1972-95 Ships: vega
In service: 1972-95 Built: around 1948 Type of ship: Yacht Length: 12m Max. speed: 6.5 knots Crew: 5 Built in 1948 without the aid of power tools and entirely of native New Zealand timber, the Vega has large diesel fuel and water tanks and plenty of storage space, which means she can cross any of the world’s oceans. She has covered over 50,000 sea miles. Her history with Greenpeace begins when David McTaggart sailed her to Moruroa to confront French atmospheric nuclear testing in the early 1970s. She was to return to the atoll many times, but also participated in other Greenpeace campaigns and information tours. In 1991, the Vega underwent repairs in New Zealand, in preparation for her retirement, and sailed to the Mediterranean in 1992 to be reunited with David McTaggart, by then Greenpeace International’s Honorary Chair. When McTaggart died in 2011, veteran Greenpeace activist Chris Robinson – one of the original Rainbow Warrior crew and a former captain of the Vega - assumed operation of the vessel. Under Chris’ guidance, the Vega continued her work, including protests against environmentally-destructive projects in Australia. When Chris also sadly died in 2008, the Vega returned to New Zealand, to be run by Waiheke Islander Daniel Mares, also a former crew member and skipper. The Vega is now used mainly for educational purposes.
image 1 Approaching the Moruroa test site in 1995 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 2 At Pohnpei, one of the Federated States of Micronesia, in 1991 © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 3 With the Rainbow Warrior off Mejato in the Marshall Islands, in 1991 © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 4 Sailing from Manzanillo on her third voyage to the French nuclear test site, in 1981 © Greenpeace / David McTaggart
26 THE GREENPEACE chronicles