Excerpts
Aleutian Landfall
From: Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World, Chapter Three, “On an Ocean Named for Peace.”
The Phyllis Cormack now moved west of Kodiak and entered the Cradle of Storms, the sea of williwaws and haystacks, but the sea was at peace. With the test delayed, crewmembers wanted to know, “What are we gonna do now?”
“What’s happening with the court thing?” Bob Cummings asked.
“Supreme Court hasn’t ruled yet,” said Ben Metcalfe. “But they’ll approve it and hand it back to Nixon. It’s Nixon’s court,” said the journalist. “Brennan, Douglas, and Marshall will vote against the test, but they’ll lose. The Senate made certain the test won’t proceed without presidential approval, so it will be back in Nixon’s hands and he’ll go with the military.”
“We should push on for Amchitka,” said Bob Hunter. “We have them on the run. Keep up the pressure.”
Jim Bohlen wasn’t so sure. He summarized their options.
“We can return to Vancouver and wait for the announcement and then come back out, or we could go into Kodiak.”
“Kodiak’s two hard days running back from here,” said Birmingham.
“If we go to Kodiak, we have two choices,” Bohlen continued. “Wait there, or fly home and wait, then return when they announce the date. Otherwise, we can carry on toward Amchitka and find a place to rest and resupply in the Aleutians.”
The idea of continuing toward Amchitka, not knowing the test date, would be foolhardy, Captain John Cormack suggested. “That sea ya had out there? That ain’t nothin’. When yer fishing, ya wait for a break in the weather, like we’re having now, and then ya run out and get back in.” No one said anything. “You been charmed so far, but you don’t wanna be lookin’ for a place to get out of the weather when it blows up on ya.”
Bohlen nodded. “I suggest we go into Kodiak and think about this. Nixon has to give seven days’ notice.”
Hunter pushed for seeking refuge southwest toward their goal, in the Aleutians, not going back, away from their goal. Cummings agreed, but Bohlen, Metcalfe, and the others preferred the safe harbour in Kodiak. Unable to reach consensus, they voted. Cormack and Dave Birmingham abstained. The result was 7-2 for Kodiak.
The skipper turned northeast, but Metcalfe talked to Dorothy that night and heard news of protests across Canada. “The momentum is building,” Dorothy said. Metcalfe conferred with Bohlen and wondered if maybe Hunter wasn’t right. “We don’t want to see ‘Greenpeace retreats,’ in a headline.” Metcalfe and Bohlen directed Cormack to change course again, west into the Aleutians. Other than a few shrugs about the demise of democracy, everyone went along with the new plan.
On September 24, the thin black line of the Aleutian Islands appeared through the low clouds on the northwestern horizon. As the boat approached, the serrated contours took shape in the mist. The archipelago runs for 1,100 miles along the seam of two geologic plates, the Pacific "ring of fire," a locus of volcanoes that gave birth to these islands right up until the violent 1906 formation of the still-smouldering Bogoslof Island. Half of the archipelago’s fifty-seven volcanoes had erupted within the past two centuries, creating black, gnarled coastlines. A rolling fog shrouded the jagged rocks. They approached Unimack Pass that night, the spires of Pogromni Volcano rising over the starboard bow. Cormack took the wheel, bucking riptides between saw-toothed black cliffs. At 4:00 a.m. in the pitch-black night, they arrived in the Bering Sea.