Shipwreck

She used to be a blue and white sailboat. You'll find her skeleton on a forgotten island in the Pacific one days sail northwest of New Zealand. No one is old enough to know why she's there now. The boards of her hull were torn off but a raft was built of her and carried a survivor back home. Her mast and tattered sail lay proudly on the beach after weathering tropical storms and hurricanes as a makeshift tent. Her frame would've been firewood but her sailor wouldn't betray her. Her broken boom is fashioned into a memorial for those who were gone before she found this place. It's half buried in the sand now. She's lost but is mounted proudly in the sand where she made landfall. Her rudder is still attached to her skeleton and its handle is worn from obediently steering the way for those who could sail her. There has been many on her deck but few who could be called "Captain". Much of her was broken over the hard storms and windless weeks on the merciless ocean. She was always sea worthy. She never carried treasure, though she could've. She did always have something important on board. Too important for larger vessels and only a few men would get to lay hands on it. The story of this ship is told in port towns and pubs. A fine vessel. A memorial to both good and bad times. A strong hull. A reliable sail. A missing captain. A raft that found its way home after being lost for years.

Historically, Shipwreck was by far the horniest member of the elite G.I. Joe fighting force. He was known to flirt with Lady Jaye, Scarlett, Cover Girl, and myriad other women ranging from civilians met on missions to Cobra experimental fish-girl hybrids. Though he is usually shown to be rebuffed in his lustful aspirations towards his female team members, he clearly occasionally hits the home run with other women. Shipwreck is, as well, easily the most disheveled fighter on the force, with unkempt shaggy hair unfit for a Navy man, a beard any pirate would be proud to wear, and his unbuttoned shirt revealing a brawny wall of chest hair. Following on the pirate theme, he is one of the handful of Joes with an animal companion. Not a dog like Mutt (that's the character, not his dog; the dog is Junkyard); nor a wolf like Snake Eyes or a hawk like Spirit. No, Shipwreck has a parrot. Named Polly. And not particularly a fierce fighting parrot, more like an occasional humorous quipping parrot. On the other hand, Shipwreck was without doubt the team member most likely to get into a bar fight. And win it by beating up the entire bar. He was, naetheless, always a sort of second-tier team member, almost always in the secondary storyline and often as not trotted out for humor at the expense of his somewhat inflated ego.

If you vaguely remember Shipwreck from the 80's Saturday morning cartoon version of the show, then you probably have no idea that he was Latino, his real name in-Universe (according to the 'secret file' on the back of his action figure packaging) being Hector Xavier Delgado, from Chula Vista, California. The 'secret file' doesn't indicate which street gang he was affiliated with as a kid; perhaps none, since he ran away to join the Navy at sixteen, apparently in a day and age when one could still get away with misrepresenting one's identity while signing up for the armed forces. The reason that his Hispanicity never even occurred to you was that his voice acting is done with an eye towards making the character sound a bit like Jack Nicholson, the idea being that nothing portrays 'an intense guy who just might be a bit crazy' like that particular voice profile. Just ask Christian Slater. In the Fenslerfilm parody of Shipwreck's PSA (the original has the sailor man counseling kids not to steal bikes), Shipwreck confronts the kid and strongly implies that he is his father, musing that "it's like looking in a mirror" and asking "does your mother still hang out at dockside bars?"

Ship"wreck` (?), n.

1.

The breaking in pieces, or shattering, of a ship or other vessel by being cast ashore or driven against rocks, shoals, etc., by the violence of the winds and waves.

2.

A ship wrecked or destroyed upon the water, or the parts of such a ship; wreckage.

Dryden.

3.

Fig.: Destruction; ruin; irretrievable loss.

Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. 1 Tim. 1. 19.

It was upon an Indian bill that the late ministry had made shipwreck. J. Morley.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Ship"wreck`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shipwrecked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Shipwrecking.]

1.

To destroy, as a ship at sea, by running ashore or on rocks or sandbanks, or by the force of wind and waves in a tempest.

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break. Shak.

2.

To cause to experience shipwreck, as sailors or passengers. Hence, to cause to suffer some disaster or loss; to destroy or ruin, as if by shipwreck; to wreck; as, to shipwreck a business.

Addison.

 

© Webster 1913.