Phyllis Cormack

Last updated
History
NamePhyllis Cormack
OperatorJohn Cormack
Port of registry Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Canada [lower-alpha 1]
BuilderMarine View Boat Works, Tacoma, Washington
Completed1941
General characteristics
Class and type Seine fishing
Displacement99 tons
Length25 m (82.0 ft)
Heightover 30 ft (9.1 m) [lower-alpha 2]
PropulsionOne Diesel engine [3]
Sail planone sail [lower-alpha 3]
Crew12

The Phyllis Cormack is a 25-meter [4] (82-foot) herring and halibut seine fishing boat, [5] [6] displacing 99 tons and crewed by up to 12 people. [7] The wooden vessel was built in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, by Marine View Boat Works. [lower-alpha 4]

Contents

The vessel was chartered in September 1971 by the Don't Make a Wave Committee to travel to Amchitka to protest against the planned nuclear tests there, and the passengers included Bob Hunter, Ben Metcalfe, John Cormack, Jim Bohlen, Patrick Moore and Terry A Simmons. Greenpeace calls this trip "our founding voyage."

Name

The boat's name derives from that of the wife of its skipper, John Cormack. [5] [8]

Greenpeace charters

1971

The vessel was renamed or nicknamed Greenpeace for the voyage, a name subsequently used by the organisation that sprang from the organising committee. [9] Greenpeace International calls this expedition "the founding voyage". [10] The nickname for the boat arose from "the dual ecological and antiwar nature of their mission". At the time, the boat was deemed to be "a bit jury-rigged." [11] The boat's crew was Canadian, and included Bob Hunter, Ben Metcalfe, John Cormack, Jim Bohlen, Patrick Moore, and Terry A Simmons. [lower-alpha 5] [12] The boat's departure and arrival point was Vancouver, British Columbia, though an unauthorised stop was made in Akutan, Alaska, resulting on a U.S. Coast Guard boarding and a charge of a U.S. customs violation. The crew's sight of a grisly, abandoned whaling station in Akutan was compared to the Communist Party of Kampuchea's Khmer Rouge Killing Fields and it was called a "pivotal" moment that turned Greenpeace on to the idea of saving the whales. [7] [lower-alpha 6]

1975

In June 1975, the Phyllis Cormack was chartered by the Greenpeace Foundation, a Vancouver, B.C. ecological organization, [13] to harass USSR and Japanese whaling; the crew included persons fluent in Japanese and in Russian. Greenpeace named the season's campaign "Project Ahab"; it ran about 50 miles offshore California, from Eureka in the north to past San Francisco in the south. The New York Times reported that for "the first time in the history of whaling, human beings had put their lives on the line for whales". The Japanese Fisheries Agency stated the harassers were fanatics for whom their movement "is like a religion". [5]

Notes

  1. "You are a Canadian vessel" [1]
  2. "the single mast, rising 30 feet above the cabin" [2]
  3. "a great, pale green, triangular sail, fixed to the mast and to a boom" [2]
  4. "Marine View Boat Works in Tacoma, Washington, built the fish boat in 1941, designed for stability and space — beamy, with massive oak timbers and fine, edge-grain gum wood planks fixed flush with each other against the oak ribs" [2]
  5. "Crew member Patrick Moore went on to become director of Greenpeace Canada" [7]
  6. "[The Coast Guard captain] was talking to the captain and some of the leaders of this expedition in the wheelhouse of the Phyllis Cormack anchored in Akutan Bay" [1]

Related Research Articles

Greenpeace Non-governmental environmental organization

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network. The network comprises 26 independent national/regional organisations in over 55 countries across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as a co-ordinating body, Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, Canadian and US expat environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity" and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals. The global network does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on three million individual supporters and foundation grants. Greenpeace has a general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is a founding member of the INGO Accountability Charter, an international non-governmental organization that intends to foster accountability and transparency of non-governmental organizations.

