Heroic reaction the fatal factor in Blake's death

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Sir Peter Blake might still be alive if he had not been armed when he confronted the bandits who slunk on board the Seamaster in the dark.

As new details keep emerging Brazilian police admitted yesterday they were still confused who shot first, Sir Peter or the bandits.

But they were sure the robbers had been intending only to steal from the boat, not to kill.

"Maybe if Peter did not present himself armed this would not have happened," said Jose Araujo Filho, a spokesman for the federal police.

"The robbers would have left with the objects and just left it at that. The police would have most probably recovered the stolen goods anyway.

"But, unfortunately, Peter presented himself armed and that was fatal for him ... "

Sir Peter is understood to have raced to get his rifle as the rest of the crew had guns pushed into their heads and were made to crouch together.

He apparently yelled "Get off my f ... ing boat," and shot at a bandit, hitting his gun and slicing off part of a finger.

Mr Filho told the New Zealand Herald as soon as the robbers realised Sir Peter was armed the robber behind him, identified in a Brazilian newspaper as Ricardo Colares Tavares, one of two arrested ringleaders, opened fire.

Sir Peter was shot twice in the back and police reports say he died instantly from internal bleeding due to a ruptured aorta.

Acting skipper Don Robertson told TV One yesterday from Macapa, in Brazil, that he had not seen what happened as he had been face down with a pistol to his head. "Basically he put his own life on the line for the protection of us.

"It was an admirable thing ... but it probably cost him his life."

Dick Scott, the father of Mark Scott, a New Zealand journalist on board, said his son told him that when Sir Peter shot at one of the robbers the bullet hit the bandit's gun and took off part of a finger.

His son found the piece of finger, gave it to the police and told his father it matched the missing piece of finger of one of the bandits.

The cold and calculating bandits had been so well-organised and professional Mark Scott believed they could be ex-military.

Mark Scott told his father there were three words in the English language he has never appreciated so much: "I am alive."

Official events of what happened that day are still murky but according to "unofficial information" in the Folha de Sao Paulo, a daily Brazilian newspaper, the shots that killed Blake were fired from two different guns.

Initially Tavares confessed to the killing but then recanted, saying he had admitted it only because he was tortured by the police, the paper said.

But Rosilene Martins, the Public Security Police Chief of Amapa, is quoted as saying criminals often cry torture and that Tavares had been filmed by television reporters admitting the murder.

Meanwhile, the Seamaster's badly shaken and emotionally drained crew were being protected by heavily armed military guards, a "godsend" which was helping them get some sleep at night, said blakexpeditions' executive, Scott Chapman, from Britain.

Three armed guards were on board, three were circling the boat in a dinghy and three more were stationed at a nearby dock.

Team New Zealand chief executive Ross Blackman has been in regular contact with the crew, especially Mr Robertson, who is a close friend.

Mr Robertson had told him the attack had felt like being in a car accident.

"It all happened so quickly and is such a blur, the fear and adrenalin was so high that he doubts if anyone can actually sit down and relate exactly what order what happened and who did what.

"But the one thing that is an absolute fact is you never want to mess with Blakey and his crew ... "

- Additional reporting by Juliana Xavier

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