the Indians would be reborn to teach the white man how to take care of the earth - a group of warriors known as the "Rainbow Warriors". That's why the first boat Greenpeace bought was called the Rainbow Warrior.
The Esperanza
The Esperanza was launched in 2002, and was the first ship to take part in the 2002 project "Primary Forests: To Protect or Disappear", and is the newest and largest ship in the Greenpeace fleet. It is the newest and largest ship in the Greenpeace fleet, taking over from MV Greenpeace. Hope is the first ship to be named by a visitor to the Greenpeace website.
Polar Aurora
Before Greenpeace chartered the Polar Aurora, it was at one time a seal-hunting ship. Greenpeace once blocked the ship when it was delivering equipment to France for the construction of an airstrip in Antarctica because building the runway would destroy penguin habitat.
The Polar Aurora began its Greenpeace career in the Brent Spar program, where it prevented the scrapped rig Brent Spar from sinking in the North Sea. In 1997, Polar Aurora became the first ship in human history to successfully circumnavigate James Ross Island in Antarctica, a voyage made possible by the climate change collapse of the 200-meter-thick block of ice that had connected James Ross Island to the Antarctic continent. Since then, the ship has assisted Greenpeace on many occasions in witnessing the devastation that climate change is wreaking on the homes of both humans and animals. The Polar Dawn has since returned to the Arctic several times to oppose BP's plans to open a new offshore oil well, the North Star. This plan threatens to cause oil spills in this vulnerable region and further global warming. In the Arctic Ocean, the Polar Aurora opposes Japan's so-called "scientific" whaling program and has tracked pirate ships illegally catching Patagonian toothfish as far as Mauritius, the largest pirate port. In order to prevent the United States from testing the Star Wars defense system in 2000, the Aurora entered the missile's orbit, but the attempt to stop it was unsuccessful. This defense system could have led to a new nuclear arms race. Fortunately, the Polar Aurora survived the missiles, and it went on to make a drug-free journey through Latin America, which began in 1998 with a voyage from Argentina.
Argus
The Argus is Greenpeace's smallest motor ship, operating largely out of the port of Rotterdam (Holland) or along the North Sea coast.In 1977, the Swedish Navy built the Argus, which at the time was named the MS Trymbergen.Greenpeace bought it from a Norwegian company in 2000. The Norwegians used it for short-range fishing and naval training. The ship was later renamed Argus, and its port of registry is Rotterdam's Lüverhaven Bay.
The Argus was primarily engaged in a program against the production, use and dumping of toxic chemicals. The ship itself is painted with paint that does not contain TBT, a highly toxic chemical used to prevent algae from attaching to the ship's hull. The first action on the Argus was in September 2000, when the crew put a huge sign saying "Stop TBT" on the hanger of a ship that used TBT paint, stigmatizing ships that used TBT.In February 2001, when a ship called the Saga Tide was trying to enter a Dutch lawn with timber cut from virgin forests in Canada, the ship was forced to leave the country. felled timber tried to enter the Dutch port of Flushing, the Argus showed up and stopped it.In May 2001, the Argus helped blockade the heavily polluted Rotterdam Chemical Harbor. Greenpeace demanded that the perpetrators, Akzo, Shell and Shin-Etsu, clean up the Chemical Harbor.At the end of July 2001, journalists traveled to the North Sea on the Argus to visit the first offshore windmill built by Greenpeace, which happened to be where Clyde Petroleum was planning to start drilling for oil. Rubber dinghies are not the largest vessels available to Greenpeace, but they are the most effective combat weapon for operations at sea. They play a vital role in intercepting whale-killing whaling forks halfway across the world, in stopping the dumping of toxic waste into the sea, and in confronting illegal fishing boats in a way that no other type of vessel can match.
Greenpeace's use of rubber dinghies had a fortuitous beginning: in 1972, when Greenpeace's speedboat Vega was on a mission to stop France from carrying out nuclear tests, French commandos boarded Vega using rubber dinghies and beat the captain severely. The combat effectiveness of the French commandos' rubber boats impressed Bob Hunter, then the 'brains' of Greenpeace - since they were capable of such good combat effectiveness, it was all the more important that we make good use of them.
Rubber boats have their own personalities, and all of them have their own names. Some are named colloquially according to the color of the boat or its maker; others are left to the imagination. Hope on board a rubber boat nicknamed "African Queen", in the movie of the same name had carried movie stars Humphrey Bogart and Kathryn Hepburn to the Congo. And the rubber dinghy Billy G is dedicated to the memory of filmmaker Billy Greene, who died young. After he was shot and killed, his mother Robin Davey wanted Greenpeace's courageous rubber dinghy to bear her son's name, to bear witness to and to protect the earth he respected and loved during his lifetime.
Multiple rubber boats have had unusual experiences over the past few decades. Some have been pelted with whole barrels of radioactive waste, some have been crushed by boats illegally hauling lumber, some have been seized by police, and some have worn out and been scrapped. It is with people like Billy G., people who write to us and show us their support, wherever you are, who extend a hand of support, that our fleet is fully committed to creating a better world with action. Please do not underestimate this power that you bring. A Greenpeace balloon can carry three people: a pilot and two passengers such as a program director, photographer or skydiver. Three additional ground crew are needed. This balloon can only be used when the wind speed is not high (up to 10 knots). In many parts of the world, Greenpeace balloons can only be used two hours before sunrise or two hours after sunset. This is due to the fact that the daytime sun raises atmospheric temperatures and generates heat, making balloon flight dangerous. In winter, when the sun is not as hot, there are more opportunities for daytime balloon flights. Under normal conditions (cold temperatures at 2000 meters above sea level), balloons can stay in the air for up to two hours. There are two types of balloon flights: free flight or tethered flight. In free flight, the balloon will fly with the wind direction. The pilot can control the direction of the balloon to some extent by utilizing the wind at different altitudes. In tethered flight, the wind speed (about 8 knots) is less than in free flight because the balloon is resisting the wind and the hot air is more likely to blow the balloon out, causing it to fall. Greenpeace uses balloons for a number of project activities, such as hanging banners, taking photos of polluted environments, detecting air pollution and as platforms for skydiving operations.
The most famous Greenpeace balloon voyages in history include the 1983 flight over the Berlin Wall in Germany, the 1987 flight over the Nevada nuclear test site in the US, and the 1998 flight over the Taj Mahal in India to protest against nuclear testing.