Copernicus Trowbridge

1740-1814. He arrives by rowboat. He recieves an indentured servant and a ticket for two. He is a manta ray on a coffee table.

Ancestor of Cappy Trowbridge, Copernicus was a Seafarer, navigational enthusiast and sometime smuggler. Member of the Boston Astronomical Society and the Albert Kook Gang.

Verdigris

When he was but a little lad, Copernicus Trowbridge emigrated from London with his Father, Charles Major Trowbridge, after his mother succumbed to influenza. Copernicus' father was a lawyer and a somewhat maniacal collector of Seventeenth-Century oddities with a weak spot for scientific instruments. Trowbridge was an extremely curious child and was endlessley fascinated with his father's myriad collections. By the time the young child was seven, he knew that he wanted to be an explorer and inventor when he became a man. He was privileged to own newly-invented gadgets such as the sextant, the celsius thermometer and the Chambers' Cyclopedia.

Aquamarine

Copernicus saw no need for college and quickly found his way to Boston where he worked the docks until he found his first true calling and secured a postion with a Dutch merchant marine outfit returning to Europe because of the trade embargos caused by the Stamp Act. He was a good sailor and became friends with all the different navigators that frequented his ships. His accuracy with the sextant and his ability to predict fog made him somewhat of a novelty among his fellow shipmen. He was fascinated with temperature and kept meticulous meteorological notes in a leather-bound diary. Later in his life, he befriended Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of Photosynthesis. A notebook he accidentally left behind assisted Priestley in his discovery of Oxygen.

Exhale

Much of what we know about Copernicus' later life is culled from ship records and eyewitness accounts. It is true that he is mentioned in the third refrain of a popular drinking song in the environs of Boston. By now Copernicus had amassed a small fortune and had made conections far and wide. He was familiar with many a port and could always gaurantee a good time. He dabbled in contraband. The arrival of the Albert Kook gang would soon bring mighty winds of change to the once schoolish boy from London.

Full Fathom Five

Copernicus became a shadowy figure and was said to have been a comrade of A.W. Slippers before his elucidation of the Donut Shaped World Theory, and although he did not assist Slippers on his fateful voyage, he most assuredly supplied him the many instruments onboard. The pair were frequent guests of Guvernor Morris at Morrisania before the gang had a falling out with their host that led to bitter feelings on all sides. In 1789, during the height of the French Revolution, Copernicus was traveling to Paris in search of Guvernor Morris but upon his arrival was told by a loveley housekeeper that a crowd had just recently abducted the "Guv" and his current whereabouts were unkown. The Morris archives still have the tattered note Copernicus left behind on display in their main foyer.

Red Shift

Copernicus was also a friend of Crispus Attucks. Some suspect that Attucks may have been a part of the Kook gang but since Slippers was such a yes man for the slavetrade, this assumption now seems rather ridiculous. It is more probable that Trowbridge and Attucks shared many adventures together during their merchant marine years. Trowbridge took a keen interest in the man's death in Boston and was seen to be unusually melancholy after hearing news of it. Trowbridge returned to Europe where he became fascinated with chemistry and coffee.

Copernicus was killed at sea north of Tripoli in 1814.

Desiderata

An exuberant futurist, Trowbridge predicted water skiing and the popular rise of tomato catsup.

Since childhood Cappy expressed an unusual fondness for lead shot, eventually amassing the world's largest collection of small metal balls.

New England's countless jigs and shanties were among his favorite haunts.