1985-2001 Ships: MV Greenpeace
In service: 1985-2001 Built: 1959 Type of ship: Former ocean-going tug, later pilot vessel Length: 58m Max. speed: 13 knots Crew: 15, max 38 Formerly known as the Elbe, the MV Greenpeace was donated by the Association of Maryland Pilots for the Antarctic campaign, and prior to going into service with Greenpeace was equipped with a reinforced bow, a crane, and modern communications and navigation systems. Her first campaign trip, however, was to Moruroa where she joined a peace flotilla protesting French nuclear testing, assuming the tasks of the Rainbow Warrior, which had been blown up by the French secret service in New Zealand shortly beforehand. The MV Greenpeace sailed all of the world’s seas, protesting against driftnetting in the South Atlantic, the discharge of toxic substances into the Mediterranean, and the dumping of Russian nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan. Her crew knew her by the affectionate name ‘Black Pig’. The Black Pig was the ship sailed by Captain Horatio Pugwash, a fictional pirate in a series of British children’s comic strips and books, and cult TV cartoon series through the 50s, 60s and 70s. She was replaced in 2001 by the Esperanza, and has since been reconverted to her original form as the Elbe. She is now a museum ship in Maassluis in the Netherlands.
image 1 Greenpeace climate action against JET oilrig, being transported to drill for oil in the North Sea © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert image 2 Arndvoort Bay, Antarctica © Greenpeace / Roger Grace image 3 Paula Huckleberry flies the Greenpeace helicopter over the MV Greenpeace, during protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 4 Moored on the quayside in St Petersburg, during the Baltic Toxics tour © Greenpeace / John Cunningham image 5 Leaving Barrow Lock in the UK, in pursuit of the plutonium transport ship Pacific Teal © Greenpeace / David Sims
70 THE GREENPEACE chronicles