Pintado Protest

Pintado Protest 1978 is now recognised as Pat Hanly’s most compelling protest painting. It was created because of the United States Submarine Pintado (SSN-672) entering the Waitemata Harbour on Monday 16 January 1978 so that it could dock at Devonport’s naval Base.

The arrival of a nuclear powered, and nuclear armed, vessel at Auckland resulted in the most violent protest against the presence of nuclear armaments in New Zealand’s history. The Peace Squadron Fleet tried to prevent the sturgeon class attack submarine Pintado from entering the inner harbour by blocking its access to the inner harbour. Various members of the Squadron climbed onto the moving vessel at notable risk to their lives. As well as this, the New Zealand Navy’s helicopters undertook the dangerous manoeuvre of hovering above metres above the sea’s surface causing an updraft that disabled many protest vessels.

Hanly’s painting contrasts the submarine, police boats, naval helicopters with the chaotic manoeuvres of the Peace Squadron who were attempting to stop and block an 89-metre submarine at the water surface. The Squadron was unsuccessful in preventing the anchorage of the USS Pintado at the naval base, but the news of their protest resulted in opposition to nuclear-armed ship visits increasing from 32% to 72% of the New Zealand adult population by 1983.

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