Greenpeace ships

MY Arctic Sunrise in the Amazon

In 1971…
When a small group of anti-war protestors decided to take non-violent direct action against US nuclear weapons testing on Amchitka Island in Alaska, they needed a protest boat.

The Phyllis Cormack was an ageing halibut seiner. Her depth-sounder had to be hammered with a fist to get it working, her anchor winch was worn out, fuel tanks rusty, engine in appalling condition. But her hull was seaworthy, and she was all they could afford. This, they decided, was the boat they would sail against the bomb. And she was dubbed “Greenpeace” for the voyage.

Today…
There are three ships in the Greenpeace fleet – our flagship, the SY Rainbow Warrior, the ice-breaking MY Arctic Sunrise, and our latest ship, kitted out to the highest environmental standards, MY Esperanza. All three are at the core of all our campaigns and research work.

Our ships allow us to continue the Quaker traditions of non-violent direct action and “bearing witness” that influenced and inspired those founders of Greenpeace back in 1971. Bearing witness involves arriving at a scene of objectionable activity, registering opposition and publicising the issue. They also allow us to travel to remote areas, to bear witness to environmental destruction, and to take direct action against the pollution of the oceans, the rivers, the soil, the air, the food chain, the killing of marine life and the devastation of the ecosystem.

Action!
From obstructing nuclear tests in the Pacific,ro saving the whales from Japanese harpoons in the Southern Oceans, to conducting research into rare seamounts in the North Eastern Atlantic, to stopping shiploads of illegal timber entering Britain, to collecting testimonies from remote villages in Greenland to publicising the success of offshore wind farms in Denmark – they also provide invaluable support to all Greenpeace campaigns.