Fate of the original 12 Constitution Class Starships

[alensatemybuick1]

My recollection (paraphrasing, this would have been many years ago) from reading the novelization of TMP was that Kirk was the only captain to bring his ship home following his 5 year mission with his ship and crew "relatively intact", and that there was a humble footnote by Kirk himself to the effect that he lost a number of crew and thus deserved no special singling out. Assuming my recollection is essentially correct, the other starships may not have all been totally lost, but their crews decimated or nearly so.

 

[J.T.B.]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the names Hood, Valiant, Intrepid, Excalibur, and Enterprise have also been used by the Royal Navy at various times over its long history.

"Hood" is AFAIK only a Royal Navy name, no US connection. I believe the only HMS Excalibur was a submarine equipped with an experimental, scary-dangerous peroxide reaction powerplant. Her sister Explorer became known as the "Exploder."

 

[OpenMaw]

"Hood" is AFAIK only a Royal Navy name, no US connection. I believe the only HMS Excalibur was a submarine equipped with an experimental, scary-dangerous peroxide reaction powerplant. Her sister Explorer became known as the "Exploder."

That's what we call a "morale booster"

 

[JonnyQuest037]

personally, I think they were named after WW2 American aircraft carriers - as a statement of deterrence to the Klingon Empire. I'm not American, it just seems like a logical honor for Starfleet's finest ships in an era of Cold War with the Klingons.

Do you mean a statement for Starfleet, or for the Klingons? I can't imagine the gesture meaning anything to the Klingons unless they were exceptionally aware of Earth history.

 

[MAGolding]

No, that's not correct at all.

That line in "The Doomsday Machine" only means that all ships with that configuration (whatever configuration that Spock had in mind, by the way) are starships. It does not mean necessarily that all starships have that configuration.

If I see a Mustang and say, "By configuration, a sports car," it does not mean that all sports cars are Mustangs.

This is the dialog:

PALMER: Sir, I'm picking up a ship's disaster beacon.
KIRK: Try to raise it, Lieutenant.
SPOCK: I have it on the sensors, Captain. By configuration, a starship stopped in space. She appears to be drifting.
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/35.htm

So the configuration that the Enterprise and Constellation shared was only used by starships. I guess it is possible but not proven that some starships had different configurations. Spock did not identify the class of starship. So either there was only one class of starship or Spock was not yet able to see the configuration clearly enough to tell what class of starship it was.

Spock's words seem to prove that other Federation civilian and starfleet interstellar ships that were not classed as starships had a different configuration than starships and Spock was already able to tell that the Constellation had a starship configuration and not the configuration of another type of ship.

In "Bead and Circuses":

CLAUDIUS: You're a clever liar, Captain Kirk. Merikus was a spaceship captain. I've observed him thoroughly. Your species has no such strength.
MERIK: He commands not just a spaceship, Proconsul, but a starship. A very special vessel and crew. I tried for such a command.

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/43.htm

Clearly a starship is a much greater ship than a civilian space ship, and probably much greater than the average Starfleet ship. Starships are probably Constitution (and maybe other) class ships (and not necessarily all the members of those classes) that are armed equal to (or perhaps are members of) the top classes of warships, and also equipped with research facilities equal to the best pure research ships, and are assigned to special types of missions where both qualities may be needed, such as five year missions, for example.

Thus we need not assume that the Federation has only 12 or 13 starships total at a time for exploration, or that its defense force has only 12 or 13 top level warships.

And thus there is no need to assume that all of the starships seen in TOS belong to the Constitution class since it is possible that other starship classes closely resemble the Constitution class on the outside.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

And thus there is no need to assume that all of the starships seen inTOS belong to the Constitution class since it is possible that other starship classes closely resemble the Constitution class on the out side.
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/43.htm

If TOS-R had made Excalibur, Lexington, or any of the other starships in "The Ultimate Computer" not look like Connies, the Interwebz would have melted down from all of the nerdrage.

 

[CrazyMatt]

If TOS-R had made Excalibur, Lexington, or any of the other starships in "The Ultimate Computer" not look like Connies, the Interwebz would have melted down from all of the nerdrage.

