24 May 2012

New Zealand flag marks history

15/12/2010 9:52:00 a.m.

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La Glorieuse’s executive officer Manuel Bienvemu and lieutenant commander Nicolas du Chéné.

La Glorieuse’s executive officer Manuel Bienvemu and lieutenant commander Nicolas du Chéné.

FOR the first time ever, the French Navy is flying a foreign flag.
And that flag just happens to be a New Zealand one.
“This is the first time in the life of the ship that we have [flown] a foreign flag on the mast. [The] New Zealand flag is pretty nice,” says lieutenant commander of navy patrol boat La Glorieuse Nicolas du Chéné.
France has always refused to fly foreign flags on its ships, to uphold the country’s independence.
But, says du Chéné, the chief of navy has reversed that tradition.
“All [other] countries do...we can’t be the only country in the world to refuse. It actually doesn’t change anything...on board.”
The crew of 32 was showing people around its patrol boat on Saturday, after another open day in Lyttleton the weekend before.
It’s usually based in Noumea, but had travelled to New Zealand to patrol the South Pacific, and also, because the French Navy provides humanitarian relief here, to get to know our seas.
The French navy boat was moored at Queen’s Wharf over the weekend, just metres away from where the Sea Shepherd was. It was the weekend for open days on boats: Strait Shipping’s new boat The Straitsman was also inviting people to go on board for the price of a gold coin as a fundraiser for Wellington Children’s Hospital, for which more than $3500 was raised from more than 2000 people who went onboard. 
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