Akutan, Alaska City in Alaska, United States

Akutan is a city on Akutan Island in the Aleutians East Borough of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, United States. The population was 1,589 at the 2020 census, up from 1,027 in 2010, making it the 4th fastest-growing city of the decade in Alaska. Akutan Harbor is adjacent.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society American non-profit marine conservation activism organization

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation activism organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States. Sea Shepherd employs direct action tactics to achieve its goals, most famously by deploying its fleet of ships to track, report on and actively impede the work of fishing vessels believed to be engaged in illegal and unregulated activities causing the unsustainable exploitation of marine life.

Paul Watson Canadian environmental activist

Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd have attracted opposition, with the group accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and Greenpeace. Watson is a citizen of Canada and the United States.

Bennett Metcalfe was a Canadian journalist and first chairman of Greenpeace, which was founded in 1971.

Patrick Moore (consultant) Canadian industry consultant, former activist

Patrick Albert Moore is a Canadian industry consultant, former activist, and past president of Greenpeace. Since leaving Greenpeace in 1986, Moore has criticized the environmental movement for what he sees as scare tactics and disinformation, saying that the environmental movement "abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism". According to Greenpeace, Moore is "a paid spokesman for the nuclear industry, the logging industry, and genetic engineering industry" who "exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson".

Robert Lorne Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and politician. He was a member of the Don't Make a Wave Committee in 1969, and a co-founder of Greenpeace in 1971 and its first president. He led the first on-sea anti-whaling campaigns in the world, against Russian and Australian whalers, which helped lead to the ban on commercial whaling. He campaigned against nuclear testing, the Canadian seal hunt and later, climate change with his book Thermageddon: Countdown to 2030. He was named by Time as one of the "Eco-Heroes" of the 20th century and is credited with coining the terms "mindbomb" and "eco-warrior".

The Don't Make a Wave Committee was the name of the anti-nuclear organization which later evolved into Greenpeace, a global environmental organization. The Don't Make a Wave Committee was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to protest and attempt to halt further underground nuclear testing by the United States in the National Wildlife refuge at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The Don't Make a Wave Committee was first formed in October 1969 and officially established in early 1970.

<i>Nisshin Maru</i>

The Nisshin Maru (日新丸) is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It has a tonnage of 8,145 GT and is the largest member and flagship of the five-ship whaling fleet, headed by leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki. The ship is based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor and is owned by Tokyo-based Kyodo Senpaku, which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research.

Rex Weyler

Rex Weyler is an American-Canadian author, journalist and ecologist. He has worked as a writer, editor, and publisher. In the 1970s, Weyler served as a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation, and as campaign photographer and publisher of the Greenpeace Chronicles. He was a cofounder of Greenpeace International in 1979.

William Edward Jackson III served with Greenpeace in its early years (1975–77), as crew member on the first anti-whaling expedition, and as cofounder of Greenpeace San Francisco. A pioneer synthesizer player, Jackson was aboard the Greenpeace V as part of the media campaign to demonstrate whale intelligence, and to disrupt Russian whaling. Jackson played a large modular synthesizer that had been brought onboard, broadcast through underwater speakers, with the intention of communicating with whales through synthesized whale song. He was one of six persons out of a rotating pool of 35 to remain aboard throughout the expedition. Bob Hunter, cofounder and first president of Greenpeace, credits Jackson with saving him from drowning at Triangle Island.

Irving Harold Stowe was a Yale lawyer, activist, and a founder of Greenpeace. He was named one of the "BAM 100".

Michael Bailey, described as "one of the foremost eco-warriors of our times" according to Rex Weyler, is a founding member of Greenpeace, along with Paul Watson, Patrick Moore, David McTaggart and others. He supervised the original Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior.

