Chronology of events surrounding boarding of Rainbow Warrioir

(In local time, French Polynesia ie 12 hours behind Central European time)

Saturday July 8

15:30 Rainbow Warrior rendezvous with Vega; crew transfer Inflatable with David McTaggart on board leaves Rainbow Warrior Radio contact made with Bifrost

Sunday July 9

02:00 Launch two inflatables in darkness from the Rainbow Warrior Three warships tail Rainbow Warrior

03:30 Launch second pair of inflatables in darkness from the Rainbow Warrior French warships begin chase of inflatables

04:00 Helicopter search for inflatables begins

05:00 Rainbow Warrior and four inflatables cross into 12 mile exclusion zone around Moruroa atoll. It is tracked by two patrol vessels and a frigate. French warship Vendemiaire warns Rainbow Warrior that it is prepared to use force to take control of the vessel

06:15 Julien Prieur aboard Greenpeace inflatable radioes Rainbow Warrior to say he is in the lagoon. All three inflatables reach the drilling rig in the lagoon and two activists lock themselves to the rig.

06:30 Commandos in inflatables storm the Rainbow Warrior as it enters the main channel into the pass at Moruroa.

06:35 Commandos break the window on bridge of the Rainbow Warrior and throw tear gas into the bridge. Skipper David Enever stops the engines and all crew head for lower deck. The Rainbow Warrior is rammed by a French tug ripping a hole above water level on the starboard side of the bow and twisting antennae.

06:40 Crew exit the lower accommodation onto the main deck, driven out by tear gas. Commandos enter the lower deck and take an axe to the door of the radio room.

06;50 A canister of tear gas is released into the radio room via the split made in the radio room door. Choking for breath, radio officer Thom Looney and campaigner Stephanie Mills exit the radio room via its porthole and clamber on to upper deck. French campaigner Jean- Luc Thierry leans halfway out the porthole and continues to talk to French media via satellite phone until commandos enter the room.

07:00 Two Greenpeace activists are removed from the drilling rig by French commandos. All four inflatable crews are taken to Moruroa. Journalists aboard the Rainbow Warrior, Oscar Temaru, Monseigneur Jacques Gaillot and Pastor Temarama are taken aboard a French military vessel and transported to Moruroa atoll. Commandos and maritime police take over control of the Rainbow Warrior and a tow line is attached to a tug.

09:30 The Rainbow Warrior crew demand that the inflatable crew are allowed to re-join the ship.

10:0 Gendarmerie maritime (maritime police) demand to interrogate the women crew members on board the Rainbow Warrior individually. The captain and crew refuse to do this and demand access to a lawyer. The French authorities back down.

10:05 The Rainbow Warrior is towed into the Moruroa lagoon and moored onto a buoy inside the entrance to the lagoon. Skipper Dave Enever continues to refuse to leave the ship until all his crew are returned to it. Meanwhile, interrogation of inflatable crew by the maritime police is going on Moruroa atoll. The crew refuse to give their identities, merely saying their name is "Fernando Pereira", the photographer killed during the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. The inflatable crew non-violently resist the orders of the maritime police, who use French foreign legionnaires to carry their limp bodies from interrogation room to holding rooms.

13:00 The crew of the Rainbow Warrior, still refusing to leave their ship until the other crew are returned and an assessment of damage to the ship is done, is told by the French authorities that they will forcibly be removed from the ship. A party of French foreign legionnaires board the ship and force the crew, some of whom resisting non-violently by going limp, onto a transport vessel. The French authorities force David Enever, the skipper, to remain on the Rainbow Warrior.

14:00 The Rainbow Warrior crew are disembarked at Moruroa and taken to a holding room pending interrogation. They demand to see their captain and the rest of the crew. They are interrogated individually, fingerprinted and photographed. The French military refuse to tell them whether they are under arrest or not, and refuse access to lawyers. In spite of French propaganda that the crew are free to walk around the atoll, they are in fact under guard at all times by French foreign legionnaires who physically manhandle them to prevent them walking away from the holding rooms.

20:00 After protracted negotiations between the skipper, Dave Enever and French authorities, French foreign legionnaires take half the crew to the dock at Moruroa and tell them to board a transport vessel back to the Rainbow Warrior. The crew refuse to do anything until their captain and rest of crew arrive, and sit down on the dock. Journalists waiting on the dock are forcibly prevented from asking questions of the crew by military personnel who place their hands over the mouths of reporters and put a human barricade of foreign legionnaires between the crew and media. A truckload more of foreign legionnaires arrive to guard the crew.

21:00 The rest of the crew and then finally Greenpeace France campaigner Jean-Luc Thierry and skipper Dave Enever arrive at the dock. Negotiations continue: Dave Enever refuses to return to the Rainbow Warrior without the vessel's inflatables and safety equipment such as hand- held navigational equipment and radiation protection gear being returned to the ship.

22:30 The French authorities refuse to return the ship's equipment except for one inflatable. They announce that they will tow the ship into international waters and demand that Greenpeace pledge not to return to the test site. Skipper David Enever repeats Greenpeace's demands for the return of the equipment and says that as long as France prepares for nuclear tests at the atoll, Greenpeace will be prepared to come back.

22:45 Greenpeace crew sit on the dock, fearing use of force by the French authorities. Around 100 French foreign legionnaires encircle the crew and bodily lift them into a transport vessel. The crew are taken back to the ship and begin the clean-up of the ship.

23:45 The Rainbow Warrior is towed by a tug toward international waters. The ship remains under the control of French foreign legion and commandos but communications links are re-established.

Monday July 10

02:00 French commandos and foreign legion leave the ship. It stays in international waters, under the watchful eye of at least four French warships.

09:00 Rainbow Warrior crew assess damage to the ship. Broken windows on the bridge have been repaired but will require further strengthening. The twisted antennae are lashed up and the hole in the bow requires further work but does not prevent the ship from being seaworthy.

11:00 The Rainbow Warrior makes radio contact with the Vega and Bifrost and agrees to rendezvous with the two vessels north of Moruroa at 1530 hours.

15:30 The Viking model ship Bifrost, Vega and Rainbow Warrior meet 30 miles north of Moruroa to discuss further protest plans and to celebrate the birthday of Steve Sawyer with a barbecue on board the Rainbow Warrior.