Commodore James Merchant

Written By Jackson Jewell Edited by Zach Batson

James Merchant was born on September 12th, 1828 in a small town outside Richmond, Virginia. His father cultivated tobacco on a mid-sized farmstead there. As a child James grew fascinated with the nearby ports and the ships that frequented them. In 1846, he received a warrant as a midshipman on the USS Plymouth, an airship that had recently visited Japan under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry. He later wrote that this was initially disappointing, as he had hoped to serve aboard a water vessel. The Plymouth grew on him however, and Merchant requested positions aboard airships for the rest of his career.

During the Anglo-American War of 1861, he served as the captain of the USS Monitor, an experimental heavily armed and armored vessel assigned in support of the Caribbean campaign. The moment that ended up making Merchant initially somewhat famous came during this time, at the siege of Kingston, Jamaica. During the opening stages of the battle American forces attempted an amphibious assault against the city. The Royal Navy dispatched three airborne frigates to scout out the invasion force, and to attempt to catch it before it made landfall. Upon reaching the American fleet, the British frigates engaged the Monitor in a battle in the skies that lasted almost four hours. While the battle technically ended in a draw, with the Monitor itself being heavily damaged and needing an extensive refit afterwards, the entire affair was witnessed by thousands of soldiers in their transport vessels. The images of the Monitor dipping in and out of the clouds, dueling with the other vessels were published in every major newspaper in the United States. Captain Merchant became a celebrity overnight.

So it was that in January of 1875 he was approached by representatives of the National Extraplanetary Administration for an extremely ambitious mission. They were in the process of constructing the first Jump Gate, and needed a commander for the mission to the other side of it. Merchant accepted, and began preparations for the expedition. On July 6th, 1876 the Merchant Expedition left the Solar System for Worlds Unknown. Due to an error of theory, they became trapped on the other side of the gate for three years longer than intended. Commodore Merchant kept this information from his comrades, valuing the success of the expedition over all other factors. Like many others that went through the gate that day, James Merchant would never again see Earth. He died on the 12th of March 1880, due to a sickness contracted on the continent of Ogygia. During his time in the Concord system he kept a detailed diary, which is currently housed at the Library of Congress as a “Document of National Importance.” Today his name lives on as the capital of the state of Odyssia, a city built on the site of his first landing on the planet.

Aligned Organization

The United States of America