AFP - Environmental campaign group
Greenpeace on Tuesday handed over its iconic protest ship Rainbow Warrior II to
a Bangladeshi charity which will turn it into a floating hospital.
Greenpeace said it hoped that
Friendship would continue to use the ship as a beacon of hope.
"This ship has carried people from
around the world and has stood as an icon of hope over pessimism and as an
emblem of action over complacency," Rainbow Warrior II captain Mike
Fincken said during a sombre handover ceremony in Singapore
"It is time to pass that task
on."
 |
| Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior II sits at a dock in Singapore. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace handed over its iconic protest ship to a Bangladeshi charity which will turn it into a floating hospital. |
Friendship has renamed the vessel
Rongdhonu, which also means Rainbow, and will turn it into a hospital ship.
From plying the high seas to protest
against whaling and nuclear testing, the ship will now stay close to shore to
deliver medical assistance to impoverished communities in Bangladesh
"Bangladesh
"More environmental issues are
going to come up, and there's going to be more and more tsunamis and cyclones
and we need a medical ship fully equipped as a hospital to be able to reach
(victims) as soon as possible," she told AFP.
Greenpeace's original Rainbow Warrior
was sunk by French intelligence agents in 1985 in New
Zealand in a bid to stop activists from protesting
against France 's nuclear
tests in the Pacific Ocean .
It was replaced by Rainbow Warrior II,
which first sailed for the organisation in 1989.
The ship confronted environmental
crimes and nuclear testing, provided disaster relief to victims of the 2004
tsunami in Southeast Asia , and blocked
shipments of illegal timber from the world's rainforests, Greenpeace said.
The vessel also "sailed against
over fishing, whaling, war, global warming and other environmental crimes on
every ocean of the world", it said.
Before coming to Singapore for the handover, the ship carried out
radiation sampling in waters off Fukushima , the
site of the nuclear power plant damaged during the earthquake and tsunami that
hit Japan
 |
| Greenpeace on August 16 handed over its iconic protest ship Rainbow Warrior II to the Bangladeshi charity |
It will set sail for the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong
About 50 guests attended the ceremony
at a yacht club, some of them teary eyed.
Crew members removed the ship's
steering wheel, which will be fitted into a third Rainbow Warrior currently
being built in Germany
Fincken, the ship captain, rang the
green and white ship's bell for the final time and the Greenpeace flag was
lowered and replaced by Friendship's banner.
The third Rainbow Warrior vessel will
join Greenpeace in October when the group marks its 40th anniversary.
Greenpeace had decided to have a ship built instead of buying a used vessel as
it did previously.
Fincken said the new Rainbow Warrior
will be more fuel efficient and faster than Rainbow Warrior II, which is 55
years old.
"The environmental battles that
are happening are getting more and more difficult to champion, to fight,
because we need to sometimes go faster," he told AFP on Monday ahead of
the handover.
 |
| Crew members onboard Greenpeace's protest vessel Rainbow Warrior II lower the Greenpeace flag, during a handover ceremony to Friendship, a Bangladesh charity, in Singapore. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace handed over its iconic protest ship to the Bangladeshi charity which will turn it into a floating hospital. |
He described the painting out of the
word "Greenpeace" on the ship on Friday to give way to a new name as
a "touching and emotional moment" for the crew.
"This is more than a ship to us,
it was our home," he said.
"It helped shaped our lives and
formed us into the people we are... and it had been part of Greenpeace for 22
years.
"People have gotten married,
children have been conceived on the boat. It's got a lot of personal memories
for many people."
Source: France
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