THE SECOND PROTEST AT MORUROA

The following year, McTaggart returned to Moruroa. This time, the French wasted little time in dealing with him, a French Navy warship tracked down and intercepted the Vega and the heavily armed craft dispatched a high speed inflatable boat filled with French commandos who boarded the Ketch and beat McTaggart and his navigator Nigel Ingram so severely that McTaggart was partially blinded in one eye. It was an illegal act of piracy in international waters but the French hoped that by confiscating all the cameras they would conceal the fact. However unknown to the commandos, one of the Vega's crew, Ann-Marie Horn had photographed the beating and was able to smuggle out the film, hidden in her vagina. Believing they had destroyed all evidence, the French denied using force with Greenpeace, later the release of the pictures to the world press brought them international embarrassment. France announced an end to atmospheric nuclear tests in 1974.