Star Trek: The First Captain Of The Enterprise You Never Knew About
2. Apocrypha
Robert April is a character who oddly enough hasn't appeared in a large amount of extended universe works. Though he is established as the original commander of the Enterprise, there are relatively few books or comics that feature him.
That is not of course to say that there are none. The novel Final Frontier by Diane Carey may just feature his most substantial role. In this novel, he abducts his old friend, George Samuel Kirk, father to James, to help him in a mission. The SS Rosenberg has been severely damaged in an ion storm, and only the new class of Starship that April is commanding has a chance to catch up to them in time.
This new class of Starship will come to be known as the Constitution Class. On the cover image above, you can see a very small representation of April on the back cover (under the Enterprise) - making one of the few images of him (not including the old, fun doctored photo of series creator Gene Roddenberry that was used to represent April.)
The book shows April to be a commander who was both capable and adventurous, inspired loyalty in his crew and this carries over into the few further appearances that he makes.