Greenpeaces eco-friendly ship, the Rainbow Warrior III, sails into Table Bay Harbour before docking in Cape Town, where it will stay for six days for routine maintenance before sailing for Durban and then Mozambique. Picture: TREVOR WILKINS
Rainbow Warrior III, which is billed as the “most environmentally friendly” ship built, is to join the fight against illegal fishing along the Mozambique coast.
Peter Willcox, who is one of a contingent of Greenpeace activists, is captain of the ship, which sailed into Cape Town’s Table Bay Harbour for routine maintenance before heading for the Indian Ocean.
The ship will leave Cape Town on Thursday night for Durban, before it sails for Mozambique on September 3.
Willcox has been an environmental activist for 40 years, during which time he has been detained more than 10 times and has also had an attempt made on his life.
Despite that, quitting was the furthest thing from Willcox’s mind.
Set to bump hulls with Japanese whalers and disrupt nuclear weapons testing, the ship is the third Rainbow Warrior, and the first ship Greenpeace has custom-built from scratch.
The first Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French intelligence agents in 1985.
The second now serves as a hospital boat in Bangladesh.
The latest Warrior was launched in Germany in October last year. It was built to provide modern facilities for the group’s use, including advanced telecommunications systems, specialised scientific equipment and a helicopter pad.
The Warrior can store up to 59m3 of grey water and black water, avoiding the need for disposal at sea.
Willcox has been involved in some of the daring protests mounted against illegal whaling trawlers, including one for which he was almost jailed in Peru several years ago.
The first Rainbow Warrior was blown up while docked in the Auckland harbour preparing for a protest voyage to the nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll. At the time, Willcox had been in his bunk.
“I thought, for the government of France to use such violence on us, we were doing something right,” Willcox said.
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