The Why and How of Epiphany Trek Ship Classes
One finds a good deal of
discussion about ship types and classes in treknical fandom. I will
attempt to explain my take on the question, and provide a real world
and historical look at how these terms came to pass, and the numbers
that Starfleet would require.
General Types of Ship:
There are more types of ships
than I plan on discussing here. I have left out the plethora of
civilian ships, and the large number of support ships that Starfleet
would use. I am concentrating on the ships we would call "military" in
nature.
About the Pictures:All
drawings on this page are to scale. The scale is one meter to the pixel.
Escort: An
escort is more of a job than a type of ship. During the Second World
War a class of ship was built called a destroyer-escort. The
British called these ships corvettes. They had one job, to
escort the convoys across the Atlantic. The type was cheap and quick to
build. At least to submarines they packed a punch out of scale to their
size.
In
treknical terms an escort is any small heavily armed ship that protects
other ships. The Defiant defines the type.
About the Picture:USS Defiant, defining the type
Destroyer: The
destroyer is a ship that came into being with the invention of the
Whitehead torpedo. Suddenly a small boat could pack a punch that could
sink a capital ship. Something had to be done. The result was a
slightly larger and faster ship called a "torpedo boat destroyer". The
"torpedo boat" part of the name got dropped, but the purpose of the
type has not changed. Destroyers are picket ships. They protect larger
ships from threats. The job of the destroyer has expanded from torpedo
boats, to submarines (the torpedo boat under water) to anti aircraft
pickets.
Treknically destroyers are
the redheaded stepchild. They don't really have a place. They can
either fall into the escort category or are truly large enough to
shoulder their way into the frigate category. These ships do not
generally have enough room to do both science and fighting. If they
have science they are called science ships, if not, light frigates.
About the Picture:
USS Soley -- Launched 1944. The Soley was a "Short Hull" Destroyer of
the Allen M. Sumner class. She was one of hundreds of similar ships
built during the Second World War.
Scout: The scout
is not a contemporary ship. A "scout" is usually a person, not a
vessel. They do the job that at sea a frigate and later a destroyer is
sent to do, look go see.
Two types of scout exist, or
rather two jobs for the same ships. A Scout is a light cruiser heavily
leveraged for long range sensors. They are often four nacelle designs
intended to be long away from base. Four nacelles not for speed, but to
run lightly on the drives.
In peace time scouts cast
their sensor nets far and wild looking for things interesting enough to
send a cruiser to look at. It's a boring but vital place in the
exploration of space. Seldom does the scout crew get to personally
discover neat stuff, too often they discover stuff that they don't
return from.
In war the scout runs in
front of the fleet in a wide net. They use those sensors to see before
they are seen, and inform the fleet. It again is not a glamor job and
has lots of ways to die.
About the Picture:The USS Bozeman -- Soyuz class. It is
seen in the TNG episode "Cause and Effect".
Frigate:
Historically the frigate was a ship of the 6th to 4th rate. The role
they filled was that of independent patrol, or fleet picket work. Later
in time the former task fell to cruisers and the latter to the
destroyer. The term has come back into fashion in modern navies for
ships smaller than destroyers. Destroyers now being as large as
cruisers and filling both their picket role and that of independent
patrol.
Treknically
I call the frigate a ship leveraged to fight. Frigates are the concern
of Starfleet's Military Operations Command. The MOC. Frigates can and
do share hull types with cruisers, They can be every bit as large as a
cruiser, or as small as the Defiant. No matter the size the frigate is
a fighter first and flexible second. If they find themselves on a
cruiser type of mission they can do a cruiser type of mission to the
same effect that a cruiser is also equally well equipped to fight.
About the Pictures:
USS Constitution -- Launched 1797. The oldest commissioned ship afloat.
Undoubtably the most famous frigate ever built. The most powerful
warship of her size for her time. 200 feet long and carrying 42, 24
pound guns. Constitution could and did outfight everything short of a
Ship of the Line.
USS Budapest -- Norway class
frigate. First seen in "Star Trek: First Contact."
Cruiser:
This is another term that has
gotten kicked around. In the developmental phases of the age of steam
cruisers replaced the frigate. The US navy had two types, the armored
cruiser and the protected cruiser. Cruisers were lighter than the
battleships, but had the legs to patrol on their own. They were
intended to be able to either out fight or out run the opponent. In the
later case they ran from a battleship.
