Twelve Like It In The Fleet

[Wingsley]

In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk escorts Capt. Christopher into the turbolift, and the following conversation ensues:

KIRK: Bridge.

CHRISTOPHER: Must have taken quite a lot
to build a ship like this.

KIRK: There are only 12 like it in the fleet.

CHRISTOPHER: I see. Did the Navy--

KIRK: We're a combined service, Captain.
Our authority is the United Earth Space Probe Agency.

CHRISTOPHER: United Earth?

KIRK: This is very difficult to explain. We're from your future. A time warp placed us here. It was an accident.

CHRISTOPHER: You seem to have a lot of them.

​

There's been a great deal made of Kirk's "twelve like it in the fleet" claim.

Fans have taken it to mean there are twelve Federation starships-of-the-line, period. Others have interpreted Kirk to mean there are only twelve Constitution-class vessels in the Federation at that time; there could have been more starships-of-the-line of other classes, like earlier versions of the Miranda.

Both of these approaches have problems, though. It was stressed by Kirk and other characters that the Enterprise and starships like her were special, the best the Federation could launch, and that the Enterprise was the best of the best. Yet during TOS alone, at least three starships were destroyed or otherwise lost, (Constellation, Intrepid and Defiant) and a fourth (Excalibur) wrecked to the point where she would obviously be considered a loss. There is also evidence of other starships being lost in deep space (Archon, Horizon) in the Federation's first hundred years. Unless the Federation made a practice of putting many ships in service, such losses would be catastrophic to the Starfleet effort. Clearly, starships in TOS and pre-TOS often survive, but some do not return home. But how great are those losses compared to the size of the overall fleet?

Franz Joseph (1975 Tech Manual) interpreted Kirk's remark with a different twist: The Constitution class of starships, the heavy cruisers of the fleet, were one of the biggest ship classes for starships-of-the-line, aka "Class I starships", numbering over 100 ships. But the Constitution-class ships weren't all built at once, but rather phased in over a period of years. Each group of ships launched was a subclass, and probably were built to a different spec as technology permitted; this would explain the difference in appearance between "The Cage", "Where No Man..." and TOS; perhaps each time the Enterprise had been previously built (or refit) to the latest subclass. FJ postulated that Enterprise NCC-1701 was launched as part of the original Constitution-class, a class of 13 starships. Other subclasses supposedly followed, but the first subclass of 13 were the "originals". (Maybe tech pathfinders?) FJ also added other starship classes, suggesting that there may be at least a couple hundred, if not hundreds, of starships-of-the-line comprising various classes and sub-classes in a much more robust fleet.

So, was FJ onto a good idea? Is his vision of Starfleet substantial enough to show how the fleet continued exploration without being on a war footing, Klingons and Romulans notwithstanding?

Perhaps Kirk's "twelve like it in the fleet" remark meant that there are only 12 Class I Starships (of various classes) in Starfleet who hail Earth as their home port. If the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, and other Federation members also sponsored a similar number of ships from each world, a core group of only 17 worlds would easily push the total number of starships up to over 200. Would this make sense?

 

[Timewalker]

In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk escorts Capt. Christopher into the turbolift, and the following conversation ensues:

KIRK: Bridge.

CHRISTOPHER: Must have taken quite a lot
to build a ship like this.

KIRK: There are only 12 like it in the fleet.

CHRISTOPHER: I see. Did the Navy--

KIRK: We're a combined service, Captain.
Our authority is the United Earth Space Probe Agency.

CHRISTOPHER: United Earth?

KIRK: This is very difficult to explain. We're from your future. A time warp placed us here. It was an accident.

CHRISTOPHER: You seem to have a lot of them.

​

There's been a great deal made of Kirk's "twelve like it in the fleet" claim.

Fans have taken it to mean there are twelve Federation starships-of-the-line, period. Others have interpreted Kirk to mean there are only twelve Constitution-class vessels in the Federation at that time; there could have been more starships-of-the-line of other classes, like earlier versions of the Miranda.

Both of these approaches have problems, though. It was stressed by Kirk and other characters that the Enterprise and starships like her were special, the best the Federation could launch, and that the Enterprise was the best of the best. Yet during TOS alone, at least three starships were destroyed or otherwise lost, (Constellation, Intrepid and Defiant) and a fourth (Excalibur) wrecked to the point where she would obviously be considered a loss. There is also evidence of other starships being lost in deep space (Archon, Horizon) in the Federation's first hundred years. Unless the Federation made a practice of putting many ships in service, such losses would be catastrophic to the Starfleet effort. Clearly, starships in TOS and pre-TOS often survive, but some do not return home. But how great are those losses compared to the size of the overall fleet?

