Captain Julius Whitlam
Name Julius Nelson Whitlam
Position Commanding Officer
Rank Captain
Stats
- 43 Mission Posts
- 3 Personal Logs
- 14 News Items
Last Post
Fri Oct 28th, 2016 @ 1:18pm
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 45 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 182cm | |
| Weight | 75kg | |
| Hair Color | Black | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Julius is of average height and build for a man his age who has spent most of his life on space duty. He has thick, black hair which tends toward being unkempt. He has a lined forehead over heavy brows and a strong, aquiline nose. His eyes are a soft brown that stand in contrast with the harsh, firmly set mouth and jaw. He takes great pride in his uniform and it is always impeccably set upon his person. He is picky about this and frequently makes small adjustments to his tunic, sleeves and collar. |
Family
| Spouse | Zoe Burnham | |
| Children | Erin Whitlam (Born 2366) Elouisa Whitlam (Born 2368) Joseph Whitlam (Born 2371) |
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| Father | Linus Whitlam | |
| Mother | Grace Hamilton | |
| Brother(s) | Cameron Whitlam Patrick Whitlam |
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| Sister(s) | Nelly Whitlam |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Whitlam is naturally introverted, preferring his own company to that of other people. He is highly introspective, critical of himself and is burdened with terrible self-doubt. He recognises these traits in himself and works hard to overcome them, particularly when his duty requires. He carries himself with a quiet confidence and is generally reserved around new people. He is pretty good at reading people and will size someone up on first meeting them. Despite this, he makes a conscious effort to get to know his crew and to let them get to know him, seeing it as part of his duty as their commanding officer. His command style is generally collegiate and consultative, but he is capable of making quick decisions when needed. He treats his senior officers as advisors and isn’t afraid to act contrary to their advice if he deems the situation calls for it. He is an excellent organiser of people, thinks rapidly and is impatient with vacillation and time wasting. He is also quite stubborn and once his mind is set on a particular course, it is almost impossible to shift him from it. He also suffers from congenital amusia, or tone-deafness, and finds music to be just incomprehensible noise. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | + Intelligent + Decisive + Strong sense of duty + Driven to succeed - Can obsess over petty failure - Poor self-image - Prone to self-isolation - Stubborn |
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| Ambitions | Ever since he was a child, his ambition has always been to captain a starship on a mission of exploration. He achieved that when he commanded the USS Fairfax for six years. Since then, his ambition became to be as outstanding a starship captain as he can be. Every day he works to overcome his own shortcomings and become a better captain. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | He has always preferred his own company and his hobbies and interests reflect this. He is a voracious reader, enjoys mathematics and occasionally dabbles in painting, although he is yet to paint anything that he thinks is worthy of sharing. In his younger days, he would hike by himself for days or weeks on end, making camp at night and carrying on in the morning. Since he started a family, however, these trips are very infrequent. If he ever finds himself with spare time away from his family, he likes to disappear into the wilderness for a few days. |
| Personal History | Julius was born to Linus and Grace Whitlam in 2328 in Kenton, Deneva Prime. The eldest of four children, Julius was curious about the world around him from a young age and was always keen to learn. He would often lead his siblings on adventures in the bush near their family’s home on Deneva and nearly as often was in trouble for trespassing on someone else’s land. His natural curiosity led him to excel at school and throughout his education he impressed his teachers. Early in secondary school, he decided that he was going to go to Starfleet Academy and become a Starfleet Officer. Everything he did from that point on was directed toward getting into Starfleet Academy. He finished streaks ahead of any other student at his school and the very next day took the entrance exams for the Academy. He failed on his first attempt. Fortunately, the admissions officer granted him a supplemental exam and, on the second attempt, he passed and was accepted as a cadet. When he first arrived at the Academy, Julius was convinced he was going to follow the science officer track and become a scientist. But during his freshman year, things changed. When he first got behind the controls of a training shuttle, he knew that this is what he wanted to do. He wanted to fly! Although he still had a burning curiosity for the sciences, he never felt better than when he was at the controls of a shuttle and he knew he wanted to pilot a starship. He graduated in 2350 and although he graduated as a flight control officer, he completed several advanced scientific courses and earned enough credits to switch track if he wanted to. Although that would ultimately never happen. Upon graduation, he was assigned as relief Conn Officer aboard the USS Brisbane NCC-55473. While serving aboard the Brisbane, his aptitude for flight control was evident. He took to the conn like a fish to water. Within eight months of his posting to the Brisbane, his commanding officer – Captain Mo’iar’a – recommended him for promotion and a position as Deputy Chief Conn Officer aboard the USS Philadelphia. He served with distinction aboard the Philadelphia and rapidly gained the respect of his peers and his superiors. They did, however, note a tendency toward insubordination that gave them some concern. Despite this, it was clear early that Lieutenant Whitlam would go far in Starfleet. Eventually he was made Chief Conn Officer in the Philadelphia, and served in that position for a little more than a year before the ship was put in for a major refit. Julius found himself without a billet for about thirty minutes before he was picked up by his old commanding officer, Captain Mo’iar’a, now in command of the USS Indefatigable. Mo’iar’a saw a lot of potential in Julius even back in their days on the Brisbane. As soon as Julius went aboard the Indefatigable, the old Caitian captain appointed him as Second Officer and began training him in command. After two years in the Indy, Mo’iar’a sponsored Julius to attend the Command Officers Course at Starfleet Academy. It wasn’t a requirement to attend in order to be considered for command of a starship, but Mo’iar’a believed the course would help to give his protégé that extra bit of discipline to reign in his