Dawn service held 40 years on from Rainbow Warrior bombing
Greenpeace's vessel, which had been protesting nuclear testing in the Pacific, sank after French government agents planted explosives on its hull, killing Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira.
Today, 40 years on from the events on July 10 1985, a dawn ceremony was held in Auckland.
Author Margaret Mills was a cook on board the ship at the time, and has written about her experience in a book entitled Anecdotage.
Author Margaret Mills. (Source: 1News)
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The 95-year-old told Breakfast the experience on board "changed her life".
'I was sound asleep, and I heard this sort of bang and turned the light on, but it wouldn't go on.
She said when she left her room, a passenger told her "we've been bombed".
"I laughed at him, I said 'we don't get bombs in New Zealand, that's ridiculous'."
Newsmakers: Rainbow Warrior deckhand recalls French bombing
She said they were taken to the police station after a "big boom when the second bomb came through".
"I realised immediately, I was part of a historical event," she said.
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Journalist David Robie (right) and Greenpeace executive director Russel Norman (Source: 1News)
Journalist on the Rainbow Warrior David Robie told Breakfast it was a "really shocking, shocking night".
"We were so overwhelmed by the grief and absolute shock of what had happened. But for me, there was no doubt it was France behind this."
"But we were absolutely flabbergasted that a country could do this."
He said it was a "very emotional moment" and was hard to believe it had been 40 years since that time.
"It stands out in my life as being the most momentous occasion as a journalist covering that whole event."
Executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa Russel Norman said the legacy of the ship was about "people who really stood up for something important".
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"I mean, ending nuclear testing in the Pacific, imagine if they were still exploding bombs in the Pacific. We would have to live with that. And those people back then they stood up and beat the French government to end nuclear testing.
"It's pretty inspirational."
He said the group were still campaigning on some key environmental issues today.
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NZ Herald
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- NZ Herald
256-year-old relic of European contact with NZ rediscovered in RNZ podcast
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He also kidnapped a local rangatira named Ranginui, who was taken away in chains, and subsequently died of thirst and scurvy aboard the Saint Jean Baptiste. The storm which precipitated these events also claimed three of the Saint Jean Baptiste's large iron anchors. The ship's logs capture in harrowing detail how the ship was blown 'within musket shot' of the cliffs of the Karikari Peninsula after the cable securing the ship to its anchor snapped. Two other anchors were deployed, but failed to find purchase on the sandy bottom of the bay. De Surville gave orders to cut the two remaining anchors loose in an effort to save the ship. His second in command, Guilliam Labe, recorded in his journal that 'the vessel stayed for quite a long time without answering to her rudder and we stared death in the face, seeing rocks along the length of the ship fit to make your hair stand on end'. Thanks to an extraordinary piece of seamanship, the vessel was saved, but the three anchors were lost. 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3 days ago
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4 days ago
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