Sam Oxley

OOC Info
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Username/Nickname: Sharpie
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Character Info
Canon/Original: Original
First Name(s): Samuel
Surname: Oxley
Nicknames: Sam
Age: 20 (born 26th April 1789)
Sex: Male
Place of Birth: Woolwich, Kent
Occupation: Able Seaman
Family:

• Father: Daniel Oxley (Carpenter in Woolwich Dockyard)
  
• Mother: Becky Oxley (Laundress)
  
• Younger Brother: Tom Oxley (Royal Marine drummer)
  

Description: He is about 5'5” tall with dark/ash blond hair, worn tied back in a sailor's queue, and blue eyes with a direct, open expression. He has fair skin with a tendency to burn before tanning. He has a back scarred from flogging, having been flogged twice for minor offences while serving in Confidence.

He generally wears a checked shirt and white trousers, with a neckerchief knotted casually around his neck. Occasionally he wears a blue jacket with brass buttons (if the weather is colder, for instance, or when required to be smart). He is usually bare-headed, although he has an old-fashioned stocking cap for colder weather, and a smart tarred straw hat for Divisions and other special occasions. He prefers to go barefoot aboard ship.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
~ He is independently-minded and sometimes speaks without thinking. He can be very blunt in what he says, which has led to getting into fights before now. He is prone to be scornful of people and things that he doesn't like.
~ He is friendly and honest, despite his habit of speaking his mind. He is loyal to his friends and will do his best to help them out when they need him, and he expects the same loyalty in turn.
~ He is cheerful and enjoys a joke, although he can take a joke a little too far if not reined in.
~ He doesn't always realise when he has taken something too far until it is too late
~ He has been in the Navy for four years and is rated Able, knowing his ropes
~ He is illiterate
~ He is quick with his fists when angry, upset or if he or his friends are threatened

Background:
It wasn't easy, growing up in the Oxley household, with a drunken, bad-tempered father who preferred to spend his evenings in the local tavern, the Two Caulkers, drinking his meagre pay away rather than giving it to his wife to help with the household expenses, and spending time with his two sons. The only money coming in on a regular basis was from the washing that Mrs Oxley took in to be able to afford food and clothes for her family. She used to rope Sam Oxley or his younger brother Tom into helping her, though as they grew older it was understood that they would go down to the dockyard to become apprentices in their father's trade of carpentry. Sam scorned the work as 'woman's work' and sloped off as much as he could without risking a belting from his father, which led to some slight resentment between the brothers.

Living near Woolwich as they did, the boys used to see the local detachment of Marines drilling, or marching through the streets of the town between the dockyard and the Marine barracks, and often talked of enlisting. Tom Oxley in particular was fascinated by them, with their smart red uniforms and the fact that often they would have a young boy drummer with them, keeping the step. It was in 1804, when Tom was twelve, that a division of Marines was raised to be based permanently in Woolwich, along the same lines of the divisions in Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

Due to their father's drunken habits, Sam Oxley wasn't apprenticed at the usual age of twelve. It wasn't until he was sixteen that his apprenticeship was finally arranged, but as he went down to the dockyard to sign his indentures and begin to learn his trade, he was snatched by a press-gang.

His first few days at sea, aboard HMS Achille, were miserable – he had no way to contact his brother to let him know what had happened. However, the realisation that he was serving in Admiral Nelson's Mediterranean Squadron soon helped him overcome his initial misgivings. He threw himself into learning his new trade over the next few months – and the fruitless chases after Admiral Villeneuve across the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic – provided many opportunities to learn and develop his seamanship.

Only a few short months after first being pressed, Sam Oxley (still rated Landman) was involved in the Battle of Trafalgar, although he saw very little of the actual battle from his station on the lower gundeck, as part of the guncrew of 'Jumping Billy' – Number Eight gun, on the starboard side.

From Achille, he was transferred to HMS Euryalus, 32, where served for the next three years, first being rated 'Ordinary' and then 'Able'. He rather liked life in the fast, free-ranging frigate, and took to the life, developing pride in his abilities and seamanship. In late 1808, however, Euryalus had the misfortune to fall in with Confidence, and Sam Oxley and some other men were taken out of the frigate to make up numbers in the bigger ship.

Confidence was not a happy ship, and Sam grew to resent the life of a Navy sailor, eventually making up his mind to run at the first opportunity. However, before he could, Confidence, along with a frigate and a couple of brigs, was involved in providing a distraction for the Army's assault on Oporto, in Portugal. It was during this action that Sam was reunited with his younger brother Tom, now a drummer in the Royal Marines and serving aboard HMS Terpsichore, 32. He learned that soon after he was pressed, Tom had resolved to try to find him, running away from home to enlist at Woolwich Barracks.

When orders came for some of Confidence's men to be drafted to Terpsichore, Sam found that his name was among them.

He has found Terpsichore to be a happy ship, and that, coupled with serving alongside his brother, has meant that he is growing to once again enjoy the life of a sailor and to take pride in his skills and knowledge.
Anything Else: Playby: Abe Forsyth
Writing Sample/Past Roleplay: “Chase! You dunnock – you ain't supposed to let 'em hear you callin' 'em names!” Sam's position on the topgallant yard had let him hear both Chase's friendly abuse of the Marines below them both, and the Marine Corporal's reply. “You's gonna get yourself on a lee shore, you keep that up,” he added, finishing up with his whipping the tail-end of the particular piece of cordage the bosun had sent him to tidy up. He grinned, standing up to scan the horizon, the wind teasing his hair.

Accepted.