The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (the French intelligence service) bombed Rainbow Warrior in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand on 10 July 1985, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira.

Rainbow Warrior was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) as a trawler called Sir William Hardy.

In May, it relocated 300 Marshall Islanders from Rongelap Atoll, which had been polluted by radioactive fallout from past American nuclear tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds.

DGSE agent Christine Cabon infiltrated the Auckland offices of the organisation and secretly monitored communications from Rainbow Warrior, collected maps, and investigated underwater equipment.

[6][7] Rainbow Warrior, then captained by Peter Willcox, was sabotaged and sunk just before midnight NZST on 10 July 1985, by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of the French intelligence service (DGSE).

After facing international pressure, France agreed to pay compensation to Greenpeace, and later admissions from the former head of the DGSE revealed that three teams had carried out the bombings.

In addition to those successfully prosecuted, two DGSE divers, Jacques Camurier and Alain Tonel, had carried out the actual bombing, but their identities have never been officially confirmed.

Although the hull had been recovered, the damage was too extensive for repair and the vessel was scuttled in Matauri Bay in the Cavalli Islands, New Zealand, on 12 December 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and artificial reef to promote marine life.

A Bonfire in my Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior by Susi Newborn was published in 2003 and Rex Wyler's Greenpeace: An Insider's Account.

Geffen Records released a double album, Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors,[18] in 1989 and included songs from artists such as U2, INXS, The Pretenders, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, and White Lion.

Smart Stadium, Auckland, including Herbs, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Topp Twins, Dave Dobbyn and a Split Enz reunion.