Narvik Fjord

The Rainbow Savior had been anchored in Narvik Fjord for the last three days. Sailing from Oslo 7 days earlier, she flew a British flag and pretended to be on a scientific training mission for students from various European universities. In Oslo the ship went under the name r/v Atlantic Realm (the r/v standing for research vessel), and she carried a forged British registry. But since entering the fjord the ship's name had been repainted Rainbow Savior, accompanied by a large rainbow across the bow. The name was selected to honor the Greenpeace ship which 25 years ago had been the flagship of the whale movement until it was eventually sunk in Auckland Harbor by French agents in 1985.

However, unlike her namesake Rainbow Warrior, Rainbow Savior, did not have the dove insignia alongside the rainbow. This time it had been decided to eliminate the dove insignia because it implied peaceful solutions to the issue, and the men and women aboard Rainbow Savior were committed to eliminating whaling by any means possible, including non-peaceful methods.

Josh Edwards, George Montclair, and Captain Balone had just finished their communications with Milton Vigeland. Josh looked at the two men and said, "Well I guess this is it guys, we're going to see a little action before the week is out."

Both the Captain and George nodded, and the Captain added, "I guess I'd better prepare the boat to get underway," as he left the radio room.

George turned to Josh and voiced what had been on his mind for the last two weeks. "I never thought I'd be doing this again. I must have been a fool, but I believed that after the whaling moratorium was imposed twenty years ago we had done what we set out to do. I truly thought we had convinced the world to stop the useless slaughter of these beautiful mammals." There was a pause, "But I don't know what it takes. Do you realize Josh it took us almost twelve years to get the moratorium in place, and during those years thousands of the animals were subjected to deliberate painful and agonizing deaths?" George not able to say anything else, simply shook his head in disbelief of what was going to happen, paused, looked at Josh, turned his back and walked out of the radio room.

Josh quickly followed and placed his hand on George's shoulder. George stopped and turned to face Josh. "George, I think I know how you feel," exclaimed Josh, "I have read the accounts of the events from the last confrontation, but things are different today. Public awareness is on our side, whale watching is big business, maybe even bigger than whale hunting. Today we have some technology that can help us, and the publicity campaign that Greenpeace has prepared will put every person in the world in front of the whale hunters cannon. Maybe, just maybe George, this time we can assure that whale hunting stops forever."

George looked at Josh. He knew he was right, they were better organized, he had personally been in the publicity campaign strategy sessions. He knew what they were doing was correct He knew they had a good strategy, and he knew that this time it would be a shorter confrontation, but shit he thought to himself, why did he feel so bad? "We had better call a meeting of the crew," he said to Josh, and turned away and walked to the mess to get a cup of coffee.

As he was pouring his coffee, Ellen Abrams came running through the mess. Seeing him she slowed only long enough to ask, "Is it true Mr. Monclair, are we going?"

George turned and answered, "It looks that way."

Ellen replied, "Great. This is what we're here for," and continued out the other door of the mess.

George shook his head and thought to himself, I'm getting too old for this, it's not as much fun as it was twenty years ago. As George took his first sip of coffee, the ship's intercom came to life.

"This is Captain Balone," sounded the speaker system. "As you probably know by now we have received word that the Peder ARRSET has gotten underway and we will be following her very shortly. But before we weigh anchor, Mr. Edwards has asked that we all gather on the fantail of the ship for a group meeting. Please stop what you are doing and report to the fantail immediately." There was a click as the system turned off and silence returned to the mess.

George was about to take another sip when Josh walked in. "Any left for me?" he asked.

"Plenty," replied George, as he reached for a clean cup. He held the clean cup under the spigot of the urn and filled it with coffee. Handing it to Josh, he said, "Black, I believe."

"Yes, thank you" replied Josh. "George, I would like you to join me to answer any questions the crew might have. They know you were involved in the last confrontation, they respect your judgment and your experience. I need you, no.... we need you to help us in this operation. What do you say?"

"Of course, Josh, you should know me well enough by now that I'll support this operation. I signed on not to back out at the last minute. I'm here for the duration. You can count on me."

Josh placed his hand on George's shoulder and simply said, "Thanks."

"Well, let’s get going I suppose those eager beavers are all there waiting for us," replied George. "Hell I know I was twenty years ago." They put their cups down and walked out of the mess.

Reaching the fantail, Josh saw the 45 men and women of the crew standing and waiting for him. Captain Balone handed him a megaphone and said "depress this button when you want to speak."

