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Episode 16: Water Is Wide

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For over 30 years, Peter Willcox has been a sea captain for Greenpeace, an environmental organization based out of Amsterdam. Willcox helps international campaigns against whaling, anti-nuclear activities, and global warming. In this episode, he tells his experiences of growing up in an activist family, his first protest at sea, being attacked by the French government and jailed in Russia. He also shares the history of the Rainbow Warrior, the famous Greenpeace vessel that continues to sail today.

Music for the “The Water Is Wide” episode supplied by Villages.

Portraits of Peter Willcox by Clarke Tolton.

Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger and friends perform at a rally for the Rocky Flats anti-nuclear coalition. Greenpeace worked in the coalition led by the Rocky Flats Truth Force to shut down the Rocky Flats nuclear trigger factory in Colorado, USA.

Evacuation of Rongelap Islanders to Mejato by crew Rainbow Warrior. Pacific 1985.

The Rainbow Warrior is in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents.

RAINBOW WARRIOR sunk off New Zealand, after bombing by French. (Greenpeace Witness book page 159 similar)

The 1985 'Rainbow Warrior' crew. Clockwise, starting from bottom left: Bene Hoffman, Second Mate, Germany, Davey Edwards, Chief Engineer, UK, Nathalie Thomas Mestre, Cook, Switzerland, Lloyd Anderson, Radio Operator, Fernando Pereira, Hanne Sorensen, Bunny McDiarmid, Deckhand, New Zealand, Peter Willcox, Skipper, USA, Martini Gotje, First Mate, The Netherlands, in front of Martini, girlfriend of crew member Andy Biederman, Doctor, Switzerland (not present in the group shot), Hanne Sorensen, Second Engineer, Denmark, New Zealand journalist David Robie, sitting from left: Grace O'Sullivan, Deckhand, Ireland; Marshallese traveller; Henk Haazen, Third Engineer, The Netherlands; Marshallese traveller. — The 1985 ‘Rainbow Warrior’ crew.
Clockwise, starting from bottom left: Bene Hoffman, Second Mate, Germany, Davey Edwards, Chief Engineer, UK, Nathalie Thomas Mestre, Cook, Switzerland, Lloyd Anderson, Radio Operator, Fernando Pereira, Hanne Sorensen, Bunny McDiarmid, Deckhand, New Zealand, Peter Willcox, Skipper, USA, Martini Gotje, First Mate, The Netherlands, in front of Martini, girlfriend of crew member Andy Biederman, Doctor, Switzerland (not present in the group shot), Hanne Sorensen, Second Engineer, Denmark, New Zealand journalist David Robie, sitting from left: Grace O’Sullivan, Deckhand, Ireland; Marshallese traveller; Henk Haazen, Third Engineer, The Netherlands; Marshallese traveller.

Pete Willcox, captain and member of the “Arctic 30”, climbs on the ropes of the Rainbow Warrior. The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior had departed from Amsterdam to search for the Russian oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov. The tanker is transporting the first Arctic offshore oil from the drilling platform Prirazlomnaya to Rotterdam harbour. The platform was the scene of a high profile protest in September 2013, which led to the imprisonment of the 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists.
Pete Willcox, Kapitaen und einer der Arktik 30 Aktivisten klettert in den Seilen der Rainbow Warrior III. Das Greenpeace Segelschiff faehrt auf der Nordsee, um den russischen Oeltanker Mikhail Ulyanov zu finden. Der Tanker transportiert das erste Offshore-Oel von der Plattform Prirazlomnaya aus der Arktis nach Rotterdam.