The later categories of
"light" and "heavy" were a direct result of the Washington naval treaty
of 1921. The treaty defined cruisers as ships of up to 15,000 tons, and
being either "light" with guns no larger than 6 inches, or "heavy" with
guns no larger than 8 inches. Size-wise the two types of ship were
equal. The Atlanta class light cruiser was every bit as large as its
heavy sisters. Light or heavy referred solely to the size of the guns.
For
Epiphany Trek a cruiser is the multi-use ship. It is the most expensive
and useful ship in the fleet. A heavy cruiser is the highest form of
Starfleet life. Cruisers come in many configurations and sizes. In this
case light does mean smaller, heavy does mean larger.
About the Pictures:
USS Boston -- Launched 1943. Baltimore class Heavy Cruiser, one of the
largest cruiser classes of WWII. the Boston and her sisters (8 in all)
served well during and after the war. the survivors were upgraded into
the first guided missile cruisers, some so radically their designers
wouldn't recognize them.
USS Enterprise -- refit. A
ship that needs no introduction..
Battle cruiser:
This is another bastard of the age of steam. It is the direct invention
of John Fisher, First Lord of the Admiralty at the turn of the 20th
century. The battle cruiser was a ship with battleship heavy guns, and
cruiser swift speed. The trade off being to get the speed and keep the
heavy guns your had to sacrifice armor. The theory being that speed was
armor. The theory was sadly wrong as was proven in the HMS Hood
disaster.
From the Epiphany Trek point of view the term is an inexact one. Any
large ship whose primary purpose is to fight can be called a battle
cruiser. The term is most often used to describe Klingon ships. They
like it.
About the Pictures:
USS Guam -- Launched 1944. Alaska class "large" cruisers. The Alaska
class was armed with 9, 12 inch guns. Nearly the same battery carried
by the 1906 HMS Dreadnought. Most navies would have called them battle
cruisers. Neither ship of this class survived the end of the war as
once the frantic fog of war necessity faded, they were seen for the
white elephants they were.
K'Tinga class Klingon battle
cruiser. The TMP update of the classic Klingon ship.
Battleship:
The battleship was once the highest form of naval life. A ship that
could take on all comers and win. Battleships evolved from the wooden
ships of the line in the days of sail bred through the American USS
Monitor of the 1860s to the Iowa class monsters of the
second world war. These were among the last battleships to be built,
and the last to be commissioned battleships of any navy.
Starfleet
does not build battleships. Large fighting units are called heavy
frigates. Yes it's a quibble. But a point they think matters. Frigates
have flexibility, battleships do not.
About the Pictures:
USS Iowa -- Launched 1943. Iowa class battleship. The Iowas were the
last of the big gun ships. She and her sisters survived until the close
of the 20th century. Last of the dinosaurs from a time when large ships
fired on each other from ranges of 20 miles. Ironically the Iowa class
ships never got to meet their equals in battle. They ended their days
as shore bombardment units.
USS Royal Sovereign -- Class
Ship of Starfleet's latest and greatest. At least not as expensive as
the Galaxy.
Dreadnought: Dreadnought
was "a" ship, and later a name to describe all ships of her type. HMS
Dreadnought launched in 1906 was the first all big gun ship built.
Her 10 12 inch guns with no intermediate battery made obsolete every
battleship in the world. The name is a reference to the family motto of
First Lord of the Admiralty John Fisher "Fear God, and Dreadnought".
All battleships of the all big gun type became known as Dreadnoughts.
In Star Trek fandom the
Dreadnought has usually meant a ship with three nacelles. The idea
started with the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual that
described such a ship. I use the term in that light. Dreadnought
describes any ship with the unstable three nacelle arrangement. It also
is usually gun-bunny armed to the point of ridiculousness. See Jay
Hailey's "Why Dreadnoughts"
About the Picture:
HMS Dreadnought -- Launched 1906. First of her kind, the big gun
battleship.
Aircraft
Carriers: The Aircraft
carrier was a British invention toward the close of the First World
War. Between the wars the type was not considered a threat, and ignored
by most naval limitation treaties. The sea-borne part of the Second
World war revolved around them. Today the aircraft carrier is the
highest form of naval life. All ships serve as hand maiden to the all
powerful aircraft carrier.
