Qualla: Rainbow Warrior (1955)

Rainbow Warrior (1955): Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans van Dijk for Anefo, CC0. She started life as a government research trawler named Sir William Hardy, built in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1955 for the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Twenty-two years later, Greenpeace UK bought her for 37,000 pounds -- roughly the cost of a modest house -- and spent four months refitting her for a very different kind of work. Renamed Rainbow Warrior by co-founder Susi Newborn after a book given to her by fellow co-founder Robert Hunter, the ship was relaunched on 2 May 1978. Over the next seven years, she would confront whalers, evacuate nuclear refugees, escape captivity in Spain twice, and become the most recognizable protest vessel on earth. On the night of 10 July 1985, agents of the French intelligence service attached two bombs to her hull in Auckland Harbour. The second explosion killed photographer Fernando Pereira and sank the ship that had become Greenpeace's most powerful symbol.

Read more: Rainbow Warrior (1955) on Qualla

Image: Hans van Dijk for Anefo | CC0

Rainbow Warrior (1955): From Trawler to Icon

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Gadfium, Public domain. The transformation from research vessel to protest ship was not just cosmetic. Greenpeace fitted Rainbow Warrior with sails on a ketch rig in 1985, reducing her dependence on engines and extending her range across oceans where fuel was scarce. Her campaigns in the North Atlantic ...

Read more: Rainbow Warrior (1955) on Qualla

Image: User:Gadfium | Public domain

Rainbow Warrior (1955): The Rongelap Evacuation

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Gadfium, Public domain. In May 1985, Rainbow Warrior carried out what may have been her most consequential mission. She relocated 300 Marshall Islanders from Rongelap Atoll, which had been contaminated by radioactive fallout from American nuclear tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds. The people of Ronge...

Read more: Rainbow Warrior (1955) on Qualla

Image: User:Gadfium | Public domain

Rainbow Warrior (1955): Operation Satanique

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Gadfium, Public domain. Rainbow Warrior sailed to Auckland to lead a flotilla of yachts protesting French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia. The French government decided she would not arrive. DGSE agent Christine Cabon infiltrated Greenpeace's Auckland office, monitoring communicatio...

Read more: Rainbow Warrior (1955) on Qualla

Image: User:Gadfium | Public domain

Rainbow Warrior (1955): The Truth Is Cruel

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Gadfium, Public domain. New Zealand police arrested two French agents, and the investigation that followed unravelled a state-sponsored operation. French Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned. The captured agents were imprisoned in New Zealand, then transferred to French custody on Hao atoll, where th...

Read more: Rainbow Warrior (1955) on Qualla

Image: User:Gadfium | Public domain