Ship Tours

The 'twiddling fingers' part of direct action

Posted by jamie — 14 November 2008 at 11:41am - Comments

A dance troupe from Manokwari take a tour of the Esperanza's bridge

A dance troupe from Manokwari take a tour of the Esperanza's bridge in October 2008 © Greenpeace/Rante

Jamie wrote this - his thoughts and reflections on the ship tour so far - as he was waiting for something to happen in Indonesia last night. Eventually, something did.

Direct actions can be quite boring at times. The few moments of excitement are the ones which make the headlines and the photos, but anyone who has participated themselves will know there can be long, drawn-out stretches when not much is happening. Direct inaction, if you will.

I'm currently experiencing that now. As I write this, nestled in the campaign office on board the Esperanza, we're playing a waiting game. You've probably read about what the crew here has been up to in the Indonesian port of Dumai, painting and blockading palm oil tankers.

Article tagged as: climate change, direct actions, dumai, forests, indonesia, palm oil, papua new guinea, ship tours

Update from Indonesia: Greenpeace climber brought down

Posted by bex — 12 November 2008 at 12:42pm - Comments

A policeman pushes a Greenpeace climber down from the anchor chain of the Gran Couva

A policeman pushes a Greenpeace climber down from the anchor chain of the Gran Couva © Greenpeace/Novis

An update from Indonesia: yesterday, the climber occupying the anchor chain of a ship carrying a cargo of palm oil was brought down, arrested and later released without charge.

Yesterday, we also received the intriguing photo above (later chosen by the BBC for its day in pictures). As it took us in the office a while to get our heads around what was happening, I thought I'd pass on Jamie's explanation:

Article tagged as: climate change, deforestation, direct actions, esperanza, forests, indonesia, palm oil, ship tours

Forest crimes and climate crimes: Greenpeace ships take action

Posted by bex — 10 November 2008 at 3:48pm - Comments

The hoses are turned on a climber, attached to the anchor chain of the Gran Couva. © Greenpeace/Novis

The Esperanza in Indonesia

The small (wet) figure above is a crew member of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. Darkness has fallen on the port of Dumai (Indonesia) since this photograph was taken several hours ago, but our climber is still there, in the dark, occupying the anchor chain and preventing the tanker from setting off to the Netherlands with its 27,000 tonne cargo of palm oil. As Jamie wrote on the Forests for Climate blog, it takes only one person to stop a giant palm oil tanker.

Article tagged as: belgium, climate change, coal, eon, esperanza, forests, indonesia, rainbow warrior, ship tours

Farewell to the Rainbow Warriors

Posted by bex — 5 November 2008 at 4:57pm - Comments

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates.

Sadly, all good things come to an end and, yesterday afternoon, the Rainbow Warrior hauled up her lines and left Canary Wharf, heading for mainland Europe to continue her campaign against coal.

As a thanks to the amazing crew - who've had maybe the busiest two weeks of their Greenpeace ship lives - we've put together a slideshow capturing the quieter moments inbetween the frenetic events, open days and direct actions. The photographs are all by Will Rose (onboard photographer and one of the Kingsnorth Six) and Kajsa Sjolander (Rainbow Warrior deckhand and garbologist, when she's not being a photo journalist).

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, coal ship tour, energy, multimedia, rainbow warrior, ship tours, slideshows

Crew blog - life on the high seas (well, the Thames)

Posted by bex — 31 October 2008 at 3:59pm - Comments

The Rainbow Warrior coming through the Thames Barrier

The Rainbow Warrior coming through London's Thames Barrier on Friday afternoon. © Will Rose / Greenpeace.

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates or get them by email. 

Pete's blog

Pete - Rainbow Warrior crewPete is a volunteer deckhand on the Rainbow Warrior. He wrote this on Thursday, the day after the vigil.

Having been up since 3.40am the previous day, I slept through the night time antics with the projector and the injunction delivery.

Now we are at anchor just upriver from Tilbury. A quieter day of tidying ship and cleaning away equipment. Dark clouds are gathering and a sudden squall blows in. We are keeling over at an angle to the anchor chains. Icy sleet stings our hands and faces as we bring the inflatables alongside to secure them.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, coal ship tour, energy, rainbow warrior, ship tours

An evening at Kingsnorth

Posted by bex — 29 October 2008 at 7:06pm - Comments
Evening on the Rainbow Warrior

On deck of the Rainbow warrior, taken during the Warrior's UK tour. © Will Rose / Greenpeace.

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates or get them by email. 

It's slightly surreal sitting here in the mess of the Rainbow Warrior, where life is carrying on in all its usual, cosy hustle and bustle. (The crew members are helping themselves to spaghetti and salad as I write, and a couple of people are using the first quiet moment of the day to have a shower.)

Just outside is the towering smokestack of Kingsnorth and, around the corner, there's a small, concrete island owned by E.on which six people - including two of the Kingsnorth Six - have occupied. They're planning to set up a projector and beam images of climate change impacts onto Kingsnorth's smokestack. (So far, they've been troubled by technical problems - I'll keep you posted.)

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, coal ship tour, direct actions, kingsnorth, rainbow warrior, ship tours
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