This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.
Feel free to improve the article, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion. Find sources:"Merlin Kaggs"–news·newspapers·books·scholar·JSTOR%5B%5BWikipedia%3AArticles+for+deletion%2FMerlin+Kaggs%5D%5DAFD
Merlin Kaggs worked along the Australian coast as a pearl smuggler and thief while maintaining his image as a legitimate businessman. His motivation shifted in later novels from profit to an obsessive desire for revenge against Hal and Roger Hunt over perceived slights, some real, some imagined. He posed a serious threat; he was clever and surprisingly courageous, always attempting to pull off audacious Coup d'état.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Although the details change subtly with each novel, the basic outline of Kaggs' early life is as follows. He was born in San Francisco, the only son of a clergyman. His father tried to get him to follow his footsteps into the church but Kaggs refused and eventually ran off to join the local street gangs.
Kaggs worked his way up the ranks. One night, however, he killed a drunken sailor who had got in his way, and was forced to flee San Francisco for the Muir Woods while the heat died down.
Kaggs later committed two more murders, but was caught and imprisoned in San Quentin. He was able to convince people he killed the two men in self-defense, however, and soon got out on good behavior. This ability to disguise himself as an innocent gentleman, usually as a reverend using the skills his father taught him, quickly became his modus operandi.
He later left San Francisco and began setting up his own crime syndicate centered on pearl smuggling. He quickly became an accomplished criminal, acting under the noses of the Navy and becoming adept at the use of espionage. When Kagg’s criminal empire was at its top, he was a force to be reckoned with.
South Sea Adventure
He tracked down a famous scientist and zoologist who had set up a secret pearl colony on an island in the South Seas. Despite spying on him and having is apartment bugged, Kaggs was unable to discover the location of the secret island. He did, however, discover that two young naturalists, Hal and Roger Hunt, were employed to check up on the progress of the experiment.
Kaggs hired a thug known as Crab to gain access to the Hunts' boat and steal the location of the island. Crab failed in his mission, forcing Kaggs to take action himself after removing Crab from the picture.
Masquerading as a missionary, he quickly warmed up to the Hunts, who invited him along on their ship. However, Hal quickly developed doubts about his credentials and secretly altered the bearings in their log book. This was to have disastrous results for both Kaggs and the Hunts themselves.
Once on the island, Kaggs revealed his true nature. After holding the Hunts at gun point he tried to bribe Omo into diving into the island's lagoon and recovering the pearls for him. Negotiations failed and, during the resulting melee, Omo was shot by Kaggs.
Kaggs took advantage of the chaos he had created and slipped away on the boat, leaving the Hunts and the wounded Omo to die while he rounded up some of his thugs and pillaged the island himself. He got lost on the way back, however, due to the bearings being altered, and was forced to drink sea water when his supplies ran out. Kaggs went insane, and was consigned to an asylum.
Diving Adventure
After his escape from the asylum, Kaggs decided to keep a low profile until he could rebuild his life of crime. During this time he killed a diver on Thursday Island. The perfect location for him to lie low was the Undersea City built on the AustralianGreat Barrier Reef. Once again posing as a reverend, Kaggs soon found employment in the relatively unknown community.
However, Hal and Roger Hunt once again entered into his life. Not only did they also come to the Undersea City but, through sheer bad luck on Kagg’s part, were asked to share a room with him.
Thinking quickly, Kaggs convinced Hal, to Roger's amazement, that he had been let out and had reformed. However, far from reformed, he plotted his revenge. He almost got his chance when Hal was wounded by a Portuguese Man o' War, but was denied by Roger who stood guard over his brother. He later tried again by starting an avalanche down the side of the Great Barrier Reef, hoping to crush the Hunts, but again his plan failed.
Kaggs discovered a ship full of gold and convinced the Hunts to let him help them recover it after they saved his life. It appears that he was genuinely grateful and was going to let the Hunts off the hook for their past actions. Soon after, however, one of Omo's relatives arrived in town and recognized him. Forced to flee, and believing the Hunts had sold him out to the authorities, he once again swore vengeance.
He kidnapped their captain and stole their ship, which was full of gold and valuable animals. He tried to escape, but he quickly run aground on the reef. The Hunts saved his life as the ship began to sink. Kaggs was imprisoned for murder, kidnapping and smuggling when the authorities arrived to take him into custody.
Cannibal Adventure
While in prison, Kaggs plotted revenge. His cellmate, Butcher, quickly became friends with the big man and soon let him into their escape plot. What happened next demonstrates the depths of Kagg’s evil. He sold out his friend to the prison warden and sat back while Butcher and the other would be escapees were gunned down during the attempt.
Kaggs was made a trustee due to his apparent assistance; in reality, however, Kaggs had deduced that the escape plan would have failed anyway and had decided to help the warden in order to gain his trust and make his own escape when the security became lax. His plan worked, and the unsuspecting warden let him literally walk out the prison door.
Kaggs pursued the Hunts to Papua New Guinea. He quickly became allies with a witch doctor who also had a grudge against the Hunts. He anonymously stabbed Hal in the back with a spear, but the young man survived. He planned and constructed a log trap for Roger but was again defeated, only managing to bruise Roger's foot. He tried to poison the cannibal chief, Pavo, who had taken it upon himself to guard the boys, but his attempt was also unsuccessful.
