''Rainbow Warrior'' (sometimes informally called ''Rainbow Warrior II'') was a three-masted
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
most notable for service with the environmental protection organization
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
. She was built to replace the original
''Rainbow Warrior'' that the
French intelligence service (DGSE)
bombed in 1985 in the
Port of Auckland
Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated fa ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, which sank the ship and killed photographer
Fernando Pereira
Fernando Pereira (10 May 1950 – 10 July 1985) was a freelance Portuguese-Dutch photographer, who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, detonated a bomb and sank the ''Rainbow Warrior'', owned by the environme ...
.
The ''Rainbow Warrior II'' was built from the
hull of the
deep sea fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inc ...
ship ''Ross Kashmir'' (later ''Grampian Fame''), which had been built by
Cochrane & Sons
Cochrane Shipbuilders was a shipbuilder at Selby.
History
Founded by Andrew Cochrane at Beverley, England in 1884, establishing Cochrane & Sons in 1896. The ship building company moved to Selby in 1898. During the World War II, Second World War t ...
of
Selby
Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...
, North Yorkshire and launched in 1957. ''Rainbow Warrior'' was originally long and
powered by steam, but was extended to in 1966. Greenpeace gave the vessel new
masts, a
gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the ''gaff''. Because of the size and shape ...
, a new engine and a number of environmentally low-impact systems to handle waste, heating and hot water. She was officially re-launched in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
on 10 July 1989, the fourth anniversary of the bombing of her predecessor, the original
''Rainbow Warrior''.
History
Over the course of her career, ''Rainbow Warrior'' participated in activist campaigns such as blockading the Russian whaling fleet, protesting French nuclear weapons testing, and stopping ships with cargos of coal and palm oils, as well as humanitarian activities such as evacuating the inhabitants of
Rongelap
Rongelap Atoll ( Marshallese: , ) is a coral atoll of 61 islands (or motus) in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is . It encloses a lagoon with an area of . ...
after the island was contaminated by nuclear testing, and providing aid after the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...
.
''Rainbow Warrior'', piloted by skipper Mike Fincken, docked at the
Legazpi City
Legazpi, officially the City of Legazpi ( bcl, Siyudad nin Legazpi; fil, Lungsod ng Legazpi), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Albay, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 209,533. Legazpi ...
port in