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French Navy hunts Greenpeace ship: Wild West in the Bay of Biscay

2019-10-27T16:46:54.059Z


On the "Rainbow Warrior 2" Captain Haucke Mack wanted to take action in 1994 against illegal fishing methods. Suddenly, the French Navy hunted down the environmentalists - it was life-threatening.



I was aware that the operation was causing trouble, in the worst case the arrest by the French police. I did not suspect that it would be a matter of life and death on the Bay of Biscay.

At that time, in the summer of 1994, the French authorities were in a kind of state of war with Greenpeace, the environmental organization for which I was involved. Nine years earlier, French intelligence had sunk the Rainbow Warrior at Auckland harbor to prevent the ship from escaping protests against French nuclear tests on Mururoa. There was a dead man. The crime caused international outrage.

The situation was correspondingly tense when I boarded the successor ship "Rainbow Warrior 2" in Pensacola (Florida). The journey took us via the ports of Washington DC and New York and across the Atlantic to La Coruña in northern Spain. Our destination was Biscay, where there were fierce clashes between Spanish and French fishermen. One point of contention was that the French used too long driftnets for too long.

On my way to the sea I had also trained as a boat builder and found a friend in Bremen to Greenpeace; The protection of the environment and the seas is still close to my heart today. During my first mission as second helmsman, a Greenpeace campaign ran against overfishing with illegal fishing methods.

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Marine hunt on Greenpeace: Wild West in the Bay of Biscay

At the beginning of July 1994 we arrived at the fishing grounds. The first days were unspectacular. We started measuring the length of the nets with the radars and exposing dinghies in the ocean. The trawls that floated in the water were provided with reflectors, so we could locate them and document the observations. In this area, the French naval tug Malabar operated as a vessel of the fisheries inspection.

"What the hell..."

When I had a watch one night, new information arrived. Shortly before 10 pm I boarded the boat with the experienced dinghy pilot Dave. Dave was barely 40, a tall Brit with a reddish stag beard. Soon dawn would begin. Hardly no waves, almost no wind. We put on rubber pants, rubber boots and the life jackets, stowed the waterproof radios and roared off.

We drove to one of the nets we wanted to check when a fish trawler was approaching at a fast pace. The cone of a searchlight caught us. The ship came quickly closer and headed straight for us, so fast we could see its white bow wave.

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"What the hell ..." Dave swore.

Only a few hundred meters were between us. Apparently the trawler wanted to ram us directly. Dave steered the dinghy to the other side of the net, hoping it would give us some sort of protection. But we dumped the outboard too late. Our bolt tangled in the net. We were stuck, the trawler kept heading for us without throttling the ride.

Curses and projectiles

Dave and I quickly exchanged a few words. We wanted to jump before it came to impact. Then the fishing boat stopped abruptly, it had probably tangled in its own network. I estimate that the distance was barely 40 meters, in any case it was so close that we were in the radius of missiles. The angry crew threw lead weights and screamed curses across the sea.

Apparently they suspected us of wanting to steal the net. The fishermen were not even wrong about that, because their work tools were clearly too narrow and illegal. We would love to hand it over to the authorities.

We managed to free the outboard bolt from the net. Dave started the engine, with high speed and a horror in the limbs we drove back to the "Rainbow Warrior 2". I could scarcely believe how unscrupulously the fishermen had proceeded. If they had not got into the net, they would undoubtedly have rammed us - in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, just under 200 nautical miles off the coast and in the onset of darkness. I thought about it when I lay in the bunk.

The night did not last long. It was perhaps 5 o'clock in the morning when a member of the crew, an American volunteer named Burke, stormed into my chamber and jammed the porthole of the Bullauges. I asked in amazement what was going on. Normally, the panels are bolted when heavy weather is expected, when the ship has to go through a storm and threaten big waves.

"We are under attack," hissed Burke.

With the fire cannon on the windows

Hurriedly, I changed my clothes and hurried up the stairs to the bridge. The new day had begun, it was dawning over the ocean, but that was the only contemplative of the situation. The captain stared intently to starboard. Our "Rainbow Warrior 2" ran at top speed, just under twelve knots. And just behind, slightly to starboard, the tugboat "Malabar" of the French fisheries inspection, accompanied by one of our dinghies.

The crew of the tug actually tried to press our windows with their fire cannon. That could not be true!

What was happening here was incompatible with the law of the sea. With common sense and solid seamanship certainly not. And that from a ship of the French Navy. Our captain tried cursing to escape the tug, but that was not possible. The attacker was faster. We were not panicking, we were just stunned by what was going on here - Wild West on the Atlantic.

Again and again, the "Malabar" tried to destroy our windows. It clapped when the jet of water struck the steel and fortunately massive glass. The crew of our dinghy filmed the events, which did not seem to bother the French. There were shouts on the bridge, of course everyone was excited. The minutes passed, then a corvette appeared from port: the "Jacoubet", also under the French flag.

The fast, small warship tried to cut us off by any means. It rushed quickly. Evasive action? For us a course change to starboard was not possible without running the "Malabar" directly in front of the bow. Also, the "Jacoubet" was no longer an option, because it threatened a collision, either with us or with the "Malabar". So it was close. Very close.

It was only ten meters

We saw that the commander of the "Jacoubet" gave "full back". The screw-water towered over deck level, it foamed and bubbled. Our "Rainbow Warrior 2" turned slightly to starboard. Everyone literally held their breath in terror. I guess the corvette came to a stop ten yards or so in front of our port side.

Our ship was a converted fishing trawler. The warship would have hit with its bow exactly the area of ​​the former fish room. In the event of a collision, we would have fallen like a stone.

Moments passed. The Corvette turned off, as did our pursuer, the "Malabar." It almost seemed as if everyone involved was frightened on the bridges. We had just escaped a disaster, at ten meters. Was it intentional? A dilettante warning?

At least they left us alone afterwards. The crew of the "Malabar" eyed us for a few days from a safe distance. The crew of the "Jacoubet" threw their plastic trash overboard in the immediate vicinity. After that she was not seen anymore.

The text is a revised and abridged excerpt of a chapter from the new book "Captains!", Published by Ankerherz-Verlag. In it, 20 sailors tell real adventures from the sea.

Source: spiegel

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