Chris Blake (TV character)
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| Sea Patrol Character Profile |
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| Name | Christopher "Chris" Blake |
| Also known as | Swain |
| Gender | Male |
| Rank | Petty Officer |
| Position | Coxswain |
| Age | 31 |
| Date of Birth | c.1977 |
| Family | ?? |
| Spouse(s) | 1, Sally Blake (?? - present) |
| Children | 1, Chloë Blake (born October 2007) |
| First Ep. | Welcome Aboard Ep. 1.01 (Pilot), aired 5/7/2007 |
| Final Ep. | n/a |
| Episode Count | 14 Episodes (as of April 2008) |
| Reason for exit | n/a |
| Portrayed by | Matthew Holmes |
Petty Officer Christopher "Chris" Blake is a fictional TV character on the show Sea Patrol. He is portrayed by Matthew Holmes.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Background
Chris is thirty-years-old, and is a man who grew up as a boy on the banks of the Brisbane River watching the Water Police boats every day. His dream was to be one of them, so at eighteen, he signed up to the Queensland Police Force. But it didn't take long for him to say it would be a long time, if ever, until he could get to his ultimate goal of a member of the Water Police, even though he had qualified as a police diver.
So when one day he saw a sleek grey Navy ship gliding down that same river into the open sea, he realised what he truly wanted to do. So he quit the Force, and joined the Navy - not first as a coxswain, however. But being a former policeman and having his police diver qualification counted and finally at thirty, he's made it.
Chris isn't only just coxswain on the Freemantle-class HMAS Hammersley - he's also the ship's police officer, chief medic and most experienced helmsman. He keeps control of all alcohol on board and the food supplies as well.
He cannot expect to be universally loved, especially when he's in charge of the grog. He's a good man, but when discipline is to be maintained, he does so. Police can be somewhat socially conservative, and just because his career in the Navy has lasted longer than the one in the police force doesn't mean the copper is fully out of him. He can be a hard nut, so when he's on the war path, live in fear!
Being a medic isn't his most favourite part, but he doesn't get squeamish at blood so he does it. The role of chief helmsman, however, is something different; it brings a quiet pleasure and smile to be known as that when it could easily be any of the other twenty or so sailors on the ship.
[edit] Season One (2007)
It's the Freemantle-class HMAS Hammersley's final six months before she's decommissioned, and Chris is serving aboard her as the coxswain, police officer, chief medic and most experienced helmsman. While he may not get squeamish at such things like blood and gore, the after-effects of such incidents do get to him in his own personal way, especially when a death is involved.
These after-effects tend to coincide with his thoughts of his pregnant wife, Sally, at home, as the harsh reality of the chance of him never seeing Sally or their unborn child ever again every time he steps onto the ship. But as much as he loves his family, he loves his job, so he does it.
So when he is kidnapped by what appears to be commercial fishers from their sinking boat, life for him and the rest of the ship goes into chaos. The entire time Chris is driving the RHIB with the fishers back to their ship in the darkest of nights, all he can think about is getting back home to see Sally and their child, who is due to be born very soon.
All seems well, until when Chris trips while transporting boxes of cargo from the fishermen's ship to the RHIB, and out spills diamonds. As punishment, the master of the vessel orders him to be tied up in a room down below that is very much quickly filling with water.
Chris' future seems doomed as the room quickly fills and he finds himself unable to loosen the ropes which have tied his hands together around a pole. But luckily, the Hammersley finds him just in time, and fellow sailor Pete manages to untie the ropes and pull him from the flooded room.
A couple of weeks later, Sally goes into labour. Chris has arranged to take at least that day off work, but when his replacement comes down with the flu, he has no choice but to leave his wife and go to work. All seems well with his 'forty-five minutes there, and forty-five minutes back' plan until complications on the ship arise and they are delayed - instead, Chris ends up helping delivering the baby boy of two teenagers who the Hammersley discovered on a stolen boat!
Chris finally does make it back to base, just an hour or two after Sally had given birth to their daughter, who gets named Chloë. While neither of them are happy at him missing Chloë's birth, Sally is just glad he made it home to see their child.
[edit] Season Two (2008)
In the second season, Chris is back on the new Armidale-class patrol boat, also named the HMAS Hammersley, resuming his role as chief medic and coxswain. But unlike a year ago, Chris now has a baby daughter, who is now six-months-old, at home as well as his wife, Sally, and he's finding it hard to be away from both of them weeks at a time. And now Sally has put her foot down, telling him to get a shore posting.
For Chris, it's an almost impossible choice, and he's left in an agony of indecision as he tries to get through every day on the seas, away from his family.
So when Sally takes herself and Chloë away for a while to her parents' home in Perth, Chris spirals into depression. At the same time, he strikes an unlikely friendship with a young boy, Saka, a Samaruan child from Samaru Island. But when he discovers some dark secrets about this young child, Chris finds himself in a race against time to find three people and bring them back to their homes - Saka, his wife and his daughter.
[edit] Personal life
Chris married young, a girl from the neighbourhood he grew up in, Sally.
They recently had their first child, a daughter, named Chloë, a surprise after it was expected by everyone to be a boy. In the second season, Sally, from the stress of Chris being away at sea for weeks at a time, leaves for a while and takes herself and their daughter to her parents' house in Perth. Whether all things are resolved in her and Chris' marriage will be revealed in the second season.
He is also loved a lot by a girl named Katie.
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