Franz Joseph (1975 Tech Manual) interpreted Kirk's remark with a different twist: The Constitution class of starships, the heavy cruisers of the fleet, were one of the biggest ship classes for starships-of-the-line, aka "Class I starships", numbering over 100 ships. But the Constitution-class ships weren't all built at once, but rather phased in over a period of years. Each group of ships launched was a subclass, and probably were built to a different spec as technology permitted; this would explain the difference in appearance between "The Cage", "Where No Man..." and TOS; perhaps each time the Enterprise had been previously built (or refit) to the latest subclass. FJ postulated that Enterprise NCC-1701 was launched as part of the original Constitution-class, a class of 13 starships. Other subclasses supposedly followed, but the first subclass of 13 were the "originals". (Maybe tech pathfinders?) FJ also added other starship classes, suggesting that there may be at least a couple hundred, if not hundreds, of starships-of-the-line comprising various classes and sub-classes in a much more robust fleet.

So, was FJ onto a good idea? Is his vision of Starfleet substantial enough to show how the fleet continued exploration without being on a war footing, Klingons and Romulans notwithstanding?

Perhaps Kirk's "twelve like it in the fleet" remark meant that there are only 12 Class I Starships (of various classes) in Starfleet who hail Earth as their home port. If the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, and other Federation members also sponsored a similar number of ships from each world, a core group of only 17 worlds would easily push the total number of starships up to over 200. Would this make sense?

There is an article in one of The Best of Trek books with this exact title and a very similar premise.

I always interpreted Kirk's statement to mean starships of the same "make and model" as the Enterprise. Even in the early TOS era the Federation was a pretty big area to cover, and they obviously had enemies who might decide that war would be a great idea. A mere twelve (thirteen?) starships just wouldn't be enough.

 

[Unicron]

That's pretty much how I view it. And I think FJ did okay, with the initial batch being twelve and then expanding a bit. It's worth noting that the big section of names is for two separate subclasses - the Achernar class (CH1732-1799) and the Tikopai class (CH1800-1842). They can be seen as variations on the Constitution, but different models than the Enterprise and her sister ships from the original batch.

 

[Wingsley]

Here's what I was thinking:

"The Cage": We get to see the inside of the ship more clearly than the outside. Perhaps, for sake of argument, this is the ship's original "Constitution class" form, looking most similar to when she launched.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before": We get to see both the inside and the outside more clearly. The Big E is visibly different from both "The Cage" and the rest of TOS. Perhaps at this stage she had already been refit to a "Bonhomme Richard" -subclass spec.

TOS: Now the ship looks even more different than in the previous two stories. Perhaps by then, she had been upgraded yet again, this time to "Achernar" -sublass spec.

TMP: The last major, and most profound, refit, the original 1701 is described by Decker as " an almost totally new enterprise. You don't know her a tenth as well as I do." This ambitious effort could be the "Tikopai" subclass.


Each major refit/subclass would be significantly more refined than the previous specs.

 

[Timo]

It was stressed by Kirk and other characters that the Enterprise and starships like her were special, the best the Federation could launch, and that the Enterprise was the best of the best.

Actually, I find very little evidence for this. Kirk's ship was never referred to as "the best", nor was it really prioritized when Starfleet wanted to get a dangerous and demanding mission done. "Starships" as a category were admittedly considered the cream of the cream, but no direct connection was made between this term and Kirk's specific variant of spacecraft.

Also, the very idea that there would be twelve like Kirk's ship "in the fleet" establishes that there exists a "fleet". It would be odd indeed if we were told to interpret the dialogue as stating that the fleet consists of nothing but the twelve ships Kirk mentions.