Anti-whaling

Anti-whaling refers to actions taken by those who seek to end whaling in various forms, whether locally or globally in the pursuit of marine conservation. Such activism is often a response to specific conflicts with pro-whaling countries and organizations that practice commercial whaling and/or research whaling, as well as with indigenous groups engaged in subsistence whaling. Some anti-whaling factions have received criticism and legal action for extreme methods including violent direct action. The term anti-whaling may also be used to describe beliefs and activities related to these actions.

Dorothy Stowe American–Canadian environmentalist

Dorothy Anne Stowe was an American-born Canadian social activist and environmentalist. She co-founded Greenpeace.

Dennis Delaney American writer (born 1953)

Dennis Delaney is an American writer and actor, and former environmental activist. A founding member of Greenpeace USA, he became its first National Director in 1980. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of the novel Saving Whales.

<i>Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson</i> 2011 Canadian film

Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson is a 2011 documentary film directed by Trish Dolman and produced by Kevin Eastwood. It follows radical conservationist Paul Watson during anti-whaling campaigns in the Antarctic in 2009 and 2010, and recounts his history and controversial methods as an activist and media personality. It premiered May 1, 2011 at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival.

<i>How to Change the World</i> (film) 2015 British film

How to Change the World is a documentary film, from writer-director Jerry Rothwell, which chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers who set out to stop Richard Nixon's nuclear bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement with the birth of Greenpeace.

<i>Orion</i> (ship, 1904)

Orion was constructed as a whale catcher in 1904, in Christiana, Norway. She was a steam-powered vessel, 91 feet (28 m) long, 17 feet (5.2 m) wide, displacing 109 tonnes. Robert Lloyd Webb, author of a book on commercial whaling in the Pacific Northwest, wrote that she was the first steam-powered chaser boat in British Columbia.

Terry A. Simmons Canadian-American geographer and lawyer (1946-2020)

Terry Allan Simmons was a Canadian-American lawyer and cultural geographer, and the founder of the British Columbia Sierra Club. In this role, he participated in the Don't Make A Wave Committee, understood as the origin of the environmental organization Greenpeace.

References

  1. 1 2 Wall 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Weyler 2004, p. 94.
  3. Weyler 2004, pp. 78–79: "wedged between the hull and the diesel engine"
  4. SHONA MCKAY (6 December 1982). "Waging war on ugliness". Maclean's . Retrieved 19 March 2019. In 1971 the Phyllis Cormack, a 25-m halibut boat, set out from Vancouver
  5. 1 2 3 CHARLES FLOWERS (24 August 1975). "Between the harpoon and the whale". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  6. Paul Clarke (June 1994). "Greenpeace: Past, Present and Future". Satya Magazine. Retrieved 19 March 2019. an aging halibut seining boat called the Phyllis Cormack
  7. 1 2 3 "Environmental Pioneers Profile # 24: The "Don't Make a Wave Committee" Were the Founders of Greenpeace". Living on Earth . Public Radio International. 7 June 1996. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  8. "Lyle Thurston: Activist and ship's doctor on the first voyage of the 'Greenpeace'". The Independent . 3 April 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2019. a mackerel seiner called the Phyllis Cormack, named after the wife of its captain
  9. "Archived copy". www.greenpeace.org. Archived from the original on 1 April 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2022.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Amchitka: the founding voyage". Greenpeace.org. Greenpeace International. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019. their old fishing boat was called “The Greenpeace”. This is where our story begins.
  11. Weyler 2004, p. 80: ""She's a bit jury-rigged," Moore told Bob Hunter"
  12. Weyler 2004, p. 85: "crew of twelve. For the engineering position, Cormack selected [...] Pat Moore and Jim Bohlen would be counted on to help operate the boat."
  13. "WHALE PROTECTORS CONFRONT RUSSIANS". The New York Times. 30 June 1975. p. 32. Retrieved 19 March 2019. the Phyllis Cormack, operated by a Canada‐based ecological organization, the Greenpeace Foundation, whose headquarters are in Vancouver

Sources