Tragedy of death on the Amazon

EUGENE BINGHAM reports on the visionary last expedition of Sir Peter Blake and how it ended in disaster.

No one on the banks of the mighty Amazon heard the shots that killed Sir Peter Blake. As mayhem broke out aboard Seamaster, almost all of Brazil was glued to the television, transfixed by a crucial soccer match between two top club sides.

The streets of Macapa, about to become infamous across the globe, were empty.

In a tiny wooden shed at Fazendinha, a beachside village 15km west of Macapa, duty harbourmaster Claudio Roberto Pereira Lira was shouting at his TV screen as the quarter-final encounter between Fluminense and Ponte Preta unfolded. He was interrupted by two strangers who pulled up alongside in a boat, calling for help.

A man had been shot aboard Seamaster, the huge aluminium yacht Lira had guided to a safe anchorage on the river that day. He had no idea that the man was an international figure, a legend in his homeland and across the world.

By the time a doctor reached the yacht, Sir Peter was dead. The giant of a man had been felled by two bullets in his back, fired by fleeing bandits.

The 10 crewmen aboard Seamaster, a 36m modern-day exploration ship, had been in Macapa barely 12 hours. Customs agents had crawled over the boat all day, so it could be cleared to leave Brazilian waters early the next morning.

Sir Peter often groaned at the paperwork that went with his expeditions, but this day he had a glint in his eye at the thought of slipping out to sea and hoisting the sails again, after three months motoring along the 6400km river and venturing into the jungle.

The Amazon journey was a step in Sir Peter's new life. Having conquered all that he wanted to in round-the-world racing and twice having won yachting's Holy Grail, the America's Cup, Sir Peter confessed to friends that he had lost his fire when it came to racing.

Aged 53, he had embarked on another mission: saving the world's waterways through his new venture, blakexpeditions. Seamaster, the two-masted schooner he bought especially for his travels, was but a small part of his vision.

"'This is just the beginning', he would say, the light of mission in his eyes," said Auckland photojournalist Ivor Wilkins, who joined Sir Peter on the vessel for three weeks this year.

"He envisaged blakexpeditions growing to a veritable environmental navy of purpose-built, eco-friendly vessels spreading out across the world promoting his gospel of, 'Good water, good life. Poor water, poor life. No water, no life."'

Wilkins had boarded Seamaster during its plunge into the Antarctic. Sir Peter and his crew spent the first three months sailing where no one had gone before, gathering evidence about the melting ice cap.

He reported to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - which later appointed him as a special envoy - about the effect global warming was having on the continent: how algae was clogging up the water; how elephant seals had established colonies further south than they had ever been; and how Seamaster had been able to slip through passages usually frozen solid.

The Antarctic expedition yielded three one-hour documentaries, due to be screened to a worldwide audience of 300 million. He was also filming life in the Amazon.

Sir Peter arrived in South America in the middle of this year to adapt Seamaster to the sweltering heat - the vessel had been heavily insulated to ward off the cold. Eight new fans and a river water purification system were installed. Hammocks were slung on deck where the sailors would sleep when it was too hot in the cabins.

Seamaster had six permanent crew, including Sir Peter. Fellow New Zealander Ollie Olphert was first mate and dive master, another New Zealander, Don Robertson, was second mate and the communications expert, Frenchman Jean Prat was the engineer, young New Zealander Alistair Moore was the deckhand and diver, and American Marc Lonergan-Hertel was in charge of logistics.

When Seamaster arrived in the Amazon at the end of September, others had been invited aboard for their expertise.

Leon Sefton, a former Television New Zealand staffer and son of blakexpeditions executive Alan Sefton, was there to shoot film. In the tradition of fellow environmentalist Jacques Cousteau, Sir Peter was planning another documentary series.

Along with the daily logs he posted on the blakexpeditions website, making the documentaries was one of his main aims.

"I hope that the logs we send out daily and the documentaries we are making will have a real impact on the lives of many people, young and old alike, in all corners of the planet," Sir Peter wrote.

