Early Days and Growth of Greenpeace: From Amchitka to Global Influence

On September 15, 1971, a dozen activists boarded a weathered fishing boat in Vancouver, Canada, and set sail toward a remote Alaskan island. Their mission seemed almost foolhardy: to stop the United States from detonating a nuclear bomb beneath Amchitka Island. Though they never reached their destination, that voyage sparked a movement that would transform global environmentalism. This is the story of how a small group of idealists created Greenpeace, an organization that would grow from a single protest to become one of the world’s most influential environmental forces.

The birth of bearing witness
Victory through apparent defeat
Confronting France in the Pacific
The Fri and the peace flotilla
Expanding beyond nuclear protests
The human shield tactic
Growing international presence
The formation of Greenpeace International
A legacy of nonviolent action

The birth of bearing witness

The story begins in 1970 when the Don’t Make a Wave Committee formed in Vancouver with one goal: stopping a planned nuclear weapons test at Amchitka Island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain. The committee’s founders included Dorothy and Irving Stowe, Marie and Jim Bohlen, Ben and Dorothy Metcalfe, and journalist Bob Hunter. It was Marie Bohlen who first suggested the bold idea of sailing a boat directly to Amchitka to confront the bomb.

Amchitka presented genuine dangers beyond the nuclear test itself. The island was located in one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions and served as the last refuge for approximately 3,000 endangered sea otters, along with bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Activists feared the underground explosion could trigger devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. The committee chartered an 80-foot halibut boat called the Phyllis Cormack, owned by Captain John Cormack, for fifteen thousand dollars. As activist Irving Stowe flashed a peace sign leaving one meeting, Canadian ecologist Bill Darnell responded with words that would become legendary: “Make it a green peace.”

The renamed Greenpeace departed Vancouver on September 15, 1971, carrying a crew of twelve-nine Canadians and three Americans-determined to “bear witness,” a Quaker tradition of silent protest. The voyage was plagued by internal tensions, bad weather, and eventually interception by the U.S. Coast Guard, which charged the crew with customs violations. The activists never reached Amchitka, and the test proceeded on November 6, 1971. The 5-megaton Cannikin blast, 250 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, was detonated 4,000 feet beneath the island’s surface.

Victory through apparent defeat

Despite failing to physically stop the test, the voyage generated enormous media coverage and public sympathy. The negative press surrounding the expedition proved more powerful than the activists could have imagined. Within five months, the U.S. government abandoned nuclear testing at Amchitka entirely. The island was declared a bird sanctuary in February 1972. The original Don’t Make a Wave Committee disbanded and reformed as Greenpeace, with Ben Metcalfe serving as chairman. Some historians argue this outcome marked the beginning of the end for atmospheric nuclear testing worldwide.

Confronting France in the Pacific

With Amchitka behind them, Greenpeace turned its attention to French atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia. In 1972, David McTaggart, a Canadian businessman-turned-sailor, skippered his yacht Vega (renamed Greenpeace III) into the French exclusion zone. This voyage, sponsored by the New Zealand branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, brought worldwide attention to the Pacific tests.

McTaggart returned in 1973 with a crew including Anna Horne, Nigel Ingram, and Mary Lornie. This time, the confrontation turned violent. French commandos rammed the Vega with a military warship and severely beat McTaggart, an incident that generated international outrage when photographs surfaced. The images of French aggression against peaceful protesters proved invaluable for the growing movement.

The Fri and the peace flotilla

Simultaneously, a larger flotilla organized from New Zealand in 1973 included the yacht Fri, a 32-meter Baltic coastal trader built in 1912. Owned by David Moodie, the Fri led several vessels including Spirit of Peace into the Mururoa zone. The New Zealand government itself joined the protest, with Prime Minister Norman Kirk sending naval frigates HMNZS Canterbury and Otago to oppose the French tests-an unprecedented act of official resistance.

In 1974, coordinated by the newly incorporated Greenpeace New Zealand, the Fri embarked on an epic three-year “Pacific Peace Odyssey,” covering 40,000 kilometers and carrying the nuclear-free message to all nuclear weapons states. The crew met with officials and political leaders, visited schools and workplaces, and spoke publicly about their peace mission across Tahiti, the Marshall Islands, Hiroshima, the Soviet Union, and beyond.

These persistent campaigns contributed significantly to New Zealand’s eventual adoption of groundbreaking anti-nuclear legislation. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act of 1987 declared the country a nuclear-free zone and remains one of the movement’s most significant political victories.

