Crew of the Greenpeace - Vancouver to Amchitka, 1971

Blog by Anna Pommer, a deckhand from Germany onboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza.

I imagine that it was a heavily overcast morning in fall 1971, when an old ship, The Phyllis Cormack, departed from Vancouver driven by fear, determination and hope to set sail for an impossible mission: stopping the nuclear bomb test Cannikin in Amchitka, Alaska. The ship was in bad shape and the crew lacked experience at sea, yet the desperate urge to stop nuclear bomb testing kept them going. So the vessel fought its way courageously through the heavy winds towards the Aleutian Islands. Continue reading →