"Thank you Captain." Josh again glanced at the crew. Holding the megaphone up to his mouth he depressed the button to activate it:

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you have probably heard the Peder ARRSETT sailed about an hour ago. We believe she intends to reach the whaling grounds sometime Thursday. For those of you who have lost track of the days, as I did for I had to check just before I came up here, that's two days from now. We have done a lot of preparation to get us to where we are, but we have a lot more to do in the next 48 hours. I know that you are all ready and anxious to go, and I assure you we will be sailing within the hour. My purpose for this get together is to give you one final briefing on this operation and the support operations which will be going on concurrently. When I finish you will be given the opportunity to ask any questions," he paused.

He continued; "The progress of Peder ARRSETT will be tracked by satellite. Greenpeace operatives were able to install a miniature transmitter onto the vessel before it sailed from Tromso, which sends a very high frequency signal allowing its location to be tracked daily. We have made arrangements for NASA to feed us the necessary location information hourly. By the way, they believe we are tracking a pod of whales for study." Josh smiled. The crew laughed.....

"It is our intention to be in close proximity to the ship by early Thursday morning and stay just out of sight over the horizon. We have a crew member on board who will signal us as soon as the Peder ARRSETH locates whales and begins stalking them. At that point we will launch the chase boats, which with their 25-30 knot speed capability will be able to overtake the whaler before they can strike any whales. While that is occurring, on board Rainbow Savior, we will turn on the auxiliary turbine engines, boosting our speed to 25 knots allowing us to catch-up with the action."

Josh waited for a moment, then continued;

"As we approach the Peder ARRSETH, our television crew, hidden behind those false panels you built, will begin filming the activities. As they document the confrontation real time images will be transmitted via satellite link back to Boston where it will be offered worldwide to all the news media. It is important that the crew of the Peder ARRSETT not see the cameras, because if they do, fearing the negative publicity they would surely put a stop to their operation. And remember, we want to show them at work and, more importantly, our attempts at stopping them."

"Now we have a lot of final preparations to do. You each know your jobs, you know how the equipment must function, we will have a series of execution meetings in the next two days. If there is any equipment that is not functioning just right, either George or I need to know. Now, are there any questions?"

Josh's eyes scanned the 45 crew members in front of him. One hand was raised. Josh acknowledged the individual, "Yes, Mr. Pointer, you have a question?"

"How do we know that when the Captain of the Peder ARRSETH sees us he won't stop chasing the whales and call off the hunt, negating our efforts to photograph them?"

Josh turned to George and said, "Why don't you answer that question," and he handed him the megaphone.

Looking over the group in front of him George picked up the megaphone and depressing the button started speaking:

"We are very fortunate that the Peder ARRSETH is Captained by Knud Unset, the son of a Norwegian whaler that Greenpeace confronted twenty five years ago. Captain Knud Unset has signed Knut Handsen as his harpoonist. Both men are hard-liners who believe that they have the right to hunt whales. They also are dedicated to the re-initiation of whaling. These two men will stop at nothing to be the first to capture whales under the guise that it is their right. They hate conservationists, particularly Greenpeacers, so I caution you to beware. Our problem will not be that they might call off the hunt, but what extent they will go to maintain their rights. These men will not be stopped by our coming on the scene. Remember, in their minds we are violating their right to make a living. In addition, Captain Unset is attempting to open whaling in the name of his aging father who is terminally ill. Both men sincerely believe they are doing it for Norway. No, these men are not going to stop easily, so we must be careful."

The crew got very quiet as the reality of the situation sank in. Josh took the megaphone from George, depressing the button he asked:

"Are there any more questions?"

There were none. Depressing the button one more time he concluded with:

"OK, let’s go. We have a lot to do, and there are some remarkable mammals who are going to need our help."

The crew looked at him, someone in the back suddenly yelled, "For the Whales," then they all yelled, "For the Whales."

Josh turned to the Captain and said, "We’re ready to get underway when you are."

The crew began to disperse as the Captain turned to the bridge. The Rainbow Savior weighed anchor at 1600 and sailed down the fjord to the ocean. George Montclair stood on the foredeck watching the stone cliffs of the fjord go by. For some reason he couldn't enjoy the beauty of the scenery. Maybe he was getting old, maybe just nervous, but this voyage wasn't like the previous ones. It just didn't feel right.