Expanding beyond nuclear protests

While nuclear testing remained central to Greenpeace’s identity, the organization began diversifying its campaigns in the mid-1970s. The transformation came partly through Dr. Paul Spong, a researcher who had been dismissed from the Vancouver Aquarium after publicly stating that captive orca whales should be freed. Spong’s groundbreaking research demonstrated that orcas were highly intelligent, emotional creatures unsuited for captivity.

In 1973, Paul Spong, Bob Hunter, and others formed the “Stop Ahab Committee” and merged with Greenpeace. Two years of preparation culminated in a historic voyage. On April 27, 1975, Greenpeace launched the world’s first anti-whaling campaign from Vancouver’s docks. A crowd of 30,000 supporters gathered to see the crew off as Hunter proclaimed that if Russia and Japan wanted to continue whaling, they would have to do it over Greenpeace’s dead bodies.

The human shield tactic

The anti-whaling campaign introduced what would become Greenpeace’s signature tactic: placing human bodies between hunters and their prey. In late June 1975, the Greenpeace crew found a Soviet whaling vessel off California’s coast. The sea around them turned red with the blood of harpooned sperm whales. Activists immediately lowered high-speed inflatable rafts and positioned themselves between the harpoons and fleeing whales. At one point, a harpoon was fired directly over Bob Hunter’s head.

The images and footage shocked the world. Showing the public images of whales being killed sparked a sea-change in popular opinion. The New York Times reported that for the first time in whaling history, humans had put their lives on the line for whales. This combination of scientific research, media-savvy documentation, and nonviolent direct action would define Greenpeace’s approach for decades.

Growing international presence

The anti-whaling campaigns expanded rapidly. In 1977, a Greenpeace boat launched from Hawaii-the first voyage not organized by Vancouver headquarters-confronted Russian whalers and distributed leaflets in Russian to crewmembers. That same year, activists in Albany, Western Australia, blockaded the last Australian whaling station, documenting the brutality of the industry for international media.

Allen Thornton traveled to England in 1976 to establish a European Greenpeace presence, drawing generous donations from comedian Spike Milligan and the Beatles. By 1977, Greenpeace-UK was established, followed by offices in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The organization acquired its first major vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, in 1977, deploying it to confront Icelandic whalers in 1978.

The formation of Greenpeace International

By the late 1970s, the scattered Greenpeace groups faced organizational challenges. Many had fallen into debt while pursuing their own agendas. David McTaggart, whose confrontations with France had made him an international figure, stepped in with both personal funds and a vision for restructuring. His business acumen and entrepreneurial drive proved essential to the movement’s survival.

McTaggart lobbied the Canadian Greenpeace Foundation to accept a unified structure bringing all offices under a single global organization. On October 14, 1979, Greenpeace International came into existence. Under the new framework, European Greenpeace offices paid off the Canadian office’s debts, and local branches contributed a percentage of their income to the international body while maintaining voting rights. The headquarters eventually moved to Amsterdam, where it remains today.

By 1985, the organization that started on a small fishing boat operated three ships and fifty campaigns worldwide. Membership soared into the millions, with active branches across North America, Europe, and Australasia. The years of direct action culminated in a major victory in 1982 when the International Whaling Commission, under sustained public pressure, placed an indefinite moratorium on commercial whaling-a ban that took effect in 1986.

A legacy of nonviolent action

Greenpeace’s early growth demonstrated the power of combining nonviolent direct action with strategic media engagement. The organization’s founders understood that their fishing boats could never physically stop nuclear tests or whaling fleets. Instead, they aimed their “press releases instead of ballistic missiles” at public consciousness. Every confrontation was documented, photographed, and distributed to global media outlets.

The Quaker principle of bearing witness-being present to injustice and documenting it for the world-proved remarkably effective in an era of expanding television coverage and growing environmental awareness. From Amchitka to Mururoa, from the whaling grounds of the Pacific to the last Australian whaling station, Greenpeace activists showed that ordinary people willing to put themselves in harm’s way could shift global opinion and policy.

What do you think? How has the strategy of nonviolent direct action evolved since Greenpeace’s founding, and do you believe these tactics remain effective in today’s media environment?

References

PDF 📄

Early Days and Growth of Greenpeace: From Amchitka to Global Influence

Table of Contents

The birth of bearing witness 🔗

Victory through apparent defeat 🔗

Confronting France in the Pacific 🔗

The Fri and the peace flotilla 🔗

Expanding beyond nuclear protests 🔗

The human shield tactic 🔗

Growing international presence 🔗

The formation of Greenpeace International 🔗

A legacy of nonviolent action 🔗