Tom Gilbert has spent his career working on the water and has spent time on nearly every type of waterborne vessel in the world.  The 48 year old Virginia native once considered a career in the U.S. Navy, but four years was plenty.  Fleeing the structure and limitations of the navy, he struck out on his own, working odd jobs to fuel his obsession with boating, sailing, and scuba diving.  In 1984 he moved to the Florida Keys where he stared work on a series of short "how to" books for divers, supplementing his income by giving scuba lessons to tourists with, as he puts it, more money than brains.

The books were a failure, the tourist business was sporadic and soon Gilbert found himself working as a welder and maintenance worker to keep the bills paid.  As time passed, he merged his work with his hobby , and became on of the top underwater industrial salvage operators in the Gulf Coast.  He has worked on oil-drilling rigs off Galveston and in shipyards around Norfolk, spent time on hydraulic dredges up and down the Mississippi and led repair crews aboard submersible rescue.  In 2018, after subcontracting to OrionTech for several years, he finally became a full-time employee.  He works hard, even for a man pushing 50, and although he takes the ribbing about his age in stride, he is beginning to wonder how many more years of his physically demanding work he has left.

He always introduces himself as "Gil" few know his real first name, and it's nearly impossible to get it out of him unless he's drunk.  He favors hard liquor and is never without a bottle or flask, but his size and years of drinking have inured him to the effects somewhat; he can drink most men under the table without effort.

Gil is a large man and well muscled.  He sports an old tattoo of a black panther on his left forearm- leftover from his days in the navy.