A Catalogue of Adventure and Tragedy

A Return of the Obra Dinn Shrine

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The Midshipmen

Midshipman (n.) - Officer-in-training. Assists various officers and tradesmen in order to learn ship operations. Usually of privileged status.

For the best experience, I recommend reading these from left to right, ie start by reading Pete's page, then Tom's then Charlie's.

Sketch of Peter Milroy

33 - Peter Milroy

Origin: England

Appears in: 10 memories

Accepted fates: Blasted by an explosion

Story Summary

Peter (Pete) Milroy is first seen with the other midshipmen in A Bitter Cold Part 3, assisting Emil O'Farrell in slaughtering a cow. He and presumably Charles (Charlie) Hershtik help keep it pinned down while Thomas (Tom) Lanke stuns it with an axe and O'Farrell cuts its throat. When Charlie has trouble with the situation and starts throwing up, Pete teases him about not having experience with farm animals.

Peter Milroy in Murder Part 3

Next, it seems the midshipmen attend the execution in Murder Part 2 as shown in the Justice at Sea sketch, but are too close to the stern to be captured in the memory. Pete makes a rare solo appearance for a midshipman in Part 3. In it, he's sprawled across the main deck with a lantern by his side, attempting to pick himself up. Context clues tell us that he was likely knocked down in an altercation against the mutineers who are making away with the Formosan “royalty" and their treasure; a similar fate has befallen Lars Linde, Finley Dalton, and, fatally, Timothy Butement. This is the first hint at the valiance of the midshipmen.

Next, he and the other midshipmen are among the crew that are watching the mermaids being taken down through the gun deck in Unholy Captives Part 2. He seems to have reached the scene first, casually leaning over the orlop hatch's railing while Tom and Charlie approach from the stern of the ship. When a mermaid strikes Thomas Sefton and causes William Wasim's neck to get crushed in Part 3, he leans over the railing even further to watch the chaos unfold.

Pete once again shows off his bravery in the latter half of Soldiers of the Sea. He, Tom, and Charlie are all armed with swords and attempting to fight off the first crab rider to enter the orlop deck in Part 4. Pete is the only midshipman that is still on his feet in this moment, as Charlie has somehow already fallen onto the deck and Tom is in the process of being launched through an animal pen. Next, he attempts to get a good stab in on the rider as Charlie pins it down after setting it ablaze with a lantern. Although, judging by the possible accepted fates for Charlie, it seems he might have only stabbed his friend a few times in the process instead. After the rider and Charlie both succumb to their wounds, Pete rushes to get a bucket of water to get the huge blazing fire under control. Then, he can be seen through one of the tiny peepholes in the port walk, kneeling on the deck alongside Tom, reaching his hand towards Charlie's corpse. However, their attention has been caught by the second crab rider making its dramatic entrance into the orlop deck.

Peter Milroy and Thomas Lanke in The Doom Part 6

Pete's final acts are seen in The Doom. In Part 5, he and Tom struggle to make their way topside as the kraken rocks the ship from side to side. In his hands, he holds several bags of gunpowder, an indication of their coming plans. Once they get to the main deck, they tie themselves together with a piece of rope and seemingly attempt to use the powder bags to fend off the kraken in some way. This plan goes terribly awry when one of the kraken's tentacles grabs Pete and waves him around in the air. The following events are ambiguous (I'll get into it later in the headcanon section), but something happens that causes Pete's powder bags to go off, causing both him and the tentacle that has him to be enveloped in a large explosion. His body (and the tentacle) then fall limply to the deck, his face charred and indistinguishable from the blast. This terrible accident ends up being the most damage that the crew manages to deal to the kraken before Witterel forces it to flee.

Pete continues to play a role in the story even after his death, even if only in a small way. During Escape, Tom gets stabbed in the back by would-be-mutineer Olus Wiater. William Hoscut comes to comfort him as he bleeds out, and Tom begs him to tell Pete's mother that he tried his best to save him in the earlier incident. He then succumbs to his wounds before he can say anything else.

Interpretation

Despite Pete only having one line, I feel like there is a decent amount of characterization to be found in his story. At least, I think it's a lot more than what a lot of other characters get. His one line, “Never been on a farm, Charlie?" tells us that he's probably a bit of a cheeky guy, doesn't take things too seriously. It can be up to interpretation whether this comment was just some silly banter between friends, or something a bit more mean-spirited (again, I'll get into what I think in the headcanon setion). His laidback attitude is further implied in his posing during Unholy Captives, I feel. In contrast, he also showcases his bravery and quick thinking numerous times, trying to stop the mutiny, fighting the crab riders, and fighting the kraken. As I mentioned earlier, he is the only midshipman who comes out of Soldiers of the Sea unscathed, so I imagine he's the most competent out of the three of them when it comes to swordfighting. He's also the first midshipman on the manifest, so perhaps these things mean he's the most experienced in general? Hard to say.