I have often said that the
naval analogy for Star Trek ship to ship battles is Jutland, the
famous, battle of WWI. Aircraft played no role in it. I stick to this.
No small single man vessel can pack the power and punch to do a great
ship harm. Fighters are "shuttlecraft with a harsh opinion" as a friend
calls them.
This is another ship type
that I do not have in G-trek. Star Wars uses fighters. Star Wars is
Midway. Star Trek is Jutland, not Midway. Not better, but a different
flavor. I prefer no "wars" in my "trek".
About the Picture:
USS Enterprise -- Launched 1960. The first nuclear powered aircraft
carrier and an Icon among the Star Trek set. The Enterprise continues
to serve to this day. She is the eighth US Navy ship to bear the name. .
Science Ships:
The science ship is a product of the latter half of the 20th century.
Before this ships used to do science were either old military types or
merchant men dragooned to the task. HMS Endeavor was an old
armed brig the Royal Navy really wasn't using at the time. RV Calypso, one of the most famous of all science ships, was a
converted minesweeper.
Now ships are built for the
science mission. Most carry various types of underwater gear, and
resemble salvage ships because of their flat fantails and large cranes
required to get said gear in and out of the water. They can be as
sophisticated as the US Navy's N-1 research sub, or as simple as a
rubber raft and a line to sample water at depth.
Star
Trek science ships are not restricted to space as a subject as the
oceanographic ships of today study the sea. Star Trek science ships
carry people to explore the planets and to explore space. They can be
as specialized as a sensor ship dedicated to nebulas or as general as
the USS Horatio Nelson in my story Destinations, a
converted Miranda class ship.
In general the science ship
is heavily leveraged to do science. She is usually armed,. But only to
the point or running like Hell and calling for help.
I consider the science ship a
third tier vessel in the exploration of space. Scouts and light
cruisers find, heavy cruisers refine and define, sciences ships squeeze
every bit of data from the target.
About the Pictures: RV Calypso -- Tiny, isn't it? The Calypso
is arguably the most famous oceanographic research vessel ever.
Every school kid of my generation had to have seen the many
television specials with Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the Calypso.
USS
Equinox -- Nova class science ship first seen in Star Trek Voyager.
Ship Classes
What is a ship "class"? When
a naval man speaks of a ship "class" they are referring to the design a
ship was built to. Ship classes can encompass as few as a single
vessel, or number in the hundreds.
While vessels may start with
a single design if the ships are built in different yards they can have
notable differences even on commissioning. Ships have always been hand
built objects. Only once has the building of ships been managed as a
assembly line task. Historically ships have not been needed in numbers
great enough to require mass assembly construction. Only once has that
circumstance occurred. During WWII cargo ships were required in record
numbers. Henry Kaiser rose to the challenge, and in one case his yards
built a Liberty ship in four days. (The joke goes; The local bathing
beauty was awarded the honor of christening a liberty ship for the most
war bonds sold that quarter. She arrived at the shipyard and was taken
to the scaffolding. The bunting was in place and the required
dignitaries present. The only thing missing was the ship. "Where's the
ship?" She said. The chief builder replied. "Swing the bottle Honey, it
will be there.")
Secondly, once a ship is
built to a class that never changes. No matter what kind of refits the
ship undergoes, she is always considered part of the class she was
built under. The USS Tennessee was likely one of the most refit
ships in the US fleet of the 1939 to 1946 period. Through all of that
she remained a "Tennessee class" battleship. I am of the opinion that
those fans that have the idea that a ship's class changes with refits
are thinking of aircraft models. A model of aircraft can be sent back
to the factory and upgraded to the next models. B52g models can be
upgraded to B52h models. However, this is not the case with ships. I
prefer the naval model of "classes" not the aircraft model. Enterprise
prime no matter the changes remains a Constitution class heavy
cruiser.
The Epiphany Trek
UFP is an amoeba 400 light years across and some 200 light years thick.
The amount of space this covers is staggering. To even come close to an
adequate patrol Starfleet needs 40,000 patrol capable ships. 8,000,000
people to man and support those ships (numbers explained below).
As a result the ship classes
of Starfleet are not going to be small. The long list of Constitution
class ships in the Tech Manual would be a bare start on the fleet
required.
I assume different fleet
yards have their own favored designs, the good ones get upgraded and
more of them get built.
The Ships of Epiphany Trek fall into the following classes.
