Greenpeace ships

Sailing to remote places, bearing witness to environmental destruction, taking non-violent direct action against those who pollute and devastate our fragile ecosystem.

Greenpeace ships

In 1971, when a small group of anti-war protestors decided to take non-violent direct action against US nuclear weapons testing on Amchitka Island in Alaska they used a fishing boat, the aging hallibut seiber Phyliss Cormack, as the base from which to make their protest. Today there are three ships in the Greenpeace fleet - our flagship, the SY Rainbow Warrior, the ice-breaking MY Arctic Sunrise, and our latest ship, kitted out to the highest environmental standards, MY Esperanza. All three are at the core of all our campaigns and research work.

SY Rainbow Warrior: the flagship

Named after a native American prophecy, it has travelled from South America to the South Pacific, the Antarctic to the Atlantic, an icon for environmentalists around the globe.

MY Esperanza: the 'green' ship

"Esperanza" means "hope" in Spanish. The latest and largest addition to the Greenpeace fleet, it is the first to be named by web poll.

MY Arctic Sunrise: the ice-breaker

With a rounded hull, and no keel, the MY Arctic Sunrise is designed to lift out of the ice instead of being crushed by it.

The crew: what do they do?

Captain, Chief Engineer, First Mate, Deckhands, Cooks, Doctor, Garbologist, kite-flyer ... there are many diverse jobs on board a ship...

Life on board Esperanza: crew weblog

"We're not the only ones heading south: early this morning a pod of grey whales turned up on our port side, visible mainly as fountains in the water..."