Emilie - 4th Mate | Home | Frank - Captain

I am the 2nd Mate on board, which means that I take the midnight to 0400am and midday to 0400pm navigation watches, plus all the activities in between, and get to bed pretty early when I can. A 2nd Mate also looks after all the navigation equipment and charts. That is normal for all ships, and what makes a Greenpeace ship different is that you can also be up in the middle of the night or day to help launch an inflatable and set off on an action. When we do this we take a lot of care about safety, though of course some of the things we end up doing are risky.

In New Zealand, it is quite common to grow up with ambition to sail the seas, as the sea is all around us. In 1973 I was a young university student, bicycling along the waterfront, when I first saw the old Danish sailing ship the `Fri', with all her rope and wood, canvas sails and smell of Stockholm tar. When I heard that she was planning to sail to Moruroa Atoll in the eastern Pacific near Tahiti, to try to stop French atmospheric nuclear testing, I applied to join as cook. At the time, the chance to do a long ocean voyage - which had caught my imagination while growing up - was part of the motivation. But the more I learned about the terrible colonial history of nuclear weapons testing throughout the Pacific, both west (U.S. Bikini tests) and east (France at Moruroa), causing long term and continuing radiation casualties among Pacific Islanders, the more I became an activist for nuclear disarmament.

For those who know their  Greenpeace history, 1973 is the year that past Greenpeace chairman David  McTaggart sailed back to Moruroa for the second time, and the year that  the Prime Minister of New Zealand sent a frigate to Moruroa to oppose the testing  also. Both McTaggart's and our sailing  vessels were boarded by French marines and   foreign legionnaires on the high seas, David McTaggart was badly beaten and lost partial sight in one eye, we were put under arrest ashore, avoided being deported as  planned because we had hidden all passports, went on hunger strike, and  were returned to the vessel after the last test was detonated.

The crew of the 'Fri', on return to New Zealand, were instrumental in  setting up Greenpeace New Zealand in 1974, and some of those crew are  still very actively involved (Martini Gotje, Rien Achterberg).  Greenpeace returned repeatedly to Moruroa in the following  decades, and the old Rainbow Warrior was on its way to Moruroa in 1985  when it was bombed and sunk in New Zealand by what NZ police and observant public rapidly realized were carelessly obvious French  espionage agents. The new Rainbow Warrior returned to Moruroa in 1995, but the battle  to stop French nuclear testing in the Pacific turned out to be one of  the longest most difficult Greenpeace campaigns.

Sailing ship 'Fri' was the start of a career at sea for me which has continued until now, although not always with Greenpeace, and at times came close to being on the wrong side of a Greenpeace campaign, when I  met my partner, a fishing skipper, deep sea longlining for high value large Southern Bluefin tuna which are flown fresh to Japan for the sushimi market.

I finally achieved my goal to be a ship's officer, and worked for P&O Nedlloyd for 6 years on a container cargo ship, before returning now to  the Greenpeace vessels. The Save the Whales campaign is also one of Greenpeace's oldest campaigns, and it is quite special to be involved with what we hope will be the last final successful campaign.

Dear Naomi

I have founded today that you are on board Esperanza by netsurfing.
I haven`t seen you for a long time. How have you been getting along?

It is 5 years ago, I was going to accompany a voyage to the South Pole that protest to Japanese research whaling in December, 2000. However, it just before that the Esperanza was breaks down?, I was not able to go and I am still disappointed it.

I went to IWC Shimonoseki general meeting at 2001 for photography and met Yuko and John.
It was very sorry that, greenpeace considered to stop sent protest ship to the South Pole in 2002, and then, I welcome that reopen it from this time.

Whale meat have begun to selling Dec 5 in Japan, about 1200 ton which caught in west Pacific at this yeare. It is 1950 yen per 1kg.
I expect you and your voyage to success.

Best wishes
Hiroto Kiryuu

hey naomi.
just wanted to say g'day and tell you what an awesome job you guys are doing! There is quite a stir here about everything, its in all teh papers and radio.
May you have the best of luck, im thinking of you all and hope for a successful and safe campaign/trip.
Hugs, Sam (Melbourne, Australia)

I just wanted to say Hello to all, and especially "Suzie Newborne" of the ship "Fri". Have not seen her since 1987 in NZ, and hope she was doing well with her daughter who must be in her 20's now!Please give my regards to all those dedicated people doing the right thing! Long live GreenPeace! stephen millett

Hoi Naomi,
So good to read your bio & remind us all that besides that whaling has to be stopped, there're also other issues we have to continue to work on, such as nuclear prolifiration (ban nukes altogether), stop wars and save the climate, besides promote real -non violent- justice & put humanity back into humans.
Keep up the good work sister!
Love ye!
Rien
peace

Hi Naomi,

Its Deb on leave from Rainbow Warrior,excellent work we are all watching the Southern Oceans campaign it has hit all the headlines here in OZ "Power to you All"

Take Care guys love your work..
Deb

Hi Naomi!
It’s Simon. We sailed on the RW together last year. What an extraordinary couple of months you’ve had! We’ve all been so amazed and moved by what you’ve all achieved down there. It’s been such a huge story over here. There’s been a whole month of prominent and sustained media coverage. Everyone’s been talking about whales.

We had a little DC outside the main station in Melbourne last week with hundreds of people signing a big cut-out whale to be taken to the Japanese consulate. We handed out leaflets on how to join the struggle against whaling. People have been so touched by Greenpeace’s efforts and the images sent back from the Southern Ocean and have been looking for little things they can do to help. We’ll be keeping up the pressure at our end over the coming months by targeting some major stake holders in the whaling industry.

HUGE thanks to you and all the crew. I hope you have a safe and wonderful voyage home and enjoy a good rest.

Love,
simon