Grace and Katie pry the framed photographs from the alleyway bulkheads. Glues and screws have restrained them from leaping off their perches in past rough seas. I look at the photos afresh and note how faded they have become. They are taken through to Lesley who wraps them individually in pages from The Straits Times.
It is Katie who finds the treasure. It slips from behind a silkscreen outside the radio room door. Maite – designated Rainbow Warrior II historian – is the first person to be told. An excited babble comes down the alleyway growing louder until it bursts into my cabin: ‘Miiiiiike! Look what we found.’
A muster list from 1995. Ten years after the bombing of the first boat, Rainbow Warrior II sailed into the territorial waters off Mururoa. The French were about to conduct another nuclear test. Marines stormed, they spray painted the bridge windows, cut through the steel doors and seized the ship.
In those moments of grinding and sparks, someone must have hid the emergency muster list from view. In the closing days of Rainbow Warrior II the names of old crew are revealed and we are reminded of our roots – to end nuclear weapons testing.
1995 muster list
lori78 said,
August 14, 2011 at 11:51 am
Hello Capt. Mike!
Read about your blog and the rainbow warrior in reader’s digest and i just have to check
Regards to all your crew and more power.
I’ll be praying for you guys.