Tom

Tom (トム) was a powerful long-horned cowfish fishman, known as the most skilled shipwright in the world. He was the head of his own company, Tom's Workers. He was also Iceburg and Franky's teacher and Den's older brother.

Appearance
Tom was a large cowfish fishman, with short horns and a yellow body. He had markings under his eyes, black spots on his neck near his gills, sharp teeth from his lower lip pointing upward, and a white beard. White, curly hair also sprouted behind his neck from under his brown bandanna, and his large chest was covered by an unbuttoned light-blue shirt with a blue pattern on it. He had a relatively small lower body in comparison to his large upper body, and he wore brown pants and simple boots. He also had a tattoo of a flowery design on both of his shoulders, which is sometimes mistaken as the Jolly Roger of the Sun Pirates.

Personality
Tom was a proud and kind fishman, as he did not show prejudice against humans, which many of his kind do. He built ships for anyone, even pirates, and adopted Franky and Iceburg and mentored them in the art of building ships. His bond with them was such that he took the blame for the Battle Franky's and was executed in exchange for a pardon for them.

Tom also believed that as a shipwright, one must always love his own creations, no matter what they had done. As such, he struck Franky for attempting to deny his responsibility in the Battle Franky's, and proudly claimed that he did not regret crafting the Oro Jackson for the Pirate King, despite it all being tantamount of confessing to crimes punishable by death. He also refused to hand over the blueprints for Pluton to Spandam, as a duty of his shipwright.

Like some of the other characters of One Piece, Tom had a unique laugh, his starting with a "Ta" (i.e. ta ha ha ha ha!).

Abilities and Powers
Tom is regarded as the world's greatest shipwright, and crafted the Oro Jackson, the ship that Gol D. Roger used to cross the Grand Line, and the Puffing Tom, an amazing train capable of travelling in the sea, linking together many islands and bringing back prosperity to Water 7. His skills have been passed down to Franky and Iceburg, noted as incredible shipwrights themselves.

As a fishman, Tom had incredible strength that surpassed humans by ten times. However, he seemed to be much stronger than that: he easily lifted a ship with one hand without showing strain, and he held its three masts in the other hand. He was able to throw the ship to a great distance, at the same time launching the masts in their required positions, showing not only amazing strength, but also incredible accuracy. Similarly, he broke free of a pair of big handcuffs without effort. He was also very resistant, as he took a full bombardment from Battle Franky's ships guided by World Government agents and was still able to stand and fight back Marines during the trial he and his apprentices sustained later.

Crown of the King
Before his life in Water 7, he lived on Fishman Island. At some point, he and Kokoro left there and moved to Water 7. Tom was later responsible for building the Oro Jackson, Gol D. Roger's ship. He also found Franky as a child after his pirate parents abandoned him.

The Trial Begins
After the death of Roger, he was arrested. Although building a ship for pirates is generally not considered a crime (as the shipwrights have no control over who mans their ships), a special case had to be made for Tom because his client was the Pirate King.

To escape what would be a cruel and unnecessary fate, Tom made an agreement with the judge: given 10 years, he could save his dying home city of Water 7, by constructing an unprecedented Sea Train which could traverse even the roughest of weather to deliver and receive goods and services. Thus, Tom's trial went into recess for a decade, to reconvene after the Sea Train's completion.

The Shipbuilder's Secret
Tom's trial was also a front for another mission the World Government was undertaking at the time. They knew Tom was the holder of a copy of the blueprints for Pluton, an ancient warship of power so great that its name survived the passage of time (or perhaps the cataclysm that blotted out most of the world's history. This is the same Pluton that Crocodile was seeking in Alabasta). Tom's possession of the blueprint led other factions of the Government to seek it: Of note, a man named Spandam, who was at the time working for Cipher Pol No. 5, a secret governmental organization not overseen by the Marines.

Spandam Moves
After Tom finally completed the Sea Train (taking 4 extra years to add extra rails), Tom was finally allowed to be pardoned for any crime he desired. However, Spandam was angry at the hassles of trying to get Tom to hand over Pluton to him, therefore, Spandam, in an effort to secure the blueprints, hired people to steal and man the ships of Tom's student, Cutty Flam, to attack Water Seven at the resumption of Tom's trial.



Though he knew Franky to be innocent, Tom took responsibility for the actions of his pupil's ships and decided to claim his pardon against the attack on Water 7. This action thus reinstated his original sentence and he once again was accused of building Roger's ship. Having overheard Franky disown his creations, Tom finally owned up to building the Oro Jackson; not only that, but claimed he was proud to have done so in order to show Franky the true meaning of being a shipwright. Tom was escorted on the sea train he built to Enies Lobby, where he was allegedly executed shortly thereafter.

Early One Piece
In One Piece Green: Secret Pieces was revealed an early concept of Tom.

Trivia

 * Tom's favorite phrase to say was "Do it with a Don!" His brother Den also uses this phrase.
 * Tom's character shares many features with Ken Follet's "The Pillars of the Earth" character Tom Builder. Tom Builder was an architect who aspired to build a cathedral and taught all his knowledge to his two pupils. He was killed during a raid, but one of his pupils managed to finish his dream.
 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Tom is currently ranked the 83rd most popular character in One Piece.

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