August 2011 Archives   17 August 2011 Press Release: Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior II to be turned into hospital ship Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior II to be turned into hospital ship Amsterdam - Dhaka, 16 August 2011 -- At a ceremony in Singapore today, the iconic protest vessel, the Rainbow Warrior II was transferred to Friendship, a Bangladesh based NGO which will refit it for use as a hospital ship. (1) The Rainbow Warrior II first sailed for Greenpeace in 1989 and replaced the original Rainbow Warrior, after it was bombed and sunk by French Government agents, in Auckland harbour, in 1985. After 22 years of traversing the world’s oceans in defence of the environment, the ship will be renamed as Rongdhonu, Bengali for Rainbow. The ship will serve the coastal belt of Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal delivering primary and secondary medical assistance to some of the most vulnerable communities of the world, communities that have little or no access to basic health care facilities. The Rongdhonu will also serve as an emergency medical ship around the region, enabling Friendship to bring medical aid to those areas which are already experiencing the effects of climate change. Greenpeace, however, will not be long without a Rainbow Warrior, as construction of a new Warrior, the third to bear the name, is nearly complete. (2) The vessel will join the Greenpeace fleet in October as the organisation celebrates its 40th anniversary. For more than two decades the Rainbow Warrior II has challenged the legal system and won, confronted environmental crimes, blocked shipments of illegal timber from the world’s rainforests, opposed nuclear weapons testing and sailed against over fishing, whaling, war, global warming, and other environmental crimes on every ocean. More recently, the Rainbow Warrior travelled to the waters off the coast of Fukushima and was used to carry out radiation sampling. Continue reading Press Release: Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior II to be turned into hospital ship.     Read More Archives