ARCHIVE MARCH 2008

In 1980, Dutch nuclear waste was still being dumped at sea

June 1975

The biggest skippers-blockade in Dutch history came only 3 months after I became a professional cargo skipper.  All the navigable waterways in the country were locked up by thousands of cargo barges, protesting abolition of the cargo-exchange.  To seal off the North Sea Canal, a convoy of 25 ships from Amsterdam was sent to Velsen. The exchange was vital to my business, so I sailed along with 'Orca', my antique barge of 211 tons.

A blockade is good for fraternizing. As a greenhorn-skipper I made many friends there, who were later to help me realize a similar blockade for Greenpeace.

June 1980

“Orca” was laid up in Oosterdok, waiting for work. Lean days for cargo skippers, the Oosterdok was full of empty ships

I had to climb across 11 ships to get ashore from Orca.

David Moody's peaceship Fri was in Amsterdam after a trip around the world. David and his crew had many Greenpeace friends. Mate Martini Gotjé of 'Rainbow Warrior' had sailed on Fri's famous voyage to Mururoa.

At that time, Greenpeace was working on actions against a Dutch transport of nuclear waste, that was going to be dumped at sea. A load of rusty barrels with nuclear waste from Holland and Germany was to arrive by train at Velsen harbor on June 10th. The coaster 'Andrea Smits' would carry them out to sea and dump them.

There was international protest aganst that dumping. Demonstrations and actions were planned at railway tracks all along the route. German Greenpeacers prepared to block the rails in several places, Greenpeace Holland wanted to attack 'Andrea Smits' in Velsen with Zodiacs.

A modest welcoming party for Fri on Orca in the Oosterdok

lead to the only Greenpeace campaign, that was ever carried out by Dutch cargo skippers. On that party, 'Andrea Smits' was naturally subject of discussion.

In the row of ships, that David and Martini had clambered across to get on 'Orca', there were 6 veterans of the skippers-blockade of 1975.

One of the skippers was present at that welcoming-party.

Jan van der Molen of the 'Orion' remarked that the cargo skippers in the Oosterdok together could easily lock up Velsen's outer harbor. When I proposed to organize such a blockade, he immediately offered his ship and his services.

A few visits to neighboring skippers gave some stability to our plan. three more “Twee Gebroeders”,  “La Pinta” and “Avontuur” could be added to our fleet by the end of the afternoon. Tugboatskipper Ramiro da Silva promised his tug 'Amstelstroom' for manoevring assistance

With 'Fri' as a flagship we had a fleet of 7 ships for a proposal to Greenpeace Holland, which was adopted by the organisation the next day. A week later, a fleet of 26 ships was ready for action.

I never knew that Dutch newsreel company Polygoon had shot some footage of that blockade. I discovered it today on the internet.

Many of the ships in that film can still be found in the Oosterdok. Ramiro's 'Amstelstroom' still tows houseboats through the Amsterdam canals.

Together, they wrote a bit of environmental history           

 Here is a link to that newsreel:

Protest against dumping of radioactive waste

Peace ship Fri on the North Sea Canal

Fri sailing to Velsen. Jan van der Molen at the wheel

Andrea Smits is guarded by riot police on a pontoon

De Andrea Smits left port after two days delay

She eventually dumped her load at sea.

We had lifted the blockade when a promise was made to us.

That promise was kept

Andrea Smits was the last Dutch ship to dump nuclear waste at sea. .

           Translation of the commentary on the video:

The Dutch cargo ship Andrea Smits has not been able to leave the outer harbor at IJmuiden for a few days because the environmental organisation Greenpeace has blockaded that harbour with a number of cargo barges.

Riot police rushed a pontoon bridge into place to prevent the Greenpeace campaigners from approaching the Andrea Smits. Behind this barrier, the  loading of radioactive waste  from hospitals, laboratories and from the Nuclear Energy Centre in Petten could continue.

Corrosion has already affected some of the barrels and others are damaged. It can be expected, that  this nuclear waste will soon contaminate the ocean it is dumped in. The Andrea Smits will also carry  nuclear garbage from Belgium and Switzerland to the ocean.

Legal action against Greenpeace by the Nuclear Energy Centre in Petten  could be avoided after mediation by the mayor of Velsen. Greenpeace also wanted to avoid a clash with the Riot police. The blockading ships lifted the anchors but Greenpeace keeps insisting on a ban of nuclear waste dumpings at sea. After removing the pontoons, the riot police could withdraw. Tugboat Triton then towed the Andrea Smits to open sea. In Zeebrugge, Belgium, where the ship later  loaded waste from that country and Switzerland, Belgian campaigners managed to get on board to cause damage in the wheelhouse. The dumping of nuclear waste was delayed, but not stopped.