I also take a lot of interest in Tom's dying words to Hoscut. Clearly, Pete's death must have weighed on his mind heavily if that's what he's thinking about just after stopping a mutiny and getting stabbed for the trouble. He also makes the peculiar request for Hoscut to talk to Pete's mother on his behalf, which I feel can imply so many things depending on how deeply you want to look into it. The main thing I will point out for Pete's section is that he says well, “Pete" specifically. It implies a certain level of familiarity, as does his request regarding his mother. Does this mean that Tom is a very good friend of Pete's? Does this mean he has met Pete's mother? Does it mean Pete is known to be very close with his mother? I'll get more into it in the next section, but I like to think the answer to all of these questions is “yes".

Headcanons

Alright, bear with me here. The headcanons that I have for the midshipmen get a little crazy because 1: they're my favorite characters, and 2: a lot of it is stuff I've developed in preparation for a big fanfic I want to do that really digs into their relationships and backstories. I guess I'll start off by saying I think Pete is around eighteen years old, and the oldest of the three midshipmen. This is around the age that midshipmen are usually done with their training and have to do an examination to see if they can become officers. He's good at what he does, and he knows it, and maybe this knowledge is making him get lazy/complacent in a way (my citation being his laidback attitude in A Bitter Cold and Unholy Captives). I guess a nautical version of senioritis. But clearly, his head is still in the game enough to step up when it really matters. He is a good sailor and a good fighter, and he won't let his skills go to waste when the ship is under threat. Despite his outward appearances I still think he has a lot of respect for his captain and the other officers, he's just eager (impatient?) to move onto the next stage of his life, and maybe even a little bit angsty about no longer being a kid. Not sure where else to put this so I'll just say it here, I think a big part of why he wants to sail so much is that he has an earnest desire to explore the world and see all of the incredible places and people that is has to offer. It's perhaps one of the very few things that he doesn't approach with a layer of irony draped over top.

I am also strongly of the mind that he and Tom are very good, long-term friends, and a lot of that is thanks to an alpha build of the game (plus Tom's dying words, of course). The quick history lesson is that one of the very first public builds for Return of the Obra Dinn had characters' hometowns listed in the manifest, not just their home countries. Pete was listed as being from Torquay, and Tom (technically Thomas Kanke at the time) was from Topsham. Both of these are coastal towns in southern Devon, only 24 miles apart. I might change the backstory of how they met, but my current version is that they met at a boarding school located somewhere in Devon when they were eleven or twelve, and they got along very well. Then they both ended up gaining an interest in sailing, and after that they both tried to be on the same voyages together whenever possible. I imagine Tom really admires Pete's confidence and carefree attitude, a great contrast to his own personality.

In contrast, I'm of the opinion that Pete has not met Charlie before the game's events and he is also not very friendly with him. Pete strikes me as someone who can hold onto a grudge for a long time, and can also get offended by very particular things. Like, he's mostly blaise but if you say just the wrong thing to him at just the wrong moment, the facade falls and he'll hate you forever. And Charlie is just socially unaware and blunt enough to accidentally do that to him. So, yeah, I think Pete's comment to him in A Bitter Cold was meant to be an insult. I don't have any evidence for this and I know a lot of people probably only think of it as banter, but I just think it fits my existing ideas about the characters and I think the interpersonal drama leading up to Charlie's death would be interesting. Because in my fic I want to do, I'd love there to be tension between them that is slowly worked through and their trust is very slowly repaired. But before they can really get to the state that they can confidently say that they're friends, Charlie makes a great sacrifice and dies. And I think that can be a really compelling source of conflict, regret, and confusing feelings for Pete.

Now, let's talk more about The Doom. Things happen so quickly in that chapter, especially surrounding Pete and Tom, that it's kind of ambiguous what's going on. What exactly was their plan? Who was the one behind the plan, Pete or Tom? Tom was barking orders at Pete, but Pete was the one with the actual materials in his hands. There is no clear answer to this, which is why I'm putting it in the Headcanons section rather than the Interpretation section. A lot of people seem to think the gunpowder bag exploding in Pete's hand was a complete fluke - as in it just happened without warning - but from my understanding of gunpowder that can't be true. It doesn't just combust spontaneously, especially in the pouring rain like we see during The Doom. No, what I think they were doing was using the powder bags as makeshift bombs. As a merchant vessel, the Obra Dinn probably didn't have many explosives to defend herself with, especially ones that could be used while the cannons were out of commission. I believe their plan was to literally light the bags on fire and then throw them at the kraken's tentacles with the right timing, hoping that they would cause a big enough explosion to damage it. And I have to hand it to them, their plan seems like it would've worked. As I mentioned before, the midshipmen easily do the most damage to the kraken before it retreats. An entire tentacle gets severed in the blast that kills Pete, meanwhile most others can only get a few stabs into the things with spears and swords, which seemingly doesn't slow the beast down at all.

