Hero's last landfall

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Brave to the end, Sir Peter Blake rushed on deck with a rifle to confront the armed invaders on his boat, Seamaster.

In the next few calamitous moments he fired a shot, wounding one of the "ratos de agua" (water rats) in the hand and shattering one of their weapons.

Rather than disarm the pirates, it angered them. They returned fire, striking Sir Peter twice in the back with a .765 rifle.

A life of adventure, conquering oceans and yachting's greatest competition, the America's Cup, ended on the deck of a boat in Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon River, the scene of his latest environmental odyssey.

At age 53, he was dead, drawing tears from Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had visited him three weeks ago.

It was an end Sir Peter had dreaded: he had been so anxious about pirates that he spent part of his honeymoon on the firing range, readying himself.

Late last night, police in the river port town of Macapa arrested seven suspects and said they were looking for an eighth reported to have piloted the bandits to the Blake vessel.

After the raid, the gunmen sped up the river in their own craft and an inflatable stolen from Seamaster.

They stole watches and cameras from the crew, but suggestions seeped out yesterday that the motive for the attack may have been more sinister than robbery.

Local reports said the gang were professional, and hinted that they may have been anti-environmentalists.

Brazil has a history of environmentalists being assassinated.

"These robbers looked like they had military training," a reporter from TV Amapa said yesterday.

In 1988, world-renowned campaigner Chico Mendes was shot by forces who opposed his efforts to protect the Amazon.

Family members of the crew also questioned the motive. "Is it an assassination because he was promoting something that was contrary to the people?" said Lynne Walker, whose partner, Marc Shaw, was away from the boat at the time.

Before the question "why" could be answered, the sense of shock and loss had to be overcome.

No more was the feeling of loss felt than by Sir Peter's family and the crew members who witnessed the shooting.

Rodger Moore, an Aucklander who was pistol-whipped, was still stunned when he spoke to the Herald from hospital 24 hours after the attack. "We're all in a state of shock."

Mr Moore was treated and discharged along with Geoff Bullock, a former commodore of the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, Auckland, who was grazed by a bullet.

Ten people were aboard Seamaster, anchored about 25km south of Macapa, in the Brazilian jungle state of Amapa, more than 2500km north of Sao Paulo.

Another nine crew members had left the boat to travel through the jungle along the Orinoco River and reunite with Sir Peter in Venezuela.

The Seamaster was to cruise up the Venezuelan coast.

For Sir Peter, Wednesday was spent dealing with Brazilian customs formalities. Come evening, the 10 ate at a local cafe before sipping beer and chatting on the Seamaster deck.

Most of them were New Zealanders: Sir Peter, Mr Moore, Mr Bullock, Don Robertson (a crewman from Auckland), Leon Sefton (son of blakexpeditions chief executive Alan Sefton) and freelance journalist Mark Scott. Also there were two teenage sailors from Sir Peter's English village, Charlie Dymock and Robin Allen, delivery skipper Rob Warring and a local man hired as a cook.

Their conversation hushed about 10 pm (1 pm Thursday NZT) when rustling alerted them to the looming ambush.

Sir Peter rushed below to the armoury. By the time he was back on deck, there were at least four, and perhaps as many as seven, bandits aboard. They had ordered the crew to lie on the deck.

Federal police in Amapa said Sir Peter fired his .308 rifle before he was shot. One of the two bullets to hit Sir Peter's back pierced his heart. Another bullet brushed Mr Bullock's back. A bandit hit Mr Moore across the face with his gun. The raiders took four watches, a camera and two lenses.

As the gang motored off, the crew tried frantically to revive Sir Peter, whose body lay in the Macapa morgue last night after an autopsy.

Helen Clark was told within hours, but the news was kept quiet until early yesterday to allow time for Sir Peter's children to be told.

"He is, to New Zealanders, to the water what Ed Hillary is to the mountains," said Helen Clark.

From her home in England, Lady Pippa Blake drove to Bristol to pick up daughter Sarah-Jane, 18, from university, then carried on to Dorset to break the news to James, 14.

"This is completely devastating and unbelievable," Lady Blake told England's Daily Telegraph.

"My one comfort is that he died doing something he loved and he died protecting other people."

Denise Almao, the NZ Ambassador in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, arranged state security for the crew, who slept on Seamaster last night with nine armed guards.

Dr Mark Orams, an Auckland weather forecaster who was aboard Seamaster two weeks ago, said the crew were aware of the risks of pirates. "We ran a 24-hour watch system with at least two people on deck at all times."

Sir Peter himself sounded a warning about pirates to a friend in Rio in September. Patrick Buteaux, an events manager for sponsor Omega, said yesterday that Sir Peter told him he carried guns aboard.

"He said, 'No one will get this boat off me'."

* Additional reporting by Gustavo Xavier and Suzanne McFadden.

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