From: Greenpeace Vessel SV Rainbow Warrior -( http://www.greenpeace.org )
Date: Monday 28th August 1995
Subject: Diary update

The flotilla is growing by the day now, with the arrival of the MV Greenpeace this morning. It certainly didn't please the French navy to discover that the helicopter that came with it could out perform the one on their ship! The crews of the four vessels here - Rainbow Warrior, Vega, Bifrost and Greenpeace -- get together for some fraternising. Old friends from across the world are coming together here in this obscure corner of the Pacific, driven by their determination to end this nuclear delirium.

65KB GIF or 23KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Morgan

The MV Greenpeace is a beautiful old ship: built in 1958 in Holland as a tug it was the largest tug in the world at the time. She is a very well equipped, comfortable ship, that is affectionately known as the "Black Pig" among her crews; her appearance does lend itself to a porcine interpretation with her blunt, up-turned nose.

78KB GIF or 23KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Morgan

The Frech have also joined the Peace Flotilla in a big way: they have brought four warships and a couple of helicopters along! Can't see any banners hanging off the side of their ships though, but give them a few days and maybe they'll get it together! We'd like to get together and talk to them, but their radio communications always seem a little stiff. Let us hope that soon they will see the error of their ways.

73KB GIF or 23KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Morgan

Alice (Richard) Leney.

From: From Stephanie Mills aboard Greenpeace Vessel SV Rainbow Warrior
Date: Monday 28th August 1995
Subject: Campaign update

FROM THE EXCLUSION ZONE: FRENCH MILITARY SURVEILLANCE STEPPED UP AS GREENPEACE VESSELS MEET OFF MORUROA

As the MV Greenpeace made a rendez-vous with the SV Rainbow Warrior and Vega 25 miles north west of the Moruroa nuclear test site today, the French military authorities stepped up surveillance of the Greenpeace fleet.

A Greenpeace helicopter shooting film footage was pursued in a brief cat-and-mouse chase by a French military helicopter, while two frigates and a fast attack patrol vessel closely circled the Greenpeace ships.

The three Greenpeace vessels met outside the test site at 1000 local time, accompanied by the Danish vessel Bifrost.

Meanwhile, in Paris yesterday prominent scientists accused France of lying or concealing information about the environmental dangers of nuclear testing. French and British scientists attending a Greenpeace press conference said the only question was how long it would take for leakage to occur.

Greenpeace also yesterday published an advert in Le Monde, appealing to French companies avoid a damaging boycott of French products by the international community by urging President Chirac to reverse his decision to resume nuclear testing.

Finally, Defence Minister Charles Millon reiterated last night on French television that France would begin its testing programme as early as September 1.