USS Ulysses S Grant
NCC-107 -- Lenin '33 class heavy cruiser later
leveraged as a frigate.
In spite of the small size
compared to later vessels, the Lenin class ships are the heavy
cruisers of their era. The Lenin design was built between 2120 and 2139
and had 36 examples built. The Lenin '33 class had five ships
and can also be called the Grant class as she was the first
ship of that construction group.
The Lenins were hard used
ships. Over half fell in the Romulan war. Only the Ulysses S Grant
remains in the Starflight Museum to remind people what the early days
of Starfleet were like.
USS
Kongo NCC-1710 -- Constitution II class heavy cruiser.
The classic TOS Star Trek
ship. The Kongo was in the second group of Constitution
class ships built and slightly upgraded in internal systems. She also
has a different bridge hump. (the Tech manual look, not the shooting
model teardrop) Her second Captain also put his stamp on the ship with
an extended deck one to create a Captain's day room and a small
conference area. In 2263 she got an upgraded main deflector due to
damage in service. This remained her look for the rest of her service
life.
The Kongo was one of
eventually over a hundred of her class. All were hard used and few
survive even in museums. In spite of the USS Enterprise the
class was not amenable to upgrades. Many different approaches were
tried and over a dozen variants of the Constitution class exist
in refit not counting the one off jobs like the Kongo.
The USS Republic
remains at the Starflight Museum, the USS Kongo is in private
hands and is docked at the El Nanth Spacedock.
USS Mitchell Paige
NCC-1942 -- Miranda class heavy frigate.
The Mitchell Paige
was built as a frigate. In 2180 she was pulled off active duty and
turned into a tug/frigate as an experiment in a ship that could pull
damaged vessels out of the line of battle during the coming War with
the Klingons. The explosion of Praxis derailed that plan. The Mitchell
Paige remained in service for over 100 years. She can be seen at
the Starflight Museum. She was considered a Miranda class to
the end.
The Mirandas where built in
their hundreds. The type was in production even early into the 24th
century. Dozens of variants exist. Frigates, cruisers, science ships,
and even as supply ships. The Mirandas endure.
USS
Kongo NCC-10455 -- Ambassador class heavy cruiser. The Kongo
was one of the first of the Ambassador class ships. Indeed she
as built in the first run of that class. Thirty five years into her
career she underwent a drastic refit. The newly upgraded ship met the
expectations of her redesign and two more Ambassadors where refit to
the Kongo standard. Formally the Ambassador class, Kongo
refit. All are still in service. No further plans exist to refit
further Ambassadors as the number still in service is becoming
limited.
USS Hadrian NCC 10475 -- Ambassador class heavy
cruiser. Second ship of the Kongo refit.
USS Questing CB-5
-- Manta class heavy frigate.
The Questing is an
Ane designed frigate. A pure fighting ship of limited legs. She is the
newest ship in Epiphany Trek and hasn't seen much in the way of refits.
Starfleet Numbers
The scale of the Federation
is numbers beyond easy grasp. We are told it has 150 members. If the
average population of each member is 5 billion beings, which I consider
low balling the total, you have a Federation population of
750,000,000,000 beings. That is seven hundred and fifty billion people.
One hundred and twenty five people for every man woman and child alive
on Earth today. Do you have a spare bedroom? We might need it. Keep in
mind that this is a low-balled estimate of the population of the 150
Federation members. If you count in all colonies and worlds associated
with the Federation, but not full members that figure grows. It doesn't
even address the people living on PD protected worlds, non-member
worlds in the Federation space, allies that are not full members, any
hostile or semi hostile empires and the client races therein. And that
covers a fraction of the total of the Galaxy.
Being an old gamer I tend to
lock things down where I can. Based on the old FASA maps I use to place
things in the Epiphany Trek universe the Federation looks something
like this. There are 150 Federation members spread over a rough area
some 400 by 200 light years. The fastest ships take over two months to
cross that space (warp 9.5 cruise, 6 lys/day), most take four months or
more(warp 8 cruise, 3 lys/day). You are never close enough to the
nearest person that needs help. If you turn the Federation into a
sphere 300 light years across that means it contains (gulp) 7,951,924
cubic light years.
