Barlow - for adoption

[carabadgermum]

Your character's full name: Barlow
Age: 55
Species: searat
Gender: Male
Allegiance: Neutral
Appearance:

Unlike most searats, Barlow has both his eyes, both his ears, and all his paws this is because he spent his years aboard ships in the galley rather than top deck fighting. If he has any scars at all they are on his paws, the reminders of soups that boiled over or trying to pull a pastry out of the oven just as the boat hit a particularly large wave.
Also a testament to his years in the galley is his considerable girth. He seems to have taken the old addage "never trust a skinny cook" to heart.
His clothing is plain and not really worth mentioning, just a tunic and pants. He nearly always has an apron tied over them covered with a variety of stains.
His fur is still mostly brown but is peppered now with grey due to his age. He also has smile lines in the corners of his eyes and around his mouth.

Belongings:

a ladle carved from the horn of a narwhal and a wicked looking cleaver along with various other cooking utensils

Job or Position:

the best flippin' galley cook to ever set paw on a vermin sailing vessel. and guardian of Moll FitzRawnwave
and occasionally called upon to act as ship's surgeon.

Personality:

Barlow would love to be viewed as a rough and ready, evil as they come sea raiding pirate. But the smile that seldom leaves his face belies this act. Not to say that he can't be vicious when the situation calls for it. He can be a cantankerous, crotchety old beast if his gout is acting up.
He has come to love Moll as his own daughter having known her all her life and never having children of his own and he would do anything for her.

History and Background Information:

Barlow was born and raised in a ship's galley. Cooking and riding the waves are the only things he's ever known. He had a natural talent for cooking that expressed itself at a young age. When he was 25 he was paw picked by the great Captain Rawnwave to be the head cook aboard his very own vessel.
He and the weasel captain became great friends and it was Barlow the captain trusted with some of his most important treasures the first being a young slave maid who's tribe they had taken in a raid. She was a young weasel maid and the captain wouldn't have her down in the oar decks with the other prisoners. Instead she was assigned to the galley to assist Barlow in his work.
Barlow watched the growing romance between the two weasels knowing all the time that it had to end in heartbreak considering the fact that the captain already had a wife back at his home on Terramort. When the maid became pregnant, Barlow was the first beast she told fearing what the captain would say. The cook reassured her and went with her to tell the captain. Rawnwave was ecstatic at the news that she would be the mother of his child and heir, but he knew he would have to hide her away quietly somewhere until he could do away with his wife. They were quite near Sampetra at the time and the captain figured this was as good a port as any. When they stopped to take on supplies, the pregnant weaselmaid and the old searat cook were set up in the best house Rawnwave could afford, with the promise that he would return and marry the girl as soon as he had 'taken care of things'.
Barlow was not thrilled about staying on land for any period of time but he did so at his friend's instance. He was made to promise that he would watch over the weaselmaid and her child until the captain returned. However, the captain's ship and all the souls aboard were lost in a great storm before they ever reached Terramort. When Barlow got the news about the wreck he wept for his friend. His tears fell on the newborn weaselmaid he was holding at the time.
Moll's mother insisted that she could go it alone and resisted Barlow's attempts to help her. But after her death of a fever when Moll was 13, he took the young weaselmaid in on the pretense of giving her a job in his tavern. He didn't tell her much about her past but he knew that one day he would have to give her the full story.

Any other details:

Barlow has already been introduced as an NCP in these threads:
ottertales.proboards102.com/index.cgi?board=sampetra&action=display&thread=1194371729
ottertales.proboards102.com/index.cgi?board=sampetra&action=display&thread=1195098807
ottertales.proboards102.com/index.cgi?board=rivermoss&action=display&thread=1195256786
I'm putting him up for adoption so Moll has somebody else to converse with.