Tyler Brock

Tyler Brock (1787-1863?) is a fictional character in the James Clavell novel "Tai-Pan". He is the tai-pan, or "supreme leader" of Brock & Sons Trading Company, and antagonist of the novel. He is married and has many children, including his two sons Morgan Brock and Gorth Brock, (Edit: on pg 453 of the paperback edition Dirk mentions a 3rd son, Tom) and daughter Tess Brock.

Tyler Brock is desperate to smash his arch-rival Dirk Struan, Tai-pan of Struan's trading company. The two men are in a deadly battle for supremacy in the historically accurate trade industry of 19th century Asia. But Struan is always one step ahead of Brock, Struan's being dubbed the Noble House for its unparalleled success.

Tyler Brock's enmity with Dirk Struan goes far back before the main events of the book Tai-Pan take place. It is revealed that Brock, being about 10 years older than Struan, was the 3rd mate on a ship, the Vagrant Star, on which Struan, being just 12, was a deckhand. Brock found reasons to whip Struan and made his life on the ship a living nightmare. In one fateful night this torment ended, as the boat they were on ran across a reef and began to sink. Brock and Struan both survived, and they each began to build the trading companies that would eventually be 1st and 2nd in Asia. Brock is presented as a tougher-than-nails person, with an Anglo-Saxon dialect and an eyepatch.

Brock lost one of his eyes sometime before the setting of the book, when his vessel was rocked by massive winds and he was pinned under a mastbeam. While trapped, he was thrashed about the face by a loose halyard, whose metal-capped end eventually gouged out his eye. When his crew finally regained control and moved the beam, he promptly poured brandy into the socket to disinfect the wound. Tyler Brock is seen in the book "Tai-Pan" as the quintessential English bad guy. Despite his overwhelming hatred for Dirk Struan he passes up outside assistance in bringing down the Noble House; he wants to be the direct cause of its collapse, and he wants Dirk alive to know that he's ruined. But Tyler Brock never gets a chance to have his vengenace, for Dirk Struan dies in a typhoon before there can be a reckoning. In classic Shakespearean fashion Tyler's daughter Tess and Dirk's son Culum fall in love, getting married and condemning their fathers' hatred. But Tyler Brock disowns his little girl, a grudging act that has terrible consequences.

Now part of the Noble House, Tess works with her husband Culum, now Tai-Pan of Struans, to further the Noble House and extract the vengeance that Dirk Struan would never have. The novel leaves us at that, but future books in James Clavell's saga reveal the end of Tyler Brock.

When Culum dies, Tess takes over as Tai-Pan and orchestrates the fall of her father in 1863. A penniless Tyler Brock is seen pirating a Chinese junk ship and sailing north, screaming promises to rebuild his fortune and come back for the coveted title of "Noble House."

He is never seen or heard from again.