        September 3rd 2007

The birth of Greenpeace

In my old shoebox with Greenpeace-pictures I found a few snapshots that I had forgotten about. But I'll never forget the story that goes with those pictures. It tells about the birth of the biggest environmental organisation in the world.

Time: September 19th 1971

Place: Kodiak, Alaska, in the fishing boat harbour

Kodiak was the home port of skipper Jim Wickersham's 'Lucky Island'. on which I served as a deckhand.

The boat was in port after the salmon season, we were changing the gear on deck for Kig Crab fishing. Like many fishermen in the harbor, Jim was an active member of the local "Don't make a Wave" committee. That was an organisation with local chapters along the entire American West Coast, protesting against an announced nuclear test under Amchitka Island in the Aleuts.

The villagers' fear of that test was understandable. Amchitka and Kodiak are both on the San Andreas Fault. Seven years earlier, in 1964, a heavy earthquake with a tsunami had destroyed the whole town and driven fishing boat high up in the hills.

From Vancouver, "Don't make a Wave" chartered an old fishing boat to sail to Alaska and patrol the forbidden testzone.

The Phyllis Cormack was renamed 'Greenpeace' for that trip.

The Greenpeace arrived in Kodiak harbor on September 19th, and moored next to the Lucky Island. Fuel and supplies were needed for the heavy crossing to Amchitka. The crew was exhausted after a trip in bad winds and a new crewmember was to come on board.

Jim and I were the first to welcome them, together with Art Ziegler. The founder of "Don't make a Wve in Kodiak" had seen the Greenpeace sail into the harbor from his candleshop and had come running after her.

We drank much ink-black coffee in that galley and made plans for a better world.

Ziegler organized free fuel and grub, we had a benefit party in the local museum. At her departure 3 days later, she was escorted by a fleet of small boats and all the fishing boats blew their horns.

The Greenpeace was entered and arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on September 30th at Akutan. They never reached Amchitka. The test was delayed and finally carried out on November 6th.

On that day, Kodiak was deserted and the harbor was almost empty. Some people waited up in the hills for a week.

The much feared tsunami didn't come, but the world was shaken awake. Amchitka is now a bird sanctuary and there has never been another U.S. nuclear test

These old snapshots have become historical documents now.

The men on these pictures have written world history.

Rex Weyler's Greenpeace History tells their story. In an extensive account of the entire voyage, he wrote one paragraph about the stop in Kodiak.

Nothing spectacular happened there and there were no pictures left of it.

Last week I searched my old Greenpeace shoebox for a picture on the 'Rainbow Warrior' for an article about speedboats. (28 augustus 2007)

I found much more than I expected.

The mast of the Phillys Cormack with the flags of the U.S., Canada, Alaska and the first, handmade, Greenpeace flag.

Greenpeace history specialist Rex Weyler helped me identify the characters on these pictures.

From him I learned that only Jim Bohlen, Lyle Thurston, Rod Marining and Patrick Moore are still alive today.

Other surviving crewmembers of that historic voyage are: Terry Simons, Robert Keziere , Richard Fineberg and Bill Darnell
 

May this page be a tribute to the five heroes who are not with us anymore:

Bob Hunter V, Bob CummingsV,  Ben MetcalfeV  Dave BirminghamV and skipper John CormackV

In my own mind, skipper John Cormack was the greatest hero of them all.

He came visiting on the `Lucky Island´ a few times, complaining about “those mad hippies, driving us all into a sure death.”

He had never sailed Alaskan waters. He was scared for good reasons that we could tell him all about.

Kodiak harbour had a fleet of 700 fishing boats. One percent a year went down with all on board.

The Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea were considered to be the most dangerous fishing grounds in the world and the time of the year was all wrong. The crew had a taste of bad weather on their trip to Kodiak and it was only going to get worse.

John Cormack was the only outsider in the group.

He was also the only one with full knowledge of the dangers they were getting into.

He was a conservative Canadian fisherman. The most unlikely character to become an environmental activist.

Yet he sailed a bunch of hippies into an icy hell to help save the world.

And after that campaign, he stayed with them for several years to skipper a series of anti-whaling campaigns.

Without John Cormack, Greenpeace would have never been born.

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