Shipwrecks
  
diving into history

The Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
By Lawrence Paterson

 

Near Motutapere Island, three hours by boat North of Auckland, lies a dive site both exhilarating and tragic. Resting on the sand at 25 metres is the rusting hulk of Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. Now in the year 2000 the sinking of this Scottish registered vessel has become lost in history to most people. It deserves to be remembered, as does the memory of Fernando Pereira - the Portugese photographer who died in what then-Prime Minister of New Zealand David Lange called “a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism”.

 On the night of 10th July 1985 Rainbow Warrior had already been in Auckland Harbour for three days, preparing for a protest voyage to the French nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll. Testing of France’s nuclear weapons at this once beautiful spot of the South Pacific was a regular occurrence despite international condemnation against what were widely regarded as unnecessary and unsafe testing procedures.

Leading the fight to draw public attention to the destruction of Moruroa and pollution of the surrounding sea was Greenpeace, an environmental organisation extremely active in the Pacific. They regularly stationed ships in international waters around the crumbling devastated atoll. There they measured radiation amongst other things and were continuously running the gauntlet of hostile French Naval units, powerless under international law to prevent the ships being there.

On board the 45 metre long Rainbow Warrior that fateful July evening were members of the crew and local Greenpeace. Skipper Pete Wilcox, First Mate Martini Gotje, Engineer Davey Edwards, radio operator Lloyd Anderson, Bene Hoffman, Rien Achterberg and Fernando Pereira were all in the ship’s mess having a final drink before turning in for the night. Margaret Mills, the relief cook, had already gone to her cabin. Before falling asleep she heard two soft thuds against the hull, but thought no more of it. By 2330 hrs Pete Wilcox and Lloyd Anderson had also retired. Nineteen minutes later at 2349 hrs there was what was described as “an electric blue flash” in the water beside the quietly berthed ship. There instantly followed a massive explosion throwing several from their seats in the mess.  Davey Edwards immediately raced to the engine room from where the sound of the detonation had emanated. Forcing the door open he was confronted with a terrifying sight ¾ water poured through a gaping hole in her side, hissing as it contacted warm pipes. The deluge flooded the generator and all lights suddenly were extinguished. Captain Pete Wilcox appeared behind Edwards, took one look by torchlight, and instantly ordered the ship abandoned as the battered Rainbow Warrior listed to starboard. The first explosive had been well below the waterline and was designed to make sure she sank. It proved amply effective as lower cabins and the engine room quickly flooded.

As confusion took over and people ran from the stricken ship, searching faces to ensure nobody was left aboard, Fernando made his way down the perilous stairs to his cabin with the aim of retrieving his cameras. It was a fatal decision. A second explosive had been attached to the hull. This one was to ensure that should the wreck be raised it would be irreparable. When it exploded it shattered the stern, bending the propeller shaft and mangling the propeller itself. The final effect of the second blast was that the aft ballast tank was destroyed. This tank was filled with water, and more importantly, formed the deck that Fernando Pereira was standing on. The Portugese photographer who had left his native country to avoid conscription into the Armed forces, fighting colonial wars in Africa and Asia, was killed, engulfed by water and drowned. The Rainbow Warrior died with him, sinking in less than two minutes after the second blast. By 0400 hrs the following morning Police divers recovered his body with the straps of his camera bag entangled around his leg.

The bombing was obviously deliberate using carefully placed limpet mines. There was also very little doubt as to who was involved in this cowardly act of terrorism. Paris flatly denied any involvement, as did the French embassy in New Zealand. However, within days the New Zealand Police had arrested two French Secret Service agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur - despite their weak disguises as Swiss tourists - while they attempted to return their rental car in Auckland. Further French teams were identified but managed to escape as the Police closed in, sailing towards Norfolk Island where they were retrieved by the French submarine Rubis. 

International pressure forced an internal French Government enquiry headed by Bernard Tricot. Again his findings echoed French official statements:  “… I do not believe there was any French responsibility”. This statement, combined with President Mitterrand blustering and threatening arrest for any further protestors near Moruroa, increased the antagonism felt towards the French by New Zealanders and other onlooking nations. A second enquiry was ordered but was pre-empted by the resignation of French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, and sacking of Admiral Pierre Lacoste, head of the French Intelligence and Covert Operations Bureau. Only days later French Prime Minister Fabius admitted that their Secret service agents had bombed the Rainbow Warrior under “orders from above”.  On 4th November 1985 Mafart and Prieur pleaded guilty to manslaughter and willful damage in Auckland’s High Court, after being charged with the greater crimes of Murder and Arson. By pleading guilty they prevented under New Zealand law the Police findings from being made public. They both were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.  A further shameful political charade was played out under the presiding presence of United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar during June 1986. With this agreement (considered by most New Zealanders - including myself - as a pitiful sell-out) France agreed to pay NZ$13 million in reparations and officially apologise, in return for the two French citizens being detained within the French military base on Hao Atoll for three years. 

By May 1988 both of these state sanctioned international terrorists were free in France.

The Rainbow Warrior was raised and patched, although not operational any more thanks to the second murderous blast. Towed North she was sunk as an artificial reef on 14th December 1987 in a sheltered position near Motutapere Island. Now she is festooned with encrusting sea life and the home to hundreds of fish, a beautiful site for visiting divers, and a reminder of what an unpolluted sea is capable of displaying to those willing to look. Fernando Pereira remains largely forgotten, murdered for his environmental beliefs.

                      

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