Anti-Nuclear Veteran Returns To New Zealand Shores

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©The Vega in Her Previous Incarnation. Image: Greenpeace / David McTaggart

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©Image: Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom

17 June 2009 Auckland – Vega, the 38ft veteran nuclear protest vessel, sailed back into Auckland harbour today, from Australia, making New Zealand her home port once again after more than 10 years.

Vega also has a long and respected history within the peace and environmental movement in the Pacific and around the world. The ketch is well known in the boat building community having been built in Whangarei in 1949 from one kauri log by one of New Zealand’s finest boat builders, Alan Orams.

Vega was involved with the Peace Squadron protests against nuclear vessels in New Zealand ports in the 1980s but, is probably best known for the nuclear free Pacific protest voyages, along with a flotilla of New Zealand boats, to Moruroa Atoll, in French Polynesia where the French Government conducted its nuclear testing programme until 1996.

Vega was purchased by David McTaggart, former Chairman of Greenpeace International in 1969 and worked on many Greenpeace campaigns around the world, except for a short period when it was in private ownership. In 2001 Vega was bequeathed to Chris Robinson, Vega’s skipper for most of her journeys.

Sadly, Chris died in August of 2008 and with his wishes in mind, a small group of friends have purchased Vega and are setting up the ‘Vega Pacific Trust’ based in New Zealand. The trust aims to use Vega for environmental, nautical and peace education for young people to enable them to take part in the preservation of our marine environment and to pass on an important part of New Zealand’s history.

The NZ Maritime Museum has graciously made a berth available for Vega inside the Maritime Museum marina downtown Auckland, and discussions are underway to find a permanent berth to make her accessible to the public.

Vega’s peace history:

1972 – David McTaggart and crew set sail to Moruroa to demonstrate against atmospheric nuclear tests being carried out by the French Government.

1973 – Vega sets sail again for Moruroa when France announced its intention to continue nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Vega is rammed in international waters by a French minesweeper, and McTaggart was seriously assaulted and placed under arrest. One crew member smuggled out film that exposed the assault the French denied happened. In the ensuing outcry the French announced that future bomb tests would be underground and in a ruling that embarrassed President Francois Mitterrand's Government, McTaggart was awarded damages by the French court.

1987 – Vega protested the nuclear powered USS Ramsey in Brisbane. She was rammed by a police boat and impounded. Seven Greenpeace protesters and crew were arrested and faced up to seven years gaol for blocking a waterway.

1989-1990 – Vega sails to Japan to protest the US policy of ‘Neither Confirm nor Deny’ nuclear weapons onboard their warships in Japanese waters.

1995 – McTaggart and two other activists, Chris Robinson and Henk Haazen, managed to evade sophisticated French detection equipment and stay for a long time in the Moruroa area causing yet more disruption for the French nuclear programme.

ENDS

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