Rainbow Warrior Bombing

One dark night in July 1985 2 suspicious men motored around Mechanics bay on a zodiac.It was odd these two men were wearing scuba diving gear in the middle of the night. Through the mist they targeted towards Marsden Wharf. Meanwhile as Greenpeace’s ship Rainbow Warrior was anchored at Marsden Wharf, a  party was being celebrated, the director of the anti-nuclear movement’s 29th birthday. The two unknown men slipped down through the water unnoticed. They swam under the Rainbow Warrior  and attached two limpet bomb to the bottom of the boat stealthily.

Suddenly a tragic blast exploded through the walls of the Rainbow Warrior. “Abandon ship Abandon ship,” said Pete Willox in a loud voice. They all escaped except photographer Fernando Pereira, he ran back to the ship after the first explosion to claim his things. Water was thundering through the hallways hitting everything in it’s way. As every second went past the more water came tumbling in. The Rainbow Warrior sunk and no sight of Fernando Pereira was found until they retrieved his body later on.

The two suspicious men were actually working with 11 undercover spies for the French government. After the bombing  New Zealand police tracked and arrested two of the spies Dominique Prieur and  Alain Mafart who ended up getting sentenced to ten years in jail.  

But only stayed in jail for 2 years. Unfortunately the French Government gave New Zealand 13m dollars, and said if they don’t give they spies back they will boycott using New Zealand products. That meant losing thousands and thousands of dollars. `  

The French spies blew up the Rainbow Warrior because they were trying to stop them from protesting against the nuclear testing in French Polynesia. This was causing negative impacts like death, radiation poisoning, health problems like birth deformities and cancer.

This was the only New Zealand terrorist attack.