He returned to the witch doctor for backup, and he was given a bag full of King Cobras, which he would release aboard the boys' ship at night. However, his greed got the better of him, and he threw the cobras through the cabin window rather than release them aboard the ship, as they would kill all the rare and exotic animals he hoped to sell. The boys and Captain Ike woke up and captured all the snakes - Kaggs had unwittingly helped them.
Death
Kaggs' luck went sour when he was attacked by a Great White shark and badly wounded. He was found by the natives and brought to Hal for treatment. This time his reform act didn’t work and once again he was locked in the brig awaiting the authorities. He used a fork to pick the lock and escaped again, setting fire to the ship and disabling the engines, leaving the Hunts and their captain to die.
His motorboat was attacked by a crocodile, however, and Kaggs was thrown into the water. Although his body was never recovered, his failure to return in subsequent novels suggests that the author did intend this to be Kaggs' death scene.
Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The character was created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and is portrayed by Johnny Depp. The characterization of Sparrow is based on a combination of The Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards and Looney Tunes cartoon character Pepé Le Pew. He first appears in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He later appears in the sequels Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).
Rum-running, or bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting (smuggling) alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. Smuggling usually takes place to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular jurisdiction. The term rum-running is more commonly applied to smuggling over water; bootlegging is applied to smuggling over land.
Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American prison thriller film directed by Don Siegel. It is an adaptation of the 1963 non-fiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce and dramatizes the 1962 prisoner escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. The film stars Clint Eastwood, and features Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau and Larry Hankin. Danny Glover appears in his film debut. Escape from Alcatraz marks the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971).
The Twisted Claw is Volume 18 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Island is a novel trilogy by Canadian author Gordon Korman. The books are set in contemporary times and designed for young teenagers.
South Sea Adventure is a 1952 children's book by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt.
Lion Adventure is a 1967 children's novel by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts their attempts to capture a lion for a zoo, which is hampered by a dangerous man-eating lion who parallels the well-known Tsavo maneaters.
The Black Pearl is a fictional ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. In the screenplay, the Black Pearl is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by Captain Jack Sparrow, she is said to be "nigh uncatchable". Indeed, in the first three films she either overtakes or flees all other ships, including the Interceptor and the Flying Dutchman. Her speed is partly derived from the large amount of sails she carries, and partly supernatural. She is noted in At World's End as being "the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman."
William Westwood, also known as Jackey Jackey, was an English-born convict who became a bushranger in Australia.
The H-Man is a Japanese science fiction and thriller film.
Charles Vane was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Snakehead is the seventh novel in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in Australia on 28 September 2007, in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2007, and in the US on 13 November 2007. The title comes from the name given to Asian gangs involved in people smuggling illegal passports, visas, weapons, and more. Snakehead takes place directly after the events of Ark Angel, with Alex finding himself in Australian waters where he landed at the end of that story.
She Gods of Shark Reef is a 1958 B-adventure film directed by Roger Corman that was partially filmed on location in Kaua'i back to back with Thunder over Hawaii in 1956. The film was distributed in 1958 by American International Pictures as a double feature with Night of the Blood Beast.
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant is a 2005 miniseries loosely based on the life of Mary Bryant, an English girl from Cornwall who in this telling was convicted of petty theft, and who was transported to the Australian Penal Colony on the First Fleet with other prisoners bound for Botany Bay. It was written by Peter Berry and directed by Peter Andrikidis. The film had a budget in excess of A$15 million, making it the largest-budget television mini-series produced in Australia.
Hal and Roger Hunt are fictional characters appearing in the children's Adventure novel series, by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The sons of world-renowned animal collector John Hunt, Hal and Roger have grown up alongside exotic and dangerous wildlife. In Amazon Adventure, the boys' literary debut, Hal is 19 years old and Roger is 13 years old.
Jack Snyder is a character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. He was portrayed by actor Michael Park from April 1, 1997 until the final episode on September 17, 2010.
Shark Bait is a 2006 South Korean-American computer animated film. The plot revolves around Pi and his attempt to win the heart of Cordelia while dealing with a tiger shark that is terrorizing him and the reef's inhabitants. The film was a critical and commercial failure. It was largely criticised for borrowing heavily from other films such as Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo, DreamWorks' Shark Tale, and Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid, and despite the talented actors and comedians involved in the voiceover work, was a box-office bomb. Despite being an American-South Korean co-production, the movie did not receive a theatrical release in the United States, where it was released direct to DVD in 2007.
Brotherband is a series of fantasy novels written by Australian author John Flanagan. The first book, The Outcasts was released in Australia and the United States on 1 November 2011 and in New Zealand on 4 November 2011. The series is a spin-off from Flanagan's other highly popular series, Ranger's Apprentice, but it focuses on new Skandian characters. It was published by Penguin in the US and Random House in Australia and New Zealand.
The Hunters is the third instalment in the Brotherband novel series by Australian author John Flanagan. It was released on 30 October 2012 in the United States, 1 November 2012 in Australia and 2 November 2012 in New Zealand.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
