'He's cold. He's calculating. He's Machiavellian. He's unremorseful. He's unremitting. I mean he will just do it, whatever he's got to do, and then he'll invite you out for a beer.' Peter Wilkinson, one of McTaggart's most trusted colleagues David McTaggart captured public attention in 1972 and 1973 when he sailed his small boat into a French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa atoll. In 1973, McTaggart successfully delayed the test and led the French to send seven commandos to ram his ketch 'Vega' and attack the crew. McTaggart almost lost his right eye in the scuffle. Fortunately for McTaggart, the whole incident was captured on still camera and caused an international uproar and to the founding of Greenpeace International. For more than three decades, this restless and driven man took on the world's rich and powerful. In the process he not only created a long list of friends but an equally impressive list of enemies. He retired to Italy in 1991 and died in a car crash in March 2001 aged 68. The bulk of his autobiography was written before his death and completed from notes.