Rocket Man

The Rocket Man was Tom's first attempt at building a Sea Train. The Straw Hats used it temporarily to rescue Nico Robin. It was one of the most pivotal elements during the events with CP9.

Ship Design and Appearance
The Rocket Man is a gray locomotive with a shark's face painted on front, though the shark was commented to not have much significance. It consists of the locomotive itself and one passenger compartment. Like the Puffing Tom, it is capable of traversing across water as well as on land. The Rocket Man was considered by all who worked on it as an experimental failure as the train could only travel at dangerously high speeds, had no means of braking, and lacked the momentum to plow though obstacles without getting derailed.

In Pursuit of the Puffing Tom
After surviving the onslaught of the Aqua Laguna, Monkey D. Luffy and company decided to pursue the Puffing Tom in order to rescue then captured Robin. However, two major factors were stopping them: the Aqua Laguna was raging on, meaning that no ship available was suitable to travel under such conditions, and the Puffing Tom was the only known Sea Train built to travel under them. It was then that Kokoro revealed the Rocket Man in an abandoned warehouse. Fixed up by Iceburg, the Rocket Man was all ready to go. It was then when the Franky Family begged to join Luffy in order to save Franky, at which Luffy accepted.

After setting off into the storm, the Franky Family latched their Franky Houseboat onto the Rocket Man. Later revealed that several stowaways had snack on-board: Chimney, Gonbe, and most notably the Dock One foremen now reduced to three due to the circumstances. During the pursuit of the Puffing Tom, several events happened. These included Luffy and Roronoa Zoro being able to break through the Aqua Laguna, Yokozuna joining the apparent army of characters and, Zoro defeating T-Bone of the Marines. The most notable however of them all was when the Straw Hats, the Galley-La foremen, and the Franky Family decided to put aside their differences in order to ally themselves against a common enemy as presented when Luffy, Paulie, and Zambai crossed their arms together in a sign of allegiance. This moment was a vital turning point between the three groups as the alliance would prove instrumental in upcoming battle.

Despite all it's speed, the Rocket Man was not able to catch up to the Puffing Tom to stop it from reaching it's destination. It was however able carry the Straw Hats and their allies through the storm to the aforementioned destination, the never night island, Enies Lobby.

Invasion at Enies Lobby
The Rocket Man was very instrumental during the invasion, aiding the Straw Hats and their allies in the battle in ways that completely shocked everyone around. After waiting the agreed five minutes, the Rocket Man was steered into the direction of the Enies Lobby front gate. However, as the gate was closed by some Marines and Government Agents who noticed the speeding Sea Train, a drastic alternative was devised by Zoro. With Yokozuna's strength, a ramp was created out of the fence in front of the speeding train which enabled the Rocket Man to be flung over the first and second gates and crash into Oimo. This act apparently made all efforts of the Franky Family and Galley-La in opening those gates useless.

After crashing into the isle of Enies Lobby and being hit with a cannon shell, the Rocket Man was fixed up and put to use again. It then sped across the island to the court house where it barged in and apparently ran over Baskerville. Using the destroyed draw bridge as a ramp, it made another momentous jump across the waterfall gap separating Enies Lobby and the Tower of Justice, carrying the Straw Hats along with it, and crashed into the aforementioned tower. After that the Rocket Man was apparently beyond repair and abandoned in the tower. It was thus left behind in the tower during the escape from the Buster Call attack where it is presumed to have been destroyed by the Buster Call's onslaught.

Despite all it's flaws, the Rocket Man proved to be a very useful instrument to the Straw Hats in those events.

Trivia

 * The Rocket Man's name is based on the famous South Devon Railway Comet class, Rocket, which was renowned for it's great speed.
 * The painted fangs and eyes are liken to the faces often painted on old war planes.
 * The Rocket Man appeared as an attack used by Green General in the game One Piece: Unlimited Adventure.

Related Articles

 * Tom
 * Puffing Tom
 * Water 7
 * Enies Lobby
 * Enies Lobby arc