By Christopher DeMarcus (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 23, 2013
On a cool and crisp fall day at the Wallace Dry Dock in North Vancouver, a diverse group of curious activists and community members lined up to board Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, the Rainbow Warrior.
The queue was filled with artists, punk rockers, filmmakers, families, tourists, and everyone in between.
The one thing everyone in the crowd had in common was a dream for a better, more just, world.
Eva, who led groups through the ship to meet some of the crew, is one of the head fundraisers for Greenpeace’s office in Canada.
“Our Vancouver office put in a request for the ship. Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver, and we wanted to bring our biggest symbol to its place of origin,” she explained.
Eva led a small group of curious families onto the boat, where she introduced them to deck hand Nazareth Sanzini from Italy. Sanzini crossed the Pacific to get to Vancouver, sailing from Thailand.
“90 per cent of the time we get power from the sails. We use the power of wind. The rare moments when there is no wind, we use a back-up diesel engine,” he explained.
The masts of the ship towered 55 metres high, massive for a vessel that is only 60 metres long. Fully opened, the sails are able to catch 1,200 square feet of wind.
“The journey from Taiwan took about a month,” Sanzini explained. “We have been to five continents in the past two years. There are 60 people working on the ship at one time, and almost 60 different nationalities. There are both activists and science professionals.”
This Rainbow Warrior is not the first or even the second to bear the name, but the third. Back in 1985 the first ship was sunk by the French government while it was protesting a nuclear test off the coast of New Zealand. After two decades of worldwide service, the second Rainbow Warrior was sold to Friendship, a Bangladesh non-governmental organization (NGO) which now uses it as a hospital ship.
Austrian crewman Manuel Marinelli described what it’s like to travel on the open sea in the southern equator.
“As soon as you get south the night sky becomes much clearer. There is an amazing view of the stars that you can’t get anywhere else than in the middle of the ocean,” he said. “We see things like glowing green humpback whales. It’s like the movie Life of Pi, but completely real.”
The stern of the ship features one of its most unique assets: a helipad. Despite being a ship with large sails, the Rainbow Warrior has been designed to accept visitors via helicopter. Helicopter pilots are often surprised to see a sail-powered ship that is able to accommodate chopper landings in the middle of a rolling sea, explained Brook, a crew member from Halifax.
“The job we draw straws for is having to get under the helicopter to secure it when it lands. As much as the helicopter pilot doesn’t like landing on the ship, it’s not fun to get under the chopper while the blades are still spinning and the deck is rocking back and forth,” he said. “Despite that, the past two years serving on the Rainbow have been an experience of a lifetime. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Eva went on to explain how the ship is funded, and how people might be able to get involved.
“It cost €35 million to build the ship – all of the funding crowd-sourced from individuals and foundations,” she explained. “If you want to work with us here on the boat, the only experience you need to volunteer with Greenpeace [is] having the ability to speak English. However, we get about 20,000 applications a year, and only have two open positions.”
Despite the impressive technical and social aspects of the boat, its presence drew in controversy. The same day the Rainbow Warrior was docked, a protest against GMOs was taking place in downtown Vancouver, just across the harbor. In a counter to the GMO protest, there was also The Golden Rice Project, a group lead by former Greenpeace president Patrick Moore.
“Greenpeace is responsible for the deaths of thousands by denying them access to golden rice,” blasted Moore’s megaphone at the crowd. “The only difference between golden rice and white rice is the added beta carotene, which provides vitamin A to those that need it.”
Greenpeace has drawn a hard-line against GMO foods and supported protests against it. This has caused a split among environmentalists.
However, it would appear that Moore’s message was poorly understood, as most in the crowd assumed that he was part of the anti-GMO protest.
