Journalist present at Blake shooting arrives home

By CATHERINE MASTERS

The first survivor of the shoot-out on board Sir Peter Blake's yacht the Seamaster arrived home from Brazil yesterday, emotional and weary.

Photo-journalist Mark Scott was on assignment for the New Zealand Geographic magazine when pirates attacked the boat on the Amazon River. One shot Sir Peter twice in the back, killing him.

Scott found a bullet hole through one of his notebooks after the murder.

Yesterday, he told of his fear and how he had thought he would never see his daughters again.

"There was a time there very plainly where I wasn't sure that I was going to get back alive and I'm extremely lucky.

"I just feel extremely fortunate, unbelievably overjoyed, that I am here alive.

"According to the police we were in very real danger. The criminal fraternity in Brazil have no compunction when it comes to killing people. I felt that I wasn't going to see my children again."

Scott was shaken to hear of the number of murders that have taken place in New Zealand in the past two weeks.

"That's a disturbing surprise, to come back to a country I thought was safe and green and seeing the same kind of news is here, only more so," he said.

Scott felt deeply for Sir Peter's family, who had suffered an "awful %and unnecessary, squalid sort of a loss" of someone wonderful.

Sir Peter, who will be buried at midnight tonight (New Zealand time) at Emsworth, in southern England, where he and his family lived, had been a man with a clear vision of communicating the beauty he saw in the world to as many people as possible, and a man who wanted to protect that beauty.

Scott said he and Sir Peter talked for hours on the Seamaster and the knight introduced him to the beauty of the Amazon.

"He asked me to stay on board and continue with the voyage and there were plans to work with him in the future." Although he had known Sir Peter for only a matter of weeks, he felt a great personal loss and could not imagine the loss and grief his family and friends were feeling.

Sir Peter was a man who "ran on loyalty" and stayed a Kiwi to the end, Scott said.

The crew of the Seamaster, all childhood friends, had struggled through shock, grief and a "snowstorm" of bureaucracy and he hoped they were back out on the ocean, cleaning away some of the bad feelings and restoring some of the spirit of Sir Peter.

Scott also praised Prime Minister Helen Clark and the New Zealand Ambassador to Brazil, Denise Almao, who had made the crew's time much easier in the small Amazon River town of Macapa, near the scene of the shooting.

Ms Almao had marched into town and taken control amid indifference from local authorities, he said.

A newspaper from the north of Brazil, Opovo [The People], yesterday reported that the six bandits arrested after the murder would be charged today with robbery causing death.

It said the police were convinced all six were involved in the assault that caused the death of Sir Peter. If convicted, they face jail terms of between 28 and 40 years.

Four Seamaster crew members will return to Brazil next month to give evidence, the paper said.

Sir Peter is being posthumously awarded one of the International Olympic Committee's highest orders, the Olympic Order.

He never took part in the Olympics, but the Olympic Charter says those eligible for the award include anyone who has illustrated the Olympic ideal through actions, has achieved remarkable merit in the sporting world, or has rendered outstanding services to the Olympic cause.

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Peter Blake, 1948-2001

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