As well they should have! Keep in mind that GR envisioned a Starship as a very special kind of vessel. The original dedication plaque listed the Enterprise as being of the "Starship Class" (someone have a picture of this?), and we found out in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" that there were only "12 like it." To me that means GR intended that there were 12 starships (at that time) that all were configured the same as the Enterprise.

The starship names listed in the Roddenberry/Whitfield book would seem to be as close to cannon as we could find... but of course, that list doesn't include the Defiant. Again reality and imagination come into conflict!

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Again reality and imagination come into conflict!

Imagination and imagination.

 

[alensatemybuick1]

Not all spaceships are starships, but all starships are spaceships.

Compare to what Shawnster said in post 360 at the end of this this page/thread:

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/original-12-constitution-class-ships.259462/page-18

I knew this whole thread was a re-run; I guess being TOS fans we like those here

 

[johnnybear]

Though I must admit I like the idea that Starship and by extension a "starship commander" (something said in both DDM and Errand of Mercy) is a special thing above and beyond just any space ship, even in the Federation starfleet.

And in Bread and Circuses by Captain Merrik!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Not all spaceships are starships, but all starships are spaceships.

That's a bit like all Time Lords are Gallifreyan but not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords line from Doctor Who!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Well, according to the FJ Tech manual, the originals were:

Constellation
Constitution
Enterprise
Excalibur
Exeter
Farragut
Hood
Intrepid
Kongo
Lexington
Potemkin
Republic
Valiant
Yorktown

That's 14, not 12, I know.

The FASA Federation Ship Recognition Manual lists the original twelve as those above minus the Valiant and the Kongo.

Canon or not, take it for what it's worth.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the names Hood, Valiant, Intrepid, Excalibur, and Enterprise have also been used by the Royal Navy at various times over its long history.

Like most of the names but Kongo? Kongo doesn't seem right somehow!
JB

 

[Solariabsg25]

Regarding the fates of the Connies we know at least two survived into TNG.

Picard mentioned the original version that was at the Starfleet Museum, and we briefly see the wreckage of a refit version (a re-use of the wrecked Enterprise miniature from Star Trek III) in the starship graveyard at Wolf 359. There is of course, considering the vast numbers of Excelsiors and Mirandas around at the time, the possibility that Starfleet started churning out Connies after the refit design proved herself. This would however seem to also fly in the face that an almost brand spanking new Enterprise-A was scheduled for decommissioning in TUC.

 

[TheSubCommander]

And not all Mustangs are sports cars.

Very true. But then again, with Farrah Fawcett on the hood, that fact could be overlooked.

 

[USS Firefly]

Nice Mustang

 

[F. King Daniel]

There's also the Connies listed in "Operation Retrieve" from STVI. If one counts background graphics from scenes not actually in the theatrical cut.

Personally, I was never fond of the idea that the Enterprise was the only survivor of the original Constitutions. I first read it in Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, and it was at odds with all the late-TOS and movie-era novels I'd read which often had the Enterprise meeting up with her sister ships.

I also don't necessarily buy the notion that all the Connies were on 5-year missions of exploration. That seems like more of a special thing. While doing publicity for Beyond, Simon Pegg called the Enterprise "the first of the NCC-17 deep space exploration ships" or words to that effect. I quite like the idea that registry numbers may be assigned for expected/planned mission parameters rather than sequence of construction. Perhaps the Constellation was the 17th of the NCC-10 defence and patrol ships, and the Eagle the 56th of the NCC-9 Diplomatic Somethingorother vessels. Or something.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

And not all Mustangs are sports cars.

<=== Not an expert on sports cars or Mustangs!

 

[Forbin]

That's not a Mustang, it's a Mustang II! (I had one, they were crap).

 

[Forbin]

Like most of the names but Kongo? Kongo doesn't seem right somehow!
JB

Kongo was a WWII Japanese battleship. I think Gene was trying to be inclusive.

 

[Jedi Marso]

The notion that the original ships of the class were lost doesn't preclude the fact that Starfleet was building more of them all of the time, not just to replace the losses but to expand the fleet as well. Kirk's snippet to Capt. Christoper of 'there are only twelve like her in the fleet' may have simply been a reference to the original 12, not all the ones that came after. So it is by no means out of bounds that the Enterprise was encountering various sister ships on her adventures.


Again, the FJ tech manual has a humongous list of names assigned to Constitution Class ships that supposedly were built after the original run.