But, clearly things went wrong. I'm guessing that at the beginning of the memory, when both midshipmen are still on the deck, Pete has just lit one of the powder bags and the pair are trying to get into the right position to toss it at the tentacles. However, he then gets grabbed, and in the panic to get him free, both he and Tom forget about the lit bag for a moment. But then, at the last moment, Tom does remember. Again, the situation begs more questions. Did he know that Pete's fate was sealed, and he urged him to do one last heroic act? Was his demand to throw the powder a desperate attempt to save his life? How aware was Pete of his own fate? These are questions that I'm still undecided on, and I'll have to figure out my answers whenever I get back to working on my fanfic. The same applies for who was behind the plan. I'm currently leaning towards it being Tom's idea, but I still need to figure out where both characters are at mentally heading into The Doom before I can really decide.

I guess now I'll talk a little about Pete's family and background, because that's the stuff that is the least connected to canon information about him. This sounds sort of silly to write, but Pete has always struck me as someone with some Melanin™. I've tried it and I just cannot draw that boy with pasty English skin. So I've built a bit of a family tree that explains this. And other things. Pete's dad is a fully English member of the landed gentry. He was formerly a captain for the East India Company, and at the time of the game's events he is serving on its Board of Directors. This means that the man has a lot of clout and influence within the Company. This would give Pete quite a reputation just based off his surname, perhaps allowing him to get away with some things that any other person might not, just because the officers are nervous about retribution from his important and powerful father. His father also being part of the gentry would mean that the Milroys have quite a large estate, most likely complete with a stable of horses. I like to think that Pete liked to spend a lot of freetime in the stables or around horses in general, thus explaining his remark about never visiting a farm. Because like, midshipmen are rich young boys. Most of them probably haven't visited a farm, Pete included! But a stable is better than nothing, and he's probably arrogant enough to claim those are basically the same thing.

Anyway, as for his mother's side of the family, I'll have to back up and give some historical context. Back in this time period, there was a phenomenon where white British men associated with the Navy or Company would move to India and become very rich there; these men were referred to as nabobs. During this time, they may have become romantically involved with the native women there, even having children with them. Some of the men that did this were married, and most of the time the romantic partners and children they accrued in India could not come with them whenever they returned to the United Kingdom. One exception to this was that sometimes, young children would be brought back, but they were never acknowledged as the nabob's children. If they were lucky, their fathers would support them in secret, and for women this would mean giving them a fair sum of money to pay for their dowry or arranging a favorable marriage for them. I headcanon that Pete's mother was one such woman, meaning that she is half-Desi and, in turn, Pete and the rest of her children are a quarter Desi. Due to the messy situation caused by her father, Pete doesn't have much connection to the rest of her side of the family; he might not even know who his grandfather is.

Pete strikes me as being the oldest in the family, with a decent number of younger siblings. To take advantage of the “Pete's mother" comment, I like to imagine that he is very close with her. As her oldest child who is getting ready to really forge his own career and leave the nest, and one who is planning to make a career out of sailing no less, I can imagine she is always very worried for his safety and future. She is a fretful, million-thoughts-per-minute sort of mom, and I think Pete has just the right softness to him to be able to calm her down and put her mind at ease. Despite her worries, I think she's also very proud of him and how dedicated he is to what he's passionate about.

I imagine Pete had to do some convincing for his father to allow him to even become a sailor in the first place due to his unique position as the eldest son, as it meant that he wouldn't be in the capacity to handle the estate and that responsibility would have to fall onto one of his younger brothers. But, after all, the man was also a Company officer once, and I imagine he saw a lot of himself in Pete and saw that his ambition was real (in case you're wondering, I'm thinking that Pete's dad's older brother died and the estate fell to him, thus ending his career at sea). Just to be absolutely sure, instead of instantly handing him a midshipman position with no experience at sea (a real phenomenon, especially for very powerful families), his father made him prove it by starting off as a seaman for a few years, toiling on the deck right alongside the commoners. Pete happily rose to the task, and so his father kept to their agreement and allowed him to become a midshipman.

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