In 1985, Greenpeace lost its Pacific Ocean campaign vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, in Auckland, New Zealand. In October of 1987, we reached a settlement with France, and the search began for a new vessel. Because of our very good experiences with the sea keeping ability of Rainbow Warrior, we tried to get another North Sea Trawler. Although North Sea Trawlers are not nearly as abundant as they were when we found the Rainbow Warrior, after several months of looking we found one.
The Grampian Fame (ex Ross Kashmir), was built in 1957, as a fully rivited, steam powered fishing vessel, fourty four meters long. In 1966, she was jumboised to her present fifty five meters and converted to diesel power. She was bought from North Star Fishing Company Ltd., who had been using her as an oil rig stand-by vessel. She was equipped to hold 300 survivors in the hold.
The task of the conversion to a Greenpeace vessel has been to fit her out with all equiptment necessary for long range work in the Pacific Ocean. This included changes to the accomodations, engine room, and the addition of a sail rig.
When the vessel was purchased by Greenpeace, the accomodation area was still the same arrangement as when she was a double side trawler. The allyway on the port side had been boxed in, but the original bulkheads remained. This, plus an engine room casing which extended to the allyways on both sides, cut the area into too many small and unusable spaces. So the old house was removed down to the main deck level, and a new larger house added. A new wheelhouse to fit in with the sailing rig was also added. The old fish hold or survivor space is now an educational theatre and workshop.