Peace ship sets sail

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 5

Peace ship sets sail

NZPA-AAP Sydney The MV Greenpeace sets sail from today for the Ross Sea in Antarctica where ice conditions are the worst in 15 years, said a spokesman for Greenpeace, yesterday.

The co-ordinator of Greenpeace’s campaign to declare Antarctica a world park, Mr Peter Wilkinson, said that inspite of the ice reprots volunteer crew members were all in good spirits. “We would like to thank the Australian public, our supporters and sypathisers for their generous and heat-

felt goodwill,” Mr Wilkinson said. “It is sad thatone stupid act of vandalism or sabotage of one of our generators has forced us to close the ship to the public a few days ago,” he said. In an apparent sequel to the bombing of the Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour earlier this year, someone removed a generator wire and let oil run from the sump of the MV Greenpeace while it was moored in Sydney Harbour last week. “That incident is behind

us now and we are steeeling ourselves for the rigours of the task ahead,” Mr Wilkinson said. “Our task is to prevent Antarctic from becoming yet another wilderness despoiled by greed and insensitivity,” he said.

The Australian Minister of Science, Mr Barry Jones, has several times publicly called on Greenpeace to call off the Antarctic trip, saying thge MV Greenpeace is not well suited to conditions in the region and its crew will face dangers they do not appreciate.