But Seamaster was more than just a floating production house. Sir Peter was working with UNEP, gathering information about the environment.

Each of the crew also had a research project for the voyage. Charlie Dymock, one of two teenagers from Sir Peter's English village invited along for the experience, was assigned to study the river systems, a precursor to the university geography studies he was about to undertake.

In mid-October, Sir Peter and two crew members left the Seamaster for several days to go to Rio de Janeiro, where he made a presentation to a Unep meeting of Latin American and Caribbean environment ministers.

"One of Sir Peter's special skills was to make the beauty of this planet and the environmental threats to it accessible to the scientist, the politician, business leaders and the man and woman on the street," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP.

To open up the Amazon to experts, Sir Peter asked scientists aboard. They were there to learn and observe. New Zealand tropical medicines specialist Mark Shaw - who became known by the crew as Dr Jab - spent time studying the poisonous nasties of the jungle and river. With the help of Seamaster, he was able to learn about snake venom at a hospital in Manaus.

Shaw was one of eight members of a jungle party to leave Seamaster in November and set off up river and across land through the rainforest. They were due to meet Seamaster again in Venezuela. They were gathering valuable information, including evidence of the blackmarket trade in precious jungle species.

But it was the water and what swam in it that captured Sir Peter's attention most. A Massey University whale and dolphin expert, Mark Orams, joined the crew for several weeks to observe the river dolphins and other life that frolicked in Seamaster's wake.

Orams noted the increasing scarcity of large fish, and wondered whether it was right to pass judgment on the destruction of the environment. "The peixe-boi [manatee] continues to be hunted for food, despite it being severely endangered and illegal to kill one. The local people, perhaps understandably, seem to kill anything that could be a threat to their safety. We found a coral snake macheteed and were told of a large anaconda that the locals had killed. It is sobering to experience this - what it shows me is that conservation is primarily the cause of the rich."

Sir Peter was moved by the conclusions of Orams, a friend who had sailed with him around the world and worked with him at Team New Zealand. Sir Peter wrote a touching reply that now stands as a poignant tribute from one friend to another.

"Mark," wrote Sir Peter. "I remember well those days and nights together on watch on Steinlager 2 as we forged our way to victory ... My racing days are now complete - I don't have that fire any more. But a new fire is even stronger, and I guess we have both closed in again to the point where you and I now want the same thing - to make a difference in how people perceive and understand the wonders and needs of the environment that surrounds us."

Sir Peter's log also recorded a forlorn reference to how much he missed his family. "I know that I spend too much time away from my family. But that is the life we have chosen and it's made up for in the holiday periods."

His wife, Lady Pippa Blake, was able to enjoy a precious last voyage with her husband. She flew to Brazil and stayed on Seamaster for most of November. An accomplished artist, she painted the Amazonian environment while treasuring Sir Peter's company - even if she did have to share him with so many others.

Three weeks before his death, the crew was joined by Prime Minister Helen Clark and a party of nine for two days in a remote part of the Negro River, a major tributary of the Amazon. Beneath a canopy of banana leaves, they ate on deck and took their VIP visitor out in kayaks to explore the lagoons and rainforest.

Though Helen Clark was protected by local security guards elsewhere in Brazil, officials assessed that it was safe enough where they were for her to be accompanied only by a New Zealand police diplomatic protection squad member.

If Sir Peter was not used to hosting dignitaries before, he was certainly well practised after three months in the Amazon.

During one shore visit to Novo Airao on the banks of the Negro, he was introduced to the local mayor, who proudly plonked his infant daughter on the New Zealand explorer's knee. Sir Peter invited the mayor and his family for breakfast the next day - a veritable feast whipped up by Paulo, the boat's Brazilian chef.

Sir Peter counted his shore visits as an important part of the expedition. The crew visited schools, spreading the conservation message, and met officials to glean more about the environment.

In the evenings, Sir Peter would work on the log book or read. He devoured modern scientific articles as well as classics such as the 1853 Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, by Alfred Russel Wallace.

