They predated the guys with boats - Greenpeace was originally a a loose federation before the Vancouver group went on a rampage of world domination and appropriated the name for a group entirely under their control. The Vancouver-originated group is the one that runs the Rainbow Warrior.
I knew people from both organizations when I was involved in anti-nuclear campaigning. The LGG people were a joy to work with. The Vancouver crowd were a bunch of bullying macho arseholes who would do anything for media attention and would claim the credit for the sun rising if they thought they could get away with it. Their tactics in the environmental movement were much like those of the Militant Tendency over the ant-poll-tax campaign a few years later.