Outrage! the Ordeal of Greenpeace III

"From June 1972 through September 1973, the French government defied world sentiment to initiate a series of atmospheric nuclear explosions in the South Pacific. With complete indifference to law, over 100,000 square miles of open ocean were cordoned off, all travel into the area arbitrarily prohibited and large bombs exploded. Most of the world simply watched in anger. But one man, a Canadian, decided to provoke a confrontation and to test the law. David McTaggart twice sailed his thirty-eight foot boat, "Vega", over 3500 nautical miles to face the French. His intent was eloquent in its simplicity -- to sail into the waters over which France had no legal jurisdiction, compelling the French to postpone the tests or to remove him by force. From New Zealand to Mururoa Atoll he raced time and international lethargy and then dodged the French navy in two long sea chases within sight of the balloons bearing the test bombs. Yet each voyage ended in disaster. The first time, his boat was either blunderingly or willfully rammed by a French frigate; the second time it was boarded by the French and McTaggart and his crew were manhandled. But his point was made and the "Greenpeace III" (as "Vega" came to be known in the world press) became a symbol of daring protest against nuclear madness. This is David McTaggart's story. It is one of high adventure and brilliant seamanship; of international intrigue and political skulduggery; of intense drama and great suspense. Most of all, it is an account of a hair raising gamble that places McTaggart in the ranks of Slocum and Voss and Chichester."--Inside front cover.