John "Silver" Wilson

It was inevitable that any pirate leader named John would inherit this salty name of the seas. Were it not for his diminutive stature, he would doubtless also be called "Long John". Those in the Thelas Nation are almost as independent as the Snake Nation's members, so Silver really only controls his own clan, which is admittedly the largest of the waterborne pirates. Silver's clan, the SeaSnakes, numbers almost ten thousand, and he rules it like a patient father.
Silver was a nautical man before the Collapse came, He worked as a rigger on the oil platforms in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico for five or six years before being injured in a fall. Unable to continue as a rigger but wanting to stay on the water, he took a job as a crewman on a pleasure boat out of Galveston. When things got bad, he and his skipper took to fishing and running the occasional contraband to help make ends meet They ran the coastline all across the Gulf. When the skipper died, John was left with the boat and not much else.
Things started to get really bad when Silver hooked up with several other families on a run near New Orleans. The families were mostly kids and young adults who had boats and wanted out of the hole that New Orleans had become. He taught them the ways of the sea, and they made a meager living. As more and more people took to the water and fished the Gulf, -Silver and company moved into the Caribbean. yet even there, especially near the American Islands, thousands had taken to the sea. Only on the open sea was it easy to find food, and only on the open sea was it hard for the gangs to steal it from you. But to survive on the open sea required a tightly organized group.
Silver and his new family worked the angles and got themselves and a few new allies organized. Soon other captains were asking his opinion and offering their services. The family got larger and larger, and as it grew it became harder to keep everyone above the waterline (so to speak). The construction work at New Galveston provided an opportunity for the pirates to make a better living, at least for a while, and Silver used the proceeds to reinvest in the fleet. He tried to distribute things equally, and for the most part, he succeeded.
Now the Thelas work all across the coastlines of America; John Silver' clan in the Gulf, an allied group on the California coast, and another on the eastern seaboard. These pirate packs do not form a sturdy nation as do their land-lubber counterparts; these alliances are strictly hand-shake agreements. The great majority of the Thelas families are still independent. They work with the larger packs when it serves their ends, but they certainly will not risk their lives for a relationship of convenience.
John Silver usually wears a wide-brimmed hat, but any hat will do in pinch. He also wears a jumpsuit and non-slip sandals when on, board a ship, and always wears sun-glasses. His face shows the scars of the skin grafts and operations he has used to fight the skin cancer that is slowly spreading across his body. He could, with new drugs or a more radical skin replacement, live another decade, but that kind of cash money is not readily available. Instead, he lets the enhanced antibodies and the nanosurgeons scour what cancers they can from his system, and fights on. (pp.32-33)
== Stats ==
INT: 9, LUCK: 8, EMP: 10, REF: 7, SA:FAMILY +9, MA: 7, TECH: 10, ATTR: 4, COOL: 10, BODY: 6, REP: 9.
== References ==
Category:Cyberpunk 2020 Characters
es:John Wilson