Minor Characters in The Seafort Saga - Tyre, Philip

Tyre, Philip

Midshipman Philip Tyre was posted to Hibernia at Hope Nation as first midshipman, as the ship at the time had only two midshipmen and two cadets, and of the midshipmen Derek Carr had been a civilian only a few months previously. Although a courteous and efficient officer while dealing with his superiors, Tyre's dealings with his subordinates in the wardroom were little short of tyrannical, assigning demerits to his juniors too fast to work off, and thus effectively sentencing them to repeated canings. The resultant plummeting morale of the midshipmen, along with Tyre's inability to understand why his behaviour was causing such trouble, ultimately led Seafort to promote Alexi Tamarov to Lieutenant with orders to 'put things back in order'. With such orders Tamarov dealt out to Tyre the same treatment Tyre had given the other midshipmen, dealing out demerits and frequently ordering the first midshipman caned. Along with Derek Carr's challenge and defeat of his senior for control of the wardroom, this led to Tyre pleading with Admiral Brentley upon Hibernia's return to Earth to be allowed to resign, but Seafort instead offered to take Tyre with him on his next ship. Aboard Portia Tamarov continued to hound Tyre, until eventually Seafort was forced to step in himself to end what had turned from a justified controlling of a vicious character to an unjustified hounding of a broken subordinate. When Seafort was transferred to Challenger on Admiral Tremaine's orders, Tyre was sent with him, against Seafort's wishes, and during the ship's ordeal proved himself a conscientious officer, who had put his former viciousness aside and ably took command of Challenger after Seafort became seriously ill after being shot by a mutineer. Tyre was killed during Challenger's final battle, after taking the ship's launch and ramming an alien, having been promoted to Lieutenant in his final moments. Seafort later named his son, Philip Tyre Seafort, in honour of Tyre.