12:00pm Friday 16th March 2001
Peace campaigning grandmother, Sylvia Boyes was among seven women arrested after they boarded a French frigate near the Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland.
Mrs Boyes, 57, of Keighley, was photographed climbing the radar rigging by fellow campaigner, Olivia Agate, from Skipton.
Both women had joined the anti-Trident submarine peace camp at Faslane to celebrate International Women's Day.
Seven women later cut through the fence at the nearby oil fuel depot, and ran up the gangplank of the frigate and hoisted a banner declaring Women Unite for a World Without War.
The vessel had been taking part in a joint military exercise with the British forces when the women, aged between 20 and 60, struck early on Sunday morning.
Mrs Agate, 60, a retired Airedale General Hospital nurse, drove the seven women to the site and recorded the boarding.
They were later arrested by the military police and have been charged with breach of the peace and remanded on bail.
Mrs Boyes, of Winborne Drive, Keighley, a peace campaigner for 20 years, was 20ft up a radar mast before she was caught.
Three others fastened themselves to other rigging and had to be cut free and lowered down by hoist.
Three more were arrested soon after they got on board the ship.
Mrs Boyes said: "One French sailor was very aggressive. He climbed up behind me and pulled my hair and twisted my fingers to get me off. But I clung on.
"He was trying to force me down and if I'd come off, I'd have fallen down the ladder."
Eventually, a British negotiator arrived and after about half and hour Mrs Boyes agreed to climb down.
Mrs Agate, a mother of three, said: "It was only half light. A hole was cut in the fence and they ran up the gangplank. It was very exciting.
"The French record on nuclear weapons is not very good. They were very angry with us."
An MoD spokesman said seven women had boarded the vessel and they were charged with breach of the peace and remanded on bail.
The ship was in the oil fuel depot and had been involved in a military exercise with the British navy, army and air force.
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