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8 March, 12:00. Action update from Tim Birch, forest
campaigner
This is becoming a familiar story with the crew of the
Warrior getting up in the middle of the night to
surprise another log ship coming into port to offload its
cargo of environmental destruction and human misery.
Early this morning, more like late last night around 0200
hours we spotted the Meltemi steaming into close
to Valencia in Spain. We had already been speeding ahead
of it by some six hours over the last 36 hours in an attempt
to head it off as it came into port.
You may remember we had boarded the Meltemi at night
off Sete to find out what was on the vessel. We found hundreds
of logs from Liberia with logos of companies familiar to
us and involved in forest destruction and arms trafficking.
DLH logos were also on many logs.
We sent out an inflatable once we had located the ship
on the radar and under cover of darkness were able to confirm
identification of the vessel.
People were immediately roused from their bunks and we
sprung into action. It was a close call as the boat was
heading into port doing 10 knots - maybe they were expecting
us and were keen to head off the "Greenpeace Anchor
Chain Maneuver". The pilot boat came out to meet the
ship and was obviously very surprised to see the Rainbow
Warrior close to port - we had not declared ourselves at
this point. It was then a race to the ship to stop the pilot
getting on board the vessel and meanwhile the inflatable
with climbers aboard zoomed ahead and we boarded the vessel.
The crew had obviously been alerted and our climbers were
not able to secure positions up the masts but instead locked
themselves around logs on deck.
The crew of the Meltemi were not very pleasant at
all. They threatened to throw our activists over board with
all their equipment and the situation was very tense for
some time. Initially the captain of the ship indicated he
would be going to anchor but then took off very fast heading
east with our activists on board - the Warrior was
able to catch up with its two engines firing. Then followed
a chase under a perfect Mediterranean night sky for about
one hour with the captain of the Meltemi changing
course several times. It was a very unreal situation I can
tell you - just the Warrior, the Meltemi and
nobody else.
It then slowed right down and we attempted to paint the
ship with the slogan "Save Ancient Forests". This
really got the crew annoyed and they got the fire hose out
and began spraying our inflatable crew - we retreated having
completed half the slogan. Our activists were then given
a five minute ultimatum to leave the ship or get thrown
off - remember it is still pitch black out there apart from
an orange moon hanging low on the horizon. There was some
shouting and our people were getting manhandled. We managed
to get into a close position where our searchlight could
pick out our guys and we repeatedly warned the captain that
there was media on board the Warrior and that the
actions of his crew were being filmed. After several tense
minutes the situation stabilised.
Now it is glorious sunshine. The ship began to move back
to Segunto near Valencia where it was originally supposed
to dock and then stopped. We are eight miles from the port.
Just us, the Meltemi and the blue Mediterranean.
Our activists are still on board.
We are trying to get journalists out to the ship. No police
yet.
By the way, the ship is on the move again. Who knows where
we are going to end up?
Tim
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