Based on that figure I
estimate a Starfleet of 40,000 patrol capable ships. This does not
count the ships that are required to support those 40,000 ships. That
elispoid of 400x200 light years will take 40,000 ships and swallow them
all while moaning for more. To support those 40,000 ships you need
80,000,000 people. It sounds like a lot but that is a staffing level of
2000 beings for every ship patrolling. If the US had armed forces of
equal size on a per capa basis it would number 24,000. Eighty would
come from my home town of Detroit.
That is one patrol ship per
198.7 cubic light years, if every ship patrols. I use 20 light year
sectors. That gives each sector 40 ships to patrol its 8000 cubic light
years. The Federation has one thousand sectors. If you spread them
right you can get everywhere within one day of a starship, provided
they are least the warp 8 cruise ships.
Consider again the scale. If
the sun is a basketball, Earth is a bullet point. It is a city block
from the Sun. The Kuiper belt starts about 5 miles out. Alpha Centari
is 4200 miles away. A ship is about the size of a small molecule. Space
is frigging HUGE. You could scatter the entire 40,000 ship patrol
fleet, and the 80,000 support ships, plus a 500,000 estimated civilian
ships into the Sol system, toss a planet though and never hit anything.
If the whole model was a 10 mile diameter globe and the 620,000 ships
were water molecules the globe would contain a vacuum harder than the
interstellar medium.
Here is my breakdown
of the 40,000 ship Starfleet. The numbers are based on the fighting
strength of the Royal Navy in 1915. The height of
the "big gun" navy, and the navy that fought the Battle of Jutland. My
force multiplier is 68 to get the 40,000 ship Starfleet. I distributed
types and numbers as I saw fit.
Starfleet Type |
Based On |
Frigates: 4,216 |
Battleships: 62 |
Heavy Frigates: 612 |
Battlecruisers: 9 |
Heavy Cruisers: 3,196 |
Cruisers: 43
Flotilla leaders: 4 |
Light Cruisers: 4,352 |
Light cruisers: 64 |
S&R patrol cutters: 15,368 |
Torpedo boat destroyers: 226 |
Escorts: 7,208 |
Torpedo boats: 106 |
Scouts: 4,828 |
Submarines: 71 |
Patrol Strength: 39,780 |
|
Starfleet Auxiliary and Support Fleet. |
Warp shuttles (Runabouts): 20,332 |
Miscellaneous vessels (sloops, gunboats, depot ships
etc): 72
Motor boats: 156
Yachts: 71 |
Civilian Contract Supply ships: 2992 |
Armed merchant cruisers: 44 |
Science Ships 6392 |
Admiralty trawlers: 13
Admiralty trawlers (late fleet sweepers): 8
Oilers: 73 |
Couriers 1224 |
Fleet messengers: 18 |
Assault ships: 340
6 hours to move at various starbases. |
Seaplane ships: 5 |
Support Ships: 38,080
All types from freighter and tugs to mobile repair
ships. The numbers
could be used to further break it down. |
Ammunition carriers: 40
Store carriers: 25
Frozen meat carriers: 5
Squadron supply ships: 15
Flotilla supply ships: 5
Colliers: 467
Special service steamers: 3 |
Personnel Transportation Ship: 136
A few liners got acquired along the way. |
Accommodation ships 2 |
Salvage ships: 68 |
Salvage ships: 1 |
Subspace Relay tenders: 136 |
Marconi ships: 2 |
Hospital Ships: 748 |
Hospital ships: 11 |
|
Not part of Starfleet, but available on
request. |
Planetary Auxiliary Defense Ships: 95,268
All are part of various member world defense forces and
represent all types from frigates to supply ships. |
Mine sweeping trawlers, auxiliary patrol trawlers,
drifters etc 1359
Paddle minesweepers 12
Mine carriers 7
Armed boarding steamers 23 |
Data on the strength of the British Royal Navy
is supplied by the Royal
Naval Museum, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, Hampshire
E-Mail:library@royalnavalmuseum.org
The source document is: Churchill, W S - Memorandum on state of the
Navy, May 1915. We offer our thanks for their efforts on our behalf
Comments or questions on this file? Mail Here
Return to -- Epiphany Trek: The Files
Copyright 2004, Garry Stahl
All rights reserved, reprint only with permission.
The preceding file is a work of fiction. All ships are
fictional. Any resemblance to ships living or dead is coincidental. All
original characters ships, races, and situations are copyright Garry
Stahl.
"Star Trek" is copyright Paramount Pictures.
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