At some points, it was safe to cool off at the end of the day in the river. At other points, it was too dangerous because of parasites such as the toothpick fish, a tiny organism that squirms into the human body through any entry it can find.

Then, the crew members would savour a shower on the back deck. Afterwards they drank beer at "Rodger's", a covered seating area on the deck named after crew member Rodger Moore, and played Scrabble.

By the time Seamaster reached Macapa on Wednesday, December 5, the Amazonian adventure was almost over. Since September, it had motored west up the Amazon and the Rio Negro before returning to the mouth of the river where it met the Atlantic at Macapa.

Seamaster was heading down a tributary leading towards the nearby town of Santana in the morning sun when harbourmaster Lira noticed it from his riverside booth.

"They were going to anchor the boat down there so I got hold of them and told them to anchor off Fazendinha because it was safer for them," he said.

Seamaster set down its anchor several hundred metres offshore and began preparing for the customs agents to come aboard.

As it did every day in this part of the world, straddling the equator, the sun set about 6 pm, stranding Seamaster in the pitch black. The crew decided to indulge in a meal on shore, celebrating the expedition and the fact that they were due to slip out of the Amazon the next day and cruise up the coast towards Venezuela for the rendezvous with the jungle team.

On their return to Seamaster, most of the crew were sitting on the deck enjoying a few cans of beer. Teenage student Dymock was below deck and didn't hear the approaching launch.

Rubens da Silva Souza, a 20-year-old local, eased the rickety launch towards Seamaster with his band of pirates, known locally as "ratos de agua". To their eyes, this boat was a prime target for robbery - they presumed it was a boatload of millionaires on holiday. Between them they had a formidable record of these crimes and never expected to encounter any resistance.

With military precision, they stormed the boat and almost immediately discovered these crew members had more fight in them than anyone they had ever come across. Up on deck, one bandit rushed towards Rodger Moore. Moore responded by squirting beer in his face. The robber lashed out with his firearm, whacking Moore across the face and leaving him with a black eye.

Sir Peter had already scurried downstairs to fetch his .308 rifle. His instinct was to protect his crew, some of whom were being forced to cower on the floor. Leon Sefton had a gun pointed at his head. The pirates shouted, "Money, money, money". Rifle in hand, Sir Peter shouted back, "Get off my f ... g boat."

In the stairwell as he charged back towards the deck, he met Izael Pontoja da Costa, a 27-year-old on home detention for an earlier robbery. Da Costa had a gun. Sir Peter fired at him, striking da Costa in the hand. The bullet shattered his weapon and passed through his forearm, exiting near his elbow.

As da Costa screamed in pain, one of his fingers lying on the deck, the leader of the pirate gang reacted. Ricardo Colares Tavares, a 23-year-old on bail for an earlier robbery, raised his 7.65mm pistol. From his position on the deck, he fired down towards Sir Peter in the stairwell.

Two bullets hit the skipper's back, one rupturing his aorta. Panic reigned.

The robbers clutched the cameras, lenses, watches and money they had stolen. One unstrapped the Omega watch from Sir Peter's wrist and grabbed his rifle.

The robbers fired indiscriminately, narrowly avoiding killing another crew member, Geoff Bullock, grazing the top of his back with a bullet.

The ratos de agua slithered into their own launch and one of Seamaster's rigid-hull inflatable boats and disappeared into the darkness.

Ashen-faced Dymock emerged from his hideout below deck and saw the chaos.

Paulo, the Brazilian cook, launched another one of Seamaster's inflatables with a fellow crewman. They sped ashore and distracted harbourmaster Lira from his soccer game.

Lira phoned for help, alerting two local launch owners, including Childerico Coelho. He took a doctor and local firefighters out to help.

"When we turned up, the crew were in shock, scurrying around, running upstairs and downstairs like they didn't know what to do," said Coelho.

Back on shore, Lira missed the rest of Fluminense's victory over Ponte Preta. He was too busy talking on the marine radio, seeing if anything could be done aboard Seamaster, and coming to terms with the fact that a man famous around the world had been killed in his town.

- Additional reporting by Luiz and Juliana Xavier

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