Exhibition remembers fateful bombing

Henk Haazen with the Rainbow Warrior's clock, which stopped when the first bomb exploded. Picture / Richard Robinson

Henk Haazen might have been killed had he stayed on board the Rainbow Warrior one fateful day 20 years ago.

Mr Haazen, a crew member, had left with partner Bunny McDiarmid just an hour before two explosions ripped through the Greenpeace ship docked at Auckland on July 10, 1985.

"The bomb exploded right underneath our bed, so it was very fortunate we weren't on board at the time."

Mr Haazen recalled his near-miss yesterday at the opening of Ten Minutes to Midnight, an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Auckland marking the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the ship by French agents.

The exhibition's centrepiece is the ship's clock, stopped just before midnight.

Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira drowned in the shattered ship. First mate Martini Gotje, who was on board at the time, said more people would have died if the explosions had been earlier.

Just two hours before, 50 people were gathered in the main hall to discuss the voyage to the Mururoa Atoll to protest against French nuclear testing. Mr Gotje said only basic crew, two skippers and a few Auckland friends were left in the mess room when they heard a "big noise" coming from the engine room below.

Within 10 seconds, the water had already reached halfway up the stairway leading to the lower level.

"After that, it all becomes a bit blurry - the lights went out, and the ship started to heave," he said.

In September that year, a group of New Zealanders set off on the brigantine Breeze to the French colony, leading a peace flotilla protesting against nuclear testing in the Pacific.

On board was Brian Latham, whose photographic record of the voyage forms a major part of the exhibition.

Mr Gotje said it was important to remember what the Rainbow Warrior represented. "We set out to stop nuclear testing and, as an ultimate campaign goal, to get rid of nuclear weapons on this planet.

"We haven't succeeded, and I feel we're further away from that goal now."