Story: Shipwrecks

On the evening of 10 July 1985, the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior was blown up by limpet mines while berthed in Auckland Harbour. This was the scene soon after the explosion. The mines turned out to have been planted by French secret agents. In a recording made on the sixth anniversary of the sinking and shortly after the agent Alain Mafart had been honoured by the French government, the former first mate of the Rainbow Warrior, Martin Gotje, reflects on the events.

Transcript

Lesley Deverall: Its six years ago today that the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French saboteurs in the Waitematā Harbour. Last week one of those responsible, Alain Mafart, was made a Knight of the French Order of Merit, news that caused outrage here but went virtually unnoticed in France. But while the French authorities may have forgotten in our infamous incident, former first mate on the Rainbow Warrior, Martin Gotje hasn't forgotten and he thinks most New Zealanders remember it well too. 

Martin Gotje: It's all perhaps disappeared a little bit from general view but given the outcry over the last few days over the medals of Mafart and the nuclear test at Moruroa, I think the feeling here in New Zealand still runs very high and that particular incident doesn't go away. It's here for I think probably for a long time to come as long as France is still testing. 

Interviewer: What about the French people though, do you think they've forgotten it?

Martin Gotje: Ah well it was not really prominent in the minds of Frence people. Not as strong as it was here, it created a political uproar but not to such a degree that the whole French population was in outcry over it. It's far from that. They knew very little about it.