Onboard the M/V Arctic Sunrise

Day Sixty-Five - 12 January 2000

"Wally's Big Day!"

As you may recall from previous stories, Wally is the ugly duckling among the ship's inflatables. You may also recall that a few days ago the tiny inflatable was swamped by the Japanese whaling fleet's fire hoses. But even an ugly duckling deserves a shot at redemption and today was going to be Wally's big day.

A couple of days ago the Nisshin-maru, Japan's factory ship, began trailing ropes around its stern ramp in an effort to designed to entangle any small boats came near. The whalers obviously don't like Greenpeace getting between the catch and the butcher. They had marked off the whole area with signs reading, "Danger - Keep Out."

Not a chance.

The Kyo-maru, arrived at the factory ship with a recently harpooned whale tied to its port side -- ready for delivery. Two larger Greenpeace inflatables, the Hurricane and the African Queen, closed in.

The African Queen pulled up next to the whale, but the Hurricane had become entangled in the Nisshin-maru's ropes. The situation quickly became dangerous. The Hurricane was being dragged behind the Nisshin-maru and had now turned sideways. The crew of the Hurricane tried to untangle their boat, which was now in danger of capsizing. Finally, they had to use a survival knife to cut themselves free.

Meanwhile, the crew of the African Queen was raising a ruckus at the side of the Kyo-maru. Activists grabbed at the railing, shouting and acting like they were about to climb on board. The crew of the whaling ship responded furiously - hosing the activists at point blank range with every fire hose they could lay their hands on. Still, the activists kept it up as the factory ship started to haul the whale across toward her stern ramp.

The crew of the Hurricane was free and had joined the African Queen at the Kyo-maru. The crew of the Kyo-maru were throwing more ropes out to tangle the propellers of the Greenpeace boats. They had no idea that they were merely contributing to a tried and true tactic - the diversion.

Australian Deb McIntyre piloted Wally past the frenetic activity and toward the stern of the Nisshin-maru.

RP was on the African Queen, "Everyone was watching the bigger boats, and Deb just slipped right through."

The crew of the Nisshin-maru finally noticed Wally near the stern and turned their hoses on the small boat but David De Jong was still able to throw a grappling hood from Wally onto the line the whalers use to haul whales up the stern ramp and onto the deck. If the whalers wanted to drag a whale on board, they would now have to drag a Greenpeace inflatable on board with it.

David and Deb, under a constant deluge, were now engaged in a high seas game of tug of war with a 6,000 ton Japanese whaling ship. Wally spun around 360 degrees in a tangle of ropes and cables. Deb and David ducked low as the tow cable whipped over their heads with enough force to tear the cowling off the inflatables outboard motor.

Wally stayed attached to the whale and her crew hunkered down as the whalers began dragging the small boat and the whale up the stern ramp. Once it became clear, about half way up the ramp, that the Greenpeace activists were not going to back down the crew of the ship stopped pulling.

"They didn't know what to do at first," said David, "so we sat there for a while, part way up the ramp."

A crew member from the Nisshin-maru used a flensing knife to cut the line holding Wally to the whale and the inflatable plummeted down the ramp into the Southern Ocean. David and Deb were safe but their adreneline was certainly pumping after a wild ride.

The African Queen towed Wally back to the M/V Sunrise, Deb jumped over to the larger inflatable and they then sped back to bow of the Nisshin-maru to join their colleagues on the Hurricane.

Greenpeace activists place themselves in the sub-zero Antarctic water directly in the path of the oncoming Nisshin-maru. Click on the image for a larger photo.

Six activists - Deb, Frank, Zeger, Pinxo, Milko, and Yasu - jumped into the frigid waters directly in front of the oncoming Nisshin-maru. The Japanese ship maintained course and sailed between the floating activists at high speed. Drenched by the bow waves, the Greenpeacers climbed back onboard the inflatables.

"Some days we risk our lives to get our point across," said David. "Today, I just hope people are listening."

"If you want to kill the whales, you will have to deal with us," added Milko.

You can help us end Japan's illegal whaling and return the Sanctuary to the whales.

See our "Take Action" page to find out how.

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