– Player Info –
Name/nickname: CP
AIM/e-mail/whatnot: CrabbyPatty@gmail.com
Substitute players: Made NPC
- Character info -
Name: Davie Roberts
Nickname/Alias: N/A
Age: 20
Gender: male
Rank/Occupation: ordinary seaman
Appearance: Davie is medium height, about 5’8”, and average build, muscular from the hard labor he has been at most of his life, especially these past four years. He has medium length brown hair pulled back in a tail, brown eyes, and is never without a smile on his face. He prefers to be clean shaven and somehow manages to stay so even underway. (It’s anyone’s guess where or how he procured the razors he uses). He wears the typical seaman’s attire – cloth trousers, blouse, and usually no shoes while underway. He has been issued a standard seaman’s jacket and hat for dress occasions.
Personality: If there is one word to describe Davie, it would be “quick”: quick witted, quick to anger, quick to laugh and offer his hand in friendship, quick to “love” a girl and even quicker to leave her broken hearted. His rash personality lands him in hot water time and again, which his friend James is always called upon to fetch him out of. But his boldness has also been for their benefit from time to time. It is Davie’s impetuosity that inspired James to dub him “shit-for-brains”, although this epithet usually only appears in times of great stress (undoubtedly of Davie’s making, of course). Naturally good natured, Davie is, or tries to be, a friend to all. He has a sunny disposition, although he does tend to be a bit shallow as he avoids facing unpleasant realities.
Bio: Davie was born in a small fishing village right outside of Cardiff, Wales. His father, brothers, uncles and cousins were all fishermen and he grew up around and in small fishing craft. Davie frequently visited Cardiff with his family to sell their catch in the market place. Out of boredom, mischief and a natural inclination to show off, he became quite adept at stealing. Starting with food items brought in by the local farmers and fishermen, he gradually progressed to the handmade cottage industry items of the time. Irony would have it that the one relatively valuable item he had managed to lift, a silver chain, was almost immediately stolen from him by another thief. Ultimately, at the age of 15, he was caught red handed lifting, of all things, a potato, which he intended merely to lob at one of his mates. Despite the impassioned pleading of his family, he received transportation for 10 years, due in large part to the presiding magistrate’s gastrointestinal upset and concomitant grouchiness on the day of Davie’s trial (and the fact that said magistrate was fairly certain that he observed this young man’s having winked in a rather suggestive manner to the magistrate’s daughter, who was seated in the spectator’s gallery that morning).
Davie was shipped up the coast to Liverpool for the horrible voyage to the colonies. There he met up with James Macnair, a hapless Scotsman sentenced to transportation for life. Davie’s mischievous side at once was drawn to baiting the silent, grief stricken Scot whose rare attempts at speaking the King’s English were highly entertaining. Davie’s natural good nature, however, quickly moved to the fore, and he made an effort to draw James out of his shell and encouraged James to learn to speak this language he would now hear from every mouth for the rest of his days. Davie himself had grown up hearing and speaking his native Welsh. But Cardiff had been a big enough town, and port, to have already become a bi-lingual community. If one wanted to do business there, one had better be able to speak English as well as Welsh. For his own amusement during the long, harsh voyage to New York, as much as for any other reason, Davie befriended James.
That friendship continued as the two were sent, along with the other men from their ship, to the frontiers of New York, to clear timber for a new army post and settlement. For two long years, Davie labored beside his friend all day, and plotted with him at night as to how they could secure their freedom. James’ resigned acceptance of his life sentence would have kept him captive till he drew his last breath had it not been for Davie’s insistence that escape was - had to be – possible. It was Davie that convinced James to risk the daring of their escape, although it was James’ level headed planning that saved them from certain capture and execution. It was Davie who also convinced James to try for the coast and secured them a place on a merchantman, arguing that a few years at sea would lay to rest any chance that their escape would still be a sore point with the authorities in New York. Davie, of course, took to the sea like a duck to water, and quickly became a skilled seaman, often covering for his mate’s shortcomings as James struggled to learn this foreign trade. They were aboard less than six months, however, when, approaching Bridgeport, their vessel was intercepted by a Royal Navy frigate and they, along with half the crew, were impressed into the British Royal Navy. The frigate carried them to Barbados, where the pressed men were then parceled out to various naval vessels. It was Davie’s scheming that secured them berths together on the Steadfast. He has been an ordinary seaman for a little under a year and a half.
Birthplace: a small fishing village outside Cardiff, Wales
Family: None in the western hemisphere. Davie was separated from his parents, brothers, and other family in Wales when he was transported 4 years ago.
Skills: Davie is very good with his hands and his brain. Those, along with a childhood spent around small craft, have helped him easily master the mystery of knots, rigging and sail craft. He is very bright and a quick study, but far too congenial to make a decent mate, even if he decides not to jump ship. Davie could realistically do just about anything he set his mind too, if only he could set himself to anything for more than the few moments his short attention span allows. He appears to be skilled at “acquiring” items on an “as needed” basis, and equally as skilled at “unacquiring” them when circumstances demand.
Weaknesses: Davie is the schemer of all schemers, and can’t seem to see any flaws in the half baked ideas he usually concocts. His own undying optimism often makes him blind to the serious risks he sometimes exposes himself and others to. His personal philosophy might be summed up as “the end justifies the means” when it comes to “borrowing” anything he might need, although his natural good nature would prevent him from any outright, maliciously harmful deeds. His easy going nature sometimes leads to not-so-healthy friendships with persons of dubious backgrounds. He refuses to take life seriously and prefers to drift with the currents of fortune and dream of outrageously improbable outcomes, rather than plan seriously for the future.
Anything Else: He has nice dimples.
