THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF SIR PETER BLAKE
Edited by Alan Sefton
Penguin, pbk, $30
Review by Ian Williams
The first question readers might ask about this publication is why has it taken so long to be put together? Sir Peter who? some readers may ask.
His tragic and somehow tawdry death seemed to have happened so long ago.
Having said that, it will remind readers where Blake belongs in the category of "great New Zealand heroes".
Aimed at a wide readership, with appeal to both adults and younger readers, The Last Great Adventure is a straightforward record, made up of mostly logbook entries, of a voyage by a larger-than-life (he was 193cm tall) figure, who had already carved his name into New Zealand yachting history by winning round-the-world yacht races and bringing home the America's Cup.
But the 2001 voyage was not about winning anything.
Undertaken by blakexpeditions, and with United Nations backing, it appears to have been a serious attempt to draw the world's attention to humankind's ongoing decimation of sea birds and marine life, and how climate change threatens our very existence.
Will the logbook entries hold readers spellbound as the French-built aluminium-hulled Seamaster battles gales and giant seas in the Southern Ocean to reach Cape Horn, and then the Antarctic? Absolutely.
For it underlines the crew's courage, and how ocean-oriented New Zealanders are; and for mere mortals such as this writer, the place Blake, and all sailor-explorers who went before him, occupy in history, can be seen in perspective.
Were they crazy or akin to gods? Despite what we know lies at the end, the Amazon section of The Last Great Adventure doesn't quite match the drama of the Antarctic and Cape Horn sections.
Nevertheless, it is crammed with interesting facts about the river and the state of the Amazon rainforests, the health of which, he writes, are vital to the planet's survival.
Indeed, Sir Peter's murder by river pirates, not covered in any great detail, is peripheral to the book's intent - something, I'm sure, he would have approved of.
- Ian Williams is a Dunedin writer.