rebelliousness. After completing the command officers’ course with flying colours and earning a promotion to lieutenant commander in the process, Julius was assigned as Strategic Operations Officer to space station Deep Space Four, in the Lidara sector. Although he was initially disappointed to be assigned to a space station, Julius soon understood why. The posting, and the position in particular, exposed him to a more strategic view of starship operations. His day-to-day duties involved the coordination of starships all along the Typhon Expanse and required him to be familiar with intelligence reports, requisition orders, personnel transfer records and enough fleet politics to make him never want to reach flag rank. A starship billet wasn’t far away, though, and in 2361 he was assigned as Executive Officer aboard the Excelsior-class USS Renown. While he always saw Captain Mo’iar’a as his first influence in command, his new captain was to leave a profound impact on Julius’s own command style. Whereas Captain Mo’iar’a was eager to learn about his crew and preferred to be treated as the first among equals, Captain Anna Scalzi was almost the total opposite. In his first meeting with her, she told Julius that she didn’t want to know about his personal life, she didn’t care what he did in his off-duty time and she was only interested in him doing his duty. As long as he did that, she would be happy. Scalzi was rarely seen by the crew, preferring to isolate herself. This style didn’t sit well with Julius, but it did give him excellent insight into the impact of a crew that didn’t know their captain. Other commanding officers had been able to gain the respect and trust of their crew, but maintain an arm’s length relationship with them, without isolating them. Julius found the crew of the Renown to have frighteningly low morale and dangerously low respect for their captain. They would always respect her rank, but Julius doubted the lower ranks would go above and beyond the call of duty for her. In his role as First Officer, Julius did everything he could to bond with the crew and brought his own style to the office. Eventually, the other officers and crew came to trust the first officer more than their captain. Captain Scalzi, of course, had no idea about this. She was happy with her first officer’s performance and recommended him for his own command after two years of service on the Renown. A few months later, orders arrived for Julius to ship out and take command of the Niagara-class USS Fairfax. He would go on to command the Fairfax for six years, including a three year deep space survey mission during which he made first contact with two new civilisations and catalogued sixteen uninhabited systems that might be suitable for colonisation. The Fairfax was awarded with a unit citation at the completion of that mission and Whitlam was personally decorated. His time in command of the Fairfax won him some measure of fame in Starfleet circles and cemented his reputation as a fine captain and a gallant explorer. It was also aboard the Fairfax that Julius met his wife, Zoe Burnham. She was a civilian mission specialist during a mission to the Azure Nebula and the pair hit it off immediately. The mission lasted three months, but it was enough for the Julius to know that he was smitten. When Dr Burnham was due to leave the Fairfax he instead had a better idea and the couple were married at Starbase 234. Families were permitted aboard the Fairfax and it wasn’t long before Julius and Zoe had their first child, a daughter named Erin. Two years later, a second daughter came along named Elouisa. Julius was profoundly happy with his place in the universe. He was captain of a Federation starship, he had a family and his prospects were well placed. In 2370, however, disaster struck and the Fairfax was destroyed. She responded to a distress call near the Tzenkethi border and found a merchantman adrift in deep space with only a handful of crew still alive. As the Fairfax approached, three Tzenkethi ships appeared from out of nowhere and opened fire. Although Whitlam and his crew fought valiantly, they were no match for the attackers. Whitlam grudgingly ordered that they abandon ship, thinking that they would be taken prisoner by the Tzenkethi. Much to his surprise, however, the Tzenkethi ships simply disappeared. Whitlam, his family and his crew spent five days adrift in lifeboats waiting on rescue. The official inquest into the loss of the Fairfax cleared Whitlam of any negligence and found that the attack was the work of rogue elements within the Tzenkethi Coalition. There was a brief diplomatic storm between the Federation and the Tzenkethi Coalition, but it all died down quickly and Whitlam was left to fume for the seventy-eight crew who didn’t survive the loss of the Fairfax. After the court martial cleared him, Whitlam was given command of the Nebula-class USS Sutherland and spent three years in Galactic South. His time in command of the Sutherland was quite unremarkable and he actually found it rather unstimulating. Following the loss of the Fairfax, Zoe decided it was safer to raise the girls in a terrestrial environment. So, she settled the family on Cestus III while Julius continued his career. Although he found it difficult to be away from them, he was profoundly glad to not have them aboard ship anymore and exposed to potential dangers. Nominally an explorer, the Sutherland found itself stuck with patrol, intelligence-gathering and escort duties. In the three years from 70 – 73, the ship only undertook two system surveys and investigated on proto-nebula. The only positive in this for Julius was that he was frequently returning to Cestus III and was able to spend time with his family and his new son, Joseph, who was born in 2371. When the Sutherland was put in for refit in 2373, Julius requested transfer to a new command. His reputation and service record were enough to guarantee a new ship and he was given command of the Akira-class USS Manoora. His first mission, though not scientific, was at least to be on the frontier. The Manoora was to be sent to help establish a colony on Lomax III, which was one of the planet surveyed by the USS Fairfax under Whitlam’s command. When he received those orders, Captain Julius Whitlam couldn’t help but smile. |
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| Service Record | 2346 - 2350: Starfleet Academy (Cadet) 2350 - 2351: Conn Officer, USS Brisbane (ENS) 2351 - 2354: Deputy Chief Conn Officer, USS Philadelphia (LTJG) 2354 - 2355: Chief Conn Officer, USS Philadelphia (LT) 2355 - 2357: Chief Conn Officer, USS Indefatigable (LT) 2357 - 2358: Starfleet Academy Command Officers Course (LT) 2358 - 2361: Strategic Operations Officer, Deep Space Four (LCDR) 2361 - 2364: Executive Officer, USS Renown (CMDR) 2364 - 2370: Commanding Officer, USS Fairfax (CAPT) 2370 - 2373: Commanding Officer, USS Sutherland (CAPT) 2373 - pres: Commanding Officer, USS Manoora (CAPT) |