Monday, November 5, 2007

A ship with a "colorful" history

Had a superb dive today! Why? Becos this is the first time that everything went smoothly without much cockup. We left on time, settle my measurements underwater quickly at Raffles and Semakau in record time!

Anyway thats not the crux of this entry ;p Today when me and lionel took the golf cart down to Mr Lee's boat at the republic of singapore yacht club, we saw an extremely big and tall ship, the tallest among all here. And interestingly, the boat is from Greenpeace. I pointed to lionel that such a big ship still use sails, maybe I'm a novice but thought that most use engine powered now.


The rainbow warrior at RSYC

The rainbow warrior was used often as a support vessel for protests against whaling, nuclear tests etc.

The most interesting part about this ship (called the rainbow warrior) is of its history. A similar ship by the same name was sunk some 20 years back by so called "terrorists". Apparently, these guys are actually secret agents from the French government in an attempt to stop them from protesting against a nuclear testing program. It was rumoured that even the French president was involved. Two landmines were planted on the ship and the explosion killed a photographer on board. The agents were ultimately prosecuted and Greenpeace was compensated 8m by the government.

And now it is here in Singapore after being denied entry to all ports in India. Its next stop is in Bali if memory serves me correctly.

Read more about this event in Greenpeace website.

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