Oh yeah....one other run-in with Greenpeace

We were anchored about a mile off the coast of France (Toulon or Marseilles, I can't remember which one) back in '88 and we'd been in port for about a week at that time.

Here comes Greenpeace in 2 or 3 Zodiac boats.....bouncing toward the ship (an aircraft carrier)

The captain somehow knew they were coming and instructed the chief engineer that 'those idiots are not to touch this vessel' and we had every available fire pump running and all the external fire stations manned for the arrival of the zodiacs.

Now, normally you're not allowed to pump your holding tanks (CHT) inside international waters............normally

However....the high level alarms were coming in to central control and the tanks could either be pumped out, or overflow.....but either way the brown trout were going to get out of the tanks.

So....with this scenario in mind, it was decided to pump the tanks off the side of the ship facing out to sea so that it would minimize the effect on the shoreline.

Oddly enough....Greenpeace didn't want to be able to be photographed from shore attempting to deface a US Naval vessel with spray paint, so they went around the far side of the ship also......

Well, as they attemped to approach the ship with their spray cans, everyone with a fire hose let them have it and almost everyone in the zodiacs went swimming with the brown trout (unknowingly, of course) and they kept coming for about 45 min before they realized they were not going to be successful with their spray paint.

I don't suppose it was pleasant smelling for them on the way back to shore or home.....but we sure got a good laugh out of it