Also, it sounds inevitable that Starfleet would have had different ship designs in use in the years preceding the introduction of Kirk's ship type, and a select few of those would have been the cream of the cream of their day. Surely a certain percentage of the older ships would continue service alongside "Kirk's generation", and a certain percentage of more modern ships would already be starting their Starfleet service while Kirk's ship trundled on. Thus, it would be logically inevitable that the "fleet" consist of a number of starship types of which "Kirk's twelve" would be just one part (as Kirk most probably wouldn't refer to the older and newer designs as being "like" his ship). We can argue whether that would be a minor part or a major one, but we can't really argue it would be the only part.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

"Starships" as a category were admittedly considered the cream of the cream, but no direct connection was made between this term and Kirk's specific variant of spacecraft

How special are starships? I took them to mean a ship capable of travel between star systems, is this so special in the TOS era?

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

Umm...United Earth Space Probe Agency? I'm not certain if that conversation should still be considered cannon at all anymore. In the following decades of Star Trek no one ever refers to the United Earth Space Probe Agency. Furthermore, why would a space probe agency be concerned with starships? Why would a probe agency need twelve starships? Sure, a starship can gather data in the way a probe can, but I find it more likely an organization of that name would literally deal with probes sent on a short or long distance missions to gather information on nebulae and star systems and the like.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Subsequent series use or disuse of United Earth Space Probe Agency have no bearing on whether or not it is a canon element of Star Trek. That being said, UESPA is referenced visually in both VOY and ENT.

UESPA is mentioned in at least two episodes and in TiY alongside Star Fleet Command, implying they are separate but affiliated organizations, a model like NATO. On individual missions, the Enterprise operated under UESPA authority, the Intrepid Vulcan Space Central with similar authorities on Andor, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri controlling ships crewed by those species. Joint operations are conducted by Star Fleet Command.

As for the term "probe", in this context it doesn't refer to the craft used but rather the Agency's mission, to probe space. Verb, not noun. NASA operates both manned and unmanned craft, why can't UESPA?

 

[Forbin]

Oh, something we've never talked about before!



I think we're overthinking it. I think Kirk said exactly what I thought he said when I was 10 years old: There are exactly twelve ships just like the Enterprise in the fleet. There may be other ships of other types, the fleet may have a few hundred ships in it, but there are only 12 Constitutions, and they're the biggest, coolest, most specialest ships in the whole fleet. They are the "first rates" of their day.

Don't go spoilin' it for me.

And the impression I got of "the fleet" was that it too was like the Navy Royal of Nelson's/Hornblower's time - a few hundred ships of various rates spread all over the world (space), exploring and policing. Individual ships so far from home that the captains have great responsibility and autonomy, the fleet so dispersed that running into another is rare and unexpected.

 

[Forbin]

See my fairly recent thread "Musings on the 12-ship fleet" for more if you can find it. The search function here turns up everything BUT when I try.

 

[Wingsley]

Umm...United Earth Space Probe Agency? I'm not certain if that conversation should still be considered cannon at all anymore. In the following decades of Star Trek no one ever refers to the United Earth Space Probe Agency. Furthermore, why would a space probe agency be concerned with starships? Why would a probe agency need twelve starships? Sure, a starship can gather data in the way a probe can, but I find it more likely an organization of that name would literally deal with probes sent on a short or long distance missions to gather information on nebulae and star systems and the like.

UESPA is referred to repeatedly in both TOS and ENT.

It can readily be inferred that each Federation member-world can sponsor a Federation starship or starships as part of the Federation starfleet, and that each member-world probably has a sponsoring organization (such as UESPA and Vulcan Space Central) for building ships to spec, and possibly recruiting applicants to Starfleet.

 

[Wingsley]

Oh, something we've never talked about before!



I think we're overthinking it. I think Kirk said exactly what I thought he said when I was 10 years old: There are exactly twelve ships just like the Enterprise in the fleet. There may be other ships of other types, the fleet may have a few hundred ships in it, but there are only 12 Constitutions, and they're the biggest, coolest, most specialest ships in the whole fleet. They are the "first rates" of their day.

Don't go spoilin' it for me.

And the impression I got of "the fleet" was that it too was like the Navy Royal of Nelson's/Hornblower's time - a few hundred ships of various rates spread all over the world (space), exploring and policing. Individual ships so far from home that the captains have great responsibility and autonomy, the fleet so dispersed that running into another is rare and unexpected.

This is another possibility, but how many Constitution-class ships were revealed in TREK? I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than 13...

I do like your "biggest, coolest, most specialest" remark.

