>You don't need the partition for bsd.  It's just that mkfs1.4 doesn't
>see the last partition, so simply removing the last partion & replacing
>it . . .

This statment sounds like Mkfs 1.4 *never* sees the last partition on the 
disk, and that's not true.  Some disk formatters create the disk 
Partition Map such that the last partition isn't seen by Mkfs 1.4 (and 
even some versions of MacOS).  Not all disk formatters do this, and if 
you're using one that does a proper job of creating the Partition Map, 
Mkfs 1.4 will see all the partitions - including the last one.

-bob