Father Neptune

This is a maritime Badass Grandpa. He has endured storms, pirates, fog, and all the perils of the sea. He has been in a Bar Brawl in every port and he has never lost. Sometimes he is a Drill Sergeant Nasty to all the scurvy foc'sle swabs. Sometimes he develops a Big Brother Instinct toward the Plucky Middie. But he is a lord of the sea and all sailors must heed him or endure his wrath. Often wears a Seadog Beard.

If he actually serves in a Navy then he's likely to cross over with Old Soldier.

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 * The Gorton's fisherman.

Anime and Manga

 * Too many examples to name in One Piece. Edward Newgate and Shanks come to mind, though the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the rest of the Four Emperors, and several Marine Admirals could very well qualify.
 * Luffy's grandpa Garp, who is depicted as one of the oldest (Or at least, oldest-looking) Navy man in the series. Has a beard, too.
 * Then there is the mermaid king named Neptune who is a father as well.
 * Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four is shown in the Pokémon anime to be a ship captain, befitting his naval uniform. However, his Pokemon are Dragon types instead of Water types in both media.

Comic Books

 * Captain Haddock from the Tintin comics.

Film

 * Gibbs, Barbossa, and Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
 * Captain Gregg, the ghost of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, was presumably this in life, considering.
 * Sam Quint from Jaws certainly counts.

Literature

 * Diokles the oarmaster in Over the Wine Dark Sea by Harry Turtledove.
 * Long John Silver in Treasure Island.
 * Poseidon in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series DEFINITELY qualifies due to him almost essentially being the trope namer due to him being, you know, Poseidon. It mainly applies in the fifth book when he is defending his kingdom of Atlantis from the original god of the sea, Oceanus.
 * Disko Troop in Captains Courageous.
 * Captain/Commodore/Admiral Sir Edward Pellew as he is portrayed in the Hornblower series. (Arguably Truth in Television as Pellew was a Real Life naval commander.)
 * Captain John Charity Spring from the Flashman novels.
 * The Mariner

Live Action TV

 * Parodied in Black Adder with Captain Redbeard Rum who, despite having suffered innumerable injuries at sea, talking like a pirate and having a beard you could lose a badger in, is an absolutely terrible sailor, who has no idea how to navigate, regards an actual crew for his ship as an unnecessary luxury, and whose typical sailing trip is to take the ship around in circles until everyone gets dizzy and then head home.
 * Scotty in Star Trek the Original Series is a Father Neptune Recycled in Space.
 * The titular character of the Captain Bluebear (German for "Captain Bluebear") series. Whenever he tells one of his past adventures, his three grandkids usually don't believe a word of it.

Newspaper Comics

 * Popeye's father Poopdeck Pappy.
 * Captain Eddie from the Non Sequitur comic strip likes to portray himself as this. How much of if is purely in his own mind is open to debate.

Theatre

 * Cap'n Carl (Phil Hartman) in the original verison of The Pee Wee Herman Show.
 * He was replaced by Cowboy Curtis (a character from the TV show) in the new verison of show, out of respect for the late Hartman.

Video Games

 * Admiral Bobbery in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door.
 * Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire's Drake, as mentioned above.
 * Man O'War of Freedom Force

Western Animation
""All the way to Davy Jones Locker! And Micky Dolenz's locker! And Peter Tork's locker! All The Monkees had lockers!""
 * The Sea Captain from The Simpsons. His name is actually Captain MacAllistar but he is almost never referred to as that.
 * Subverted with Capt'n K'nuckles from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
 * Crappy Jack from an episode of Rocko's Modern Life


 * Mr Krabs on Spongebob SquarePants has some characteristics of this, espcally in the very early episodes.
 * Captain Kidd from the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Belly of the Beast".

Real Life

 * The Trope Namer is Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy during the American Civil War. Although a political apointee, he became an invaluable asset to the Lincoln administration during the war.
 * Admiral William Halsey (though the USN is a little embarrassed about some of his decisions).
 * Granted, they were the same decisions that Spruance had been criticized for not making just a few months prior.
 * Admiral Marc Mitscher.
 * Horace Beck
 * Tristan Jones, the first man to sail a boat from the Dead Sea to Lake Titicaca, the highest and lowest bodies of water on Earth. He also spent months trapped in an iceberg in the Arctic Circle, and continued sailing even after losing his leg. That is, if you believe him.
 * Samuel Eliot Morison: Historian, Intrepid Reporter and writer of History of US Naval Operations in World War II.