In "Bread and Circuses", Capt. Merrik tells Proconsul Claudius Markus that the Enterprise is special; of Kirk Merrik says: "He commands not just a spaceship, proconsul, but a starship. A very special vessel and crew." In "The Immunity Syndrome", Spock remarks in his log that the Enterprise is "the finest ship in the fleet." And which ship does Starfleet send to intercept V'Ger? The Enterprise.

 

[HobartFloyt]

And the impression I got of "the fleet" was that it too was like the Navy Royal of Nelson's/Hornblower's time - a few hundred ships of various rates spread all over the world (space), exploring and policing. Individual ships so far from home that the captains have great responsibility and autonomy, the fleet so dispersed that running into another is rare and unexpected.

That's what I always understood the concept to be. As such, it always irritates me in the later shows when it seems like they're constantly calling home to Starfleet and talking in real time. I don't want to see some flunky following micromanagement orders. I suppose VOY was an attempt to cut the self-imposed apron strings.

Also, as far as ships and their missions go I would think that Starfleet would have to leave the "distant stations" model of Nelson/Hornblower, where individual cruisers are important, and move to the "fleet in being" form which puts an emphasis on multiple ships operating in concert. There would probably still be smaller research and exploration vessels but major combatants would operate as parts of squadrons, task forces, and fleets.

 

[Timo]

In "The Immunity Syndrome", Spock remarks in his log that the Enterprise is "the finest ship in the fleet."

Taken in context, though, this emotion-laden entry involves Spock sucking up to the crew, not to the technological marvel that is the ship. Kirk says similar things in his pep talk to his dying comrades, and shouldn't be taken as the sound of literal truth, either; every skipper would consider his crew the best in situations like that.

Elsewhere in the episode, Spock argues that the Enterprise is no better a ship or a ship/crew team than the Intrepid, reminding Kirk that the Vulcan crew must already have taken the very same measures Kirk is considering, yet still failed and perished.

And which ship does Starfleet send to intercept V'Ger? The Enterprise.

That's more an issue of which ship is the most available or even expendable. Had there been a Miranda there with a certifiably functional warp drive, and no James T. Kirk with ego overflow problems to twist Starfleet's arm, the Enterprise would have remained on dock. Had both those two ships been fully operational, the choice could probably have gone either way.

It can readily be inferred that each Federation member-world can sponsor a Federation starship or starships as part of the Federation starfleet, and that each member-world probably has a sponsoring organization (such as UESPA and Vulcan Space Central) for building ships to spec, and possibly recruiting applicants to Starfleet.

To be sure, UESPA already coexisted with the UE Starfleet, so it probably isn't anything so simple as "the name of the Earth national organization feeding into UFP Starfleet". More probably, it's something like the research-exploration arm of the old United Earth forces, with UESF the space combat arm (and UE Military the ground combat arm, with UEMACO its offensive spearhead?). Once the UFP Starfleet rolls out, UESF is probably reduced more in role than UESPA, even though both may survive alongside the UFP Starfleet, either as suborganizations or then "national" partners.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trevacious]

but there are only 12 Constitutions, and they're the biggest, coolest, most specialest ships in the whole fleet. They are the "first rates" of their day.

That's it. I think of them as the peak of Federation engineering achievement to that point. These 12 are the only ships packed with the power, range, durability and self-sufficiency to tackle those 5 year missions of deep space exploration and so many other varied duties on top of that.

(I assumed there had to be more ships in the fleet, sure, but I figured they were all smaller and tailored to more specific, routine duties. Mere spaceships.)

They can weather cosmic phenomena and conflicts that would tear other ships apart. They're designed to be all-purpose, which makes them the best first line responders to deal with emergencies and the unknown.

In the Sciences, they're so well-equipped, I remember Captain Kirk telling Commodore Stocker, "There's very little a Starbase can do that a Starship can't."

They're quite simply the best. And there are only 12 of them, which makes serving aboard one a very Special posting. Only the best officers and crew in the fleet make it aboard one.

(Not that the pressure of Being the best doesn't lead to serious troubles. How many Captains and Wannabe Captains were seen to have Completely Cracked Up in the original series? Kirk himself revealed the strain at times, and seeing these other Captains falter had to make him question himself all the more.)

And yeah, I expect the losses of crews and ships at this level Were devastating. How many original-series Constitutions were lost?

From what I can remember:

Constellation -- ship and crew
Defiant -- ship and crew
Intrepid -- ship and crew
Excalibur -- crew killed, ship badly damaged (probably refurbished)
Exeter -- crew killed, ship intact (re-crewed and returned to service by Trek fans, heheh...)

Wow, I just looked at an entry about Exeter ("The Omega Glory") on Wikipedia -- it was Six Months before anybody came looking for them. There's the vastness of Space for ya...

 

[Timo]

To be sure, that happened only once - in "The Enterprise Incident" (where three weeks are mentioned).

In other cases, the delay was not given a quantitative length. All we witnessed was that there was no immediate response to the status report or course-of-action declaration that Kirk sent to his superiors. And that could mean anything between a years-long delay and a standard procedure wherein status reports aren't commented on by the recipient, or the Comms officer doesn't relay the recipient's acknowledgement to the skipper, even if there is an immediate response.

I'm still not convinced that the 12 ships that were like Kirk's were the only starships in the fleet. There simply must have been starships in the fleet that weren't like Kirk's - the older and newer designs, at least, even if no parallel designs existed for some reason at that time although they do exist at all other times.

While clearly there weren't all that many starships overall, there probably were at least two dozen, unless something truly special was going on. Perhaps all the older starships had been lost in a recent war? (But Kirk doesn't seem to believe in recent wars.) Perhaps no newer starships were being designed and built because of budgetary problems? Perhaps there was a new policy where starships had fallen in temporary disfavor and lesser spacecraft were being produced in their stead? Unless we dream up explanations like these, it just won't do to think that all the starships in the fleet were of one and the same design and age.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

...I think we're overthinking it. I think Kirk said exactly what I thought he said when I was 10 years old: There are exactly twelve ships just like the Enterprise in the fleet. There may be other ships of other types, the fleet may have a few hundred ships in it, but there are only 12 Constitutions, and they're the biggest, coolest, most specialest ships in the whole fleet. They are the "first rates" of their day....

I agree with Forbin. If Captain Christopher was brought abourd a Nimitz-Class aircraft carrier, the ships captain could have said "there are only 10 like it in the fleet". Obviously he would mena there are only 10 Nimitz-Class aircraft carriers, not just 10 ships of any kind in the entire navy.

 

[A beaker full of death]

People keep forgetting that starships, as depicted in TOS, filled the same role as aircraft carriers in WWII. Hence the aircraft carrier names. They were the centerpieces of the fleet.

 

[Wingsley]

I haven't forgotten that. But look at the list of starships in TOS: the USS Constellation, the USS Defiant, the USS Enterprise, the USS Excalibur, the USS Exeter, the USS Hood, the USS Intrepid, USS Lexington, and the USS Potemkin. (We assume that the Intrepid was a Constitution-class vessel, without even actually seeing it in the "original" (pre-remastered) TOS. Does anyone have a list of carriers to match up with these names, and others to fill out the balance of Kirk's 13?

One problem I see with the only-13 Constitution-class theory is that of the vessels listed above, the USS Constellation, the USS Defiant, the USS Enterprise, the USS Excalibur, the USS Exeter, and the USS Lexington all appeared to have human captains during their appearances in TOS, and the Defiant, Enterprise, Exeter and Lexington appeared to have either mostly- or all-human crews as well. We did not see any non-human captains of starships during TOS, although we're told that "Intrepid is manned by Vulcans". So if there were only 13 Constitution-class vessels in Starfleet during TOS, and Travacious' list above of losses of ships and crews from this class are that serious, the peacetime Federation is suffering wartime losses. None of the Enterprise's officers, or any Starfleet guest characters seemed to have a commensurate sense of urgency about them.

The only thing I would surmise (based on no clear evidence) is that if Starfleet had only 13 Connies during TOS, then Starfleet must have a much larger pool of "Connie Lite" light-cruiser-style ships that would be almost as capable as the Enterprise, but somewhat less massive and with smaller crews, like Starscape's Spitfire. (additional views: 2, 3)

Otherwise, Kirk's 13 would refer to the historical group of the original Constitution-class, Constitution-subclass prototypes/pathfinders/first-production-run, allowing for subsequent subclasses of Connies like those listed in FJ's Tech Manual.

 

[Timo]

"Wartime losses in peacetime" is probably standard for space exploration in Star Trek. The Klingons might well have the right idea, treating space as one big battlefield regardless of the current status of diplomacy.

Timo Saloniemi