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Probert looking for HELP-

Probert

Probert

Starfleet Design
Red Shirt
Hi gang, it's been a while since I roamed these threads but I'm asking for some help in Next Generation Ship Numbering Systems.

My 2013 "Star Trek: Ships of the line" page is going to feature a ship we haven't seen before,... a Starfleet TUG. Yeah, that's more of a generic term for a ship that's designed for Search & Rescue as well as Salvage operations, including towing disable ships as well as wreckage.

I'm wondering, now, how to number these things. Would they also start with an "NCC" or would these types of service ships have other designations?

If you have any knowledge or ideas about this would you mind sharing?

Thanx, Andrew-
 
As far as I can dig up from TV/Movies stuff, NAR was used for civilian research craft on TNG and VOY, NCV for a Starfleet timeship on Voyager, NC for the SS Aurora in the Remastered TOS, BDR for a civilian personnel transport on DS9, NFT for the transport ships from Generations, and NSP for the Vulcan ships in TNG "Redemption".

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the N stands for "Federation-Registered". With the first C maybe indicating Starfleet service, and the second C indicating a ship of the line.
 
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I take it you're referring to a 'starship' sized tug? I think it would be registered like any of their other starships. If it's going out into the galaxy on its own it's going to have the necessary tools to sustain, defend, and transport its crew. That its mission is salvage doesn't really change anything. I always imagined Miranda class ships outfitted for taking on this duty in the movie era, and on into TNG I suppose.

If it's anything smaller than that, I think it would be assigned to a spacestation/ starship, and be labeled like any shuttlecraft. With a simple sequential numbering and a heading of its mothership. Something especially large might have a unique registry, but I'd still include the header.
 
I agree, if it's a ship being operated by Starfleet, isn't experimental and isn't part of a private operation "NCC" would seem to fit with it. As a personal conception of things I would not, however, expect the ship to be named or for them to only be named certain things/classes of things (sort of like all runabouts are named after Earth rivers.) I could seem them only being named after the area of space they're assigned to.
 
Prologic9 said:
I take it you're referring to a 'starship' sized tug? I think it would be registered like any of their other starships. If it's going out into the galaxy on its own it's going to have the necessary tools to sustain, defend, and transport its crew.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, something to think about. The ship is an overall 575 feet long and has a pair of warp engines. It is like an ocean-going Tug, as is found in today's US Navy, not to be sent into deep space disaster areas alone, normally. At the moment, there are no weapons... silly me, what is a Star Trek ship without weapons?

I haven't figured out the crew numbers but this ship is capable of taking on several lifeboat occupants and other situation survivors. And, no, I haven't calculated those numbers yet either.
 
We might also consider that while all Starfleet ships tend to get NCC, certain "support" types of Starfleet ship got additional letters in their registries in TAS.

That is, while the list of three-letter combinations at Memory Beta seems to be a list of various operating organizations, and Starfleet basically always gets NCC there, TAS further gives us NCC-F1913 for a transport ship and NCC-G1465 for a cargo drone. Perhaps a big tug would get something like NCC-T34231?

Then again, those extra letters may have been a 23rd century thing. The argument that runabouts get straight NCC numbers is a good one; difficult to see "category letters" existing if Sisko's runabout and Picard's explorer are explicitly in one and the same category!

Timo Saloniemi
 
I think all "NCC" means is that the ship is a Starfleet ship and is under the Federation's oversight. NAR would mean it's a ship being operated by an independent organization not affiliated with the Federation but may or may not be part of the science arm of Starfleet.

NX, obviously, is for an experimental vessel.

I don't think all of the other registries from other parts of the franchise over the decades need be considered as it would only complicate the issue even more. There's only three types of vessels operating one needs to consider.

Ships that operate as part of Starfleet for the Federation (NCC)

Ships that operate as part of a "private" organization or as part of Starfleet/Earth interests (apart from the collective of the Federation) (NAR)

And then experimental vessels. (NX.)

There may have to be another designation for ships that are neither Starfleet nor the Federation and are purely "privately operated" ships, they would need a designation for the same reasons modern day ships, planes and even cars still need to be registered. For this, not knowing the EU stuff, I would suggest "NP" (N being the standard prefix, whatever it may stand for, and "P" being "private.")

In the case here for Mr. Probert I would say "NCC" would fit as it would seem to be consistent for what we know through the series and movies themselves (again, ignoring the EU/game stuff) and with what we've seen with runabouts which would seem to be more or less the same type of vehicle. Hell, I'm sure the runabouts could be given a large attachment in the modular section to serve as a tug.
 
Probert said:
Hmmm, something to think about. The ship is an overall 575 feet long and has a pair of warp engines. It is like an ocean-going Tug, as is found in today's US Navy, not to be sent into deep space disaster areas alone, normally. At the moment, there are no weapons... silly me, what is a Star Trek ship without weapons?
Click to expand...
The weapons concept is a very interesting one to expand on, especially from a different vantage point. If the tug is one to protect and salvage, it would make sense that one of its tools is a powerful, precise phaser to cut things apart and open. Starship-size surgery, if you want, to get the crew and equipment out of a mess that's either not worth or impossible to clean up or tug home whole.
 
Fun project, I look forward to hearing what you and Mike decide upon, right now that is about as 'canon' as you can get :)
 
Even Starfleet pure science vessels have basic armaments for either self defense or for simple operations where phasers would be useful.
 
Vulagr said:
I'm sorry, but in this picture, isn't that a tug towing the Federation Starship behind it?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing Andy wants to make a more traditional-looking Starfleet tug to suggest there's something better out there than a ship that looks like it was slapped together out of spare parts from whatever models were laying around.

(IIRC that ship is a model (or a computer model) made of several different parts from other ships, the nacelles on it alone look like they're off of a Romulan Warbird.)
 
I'm guessing Andy wants to make a more traditional-looking Starfleet tug to suggest there's something better out there than a ship that looks like it was slapped together out of spare parts from whatever models were laying around.
Click to expand...

Except he said
"A ship we haven't seen before".
Click to expand...

Which is confusing me a bit because that picture does clearly shows a tug. Even if it's a kitbashed one. Yes I do know about Kitbashed models in DS9.
 
I'm sort of hoping that the tug design here will both look more like a Starfleet ship than this fancy contraption here - and be innovative in configuration, not merely a repeat of the good old Franz Joseph tug/tender which doesn't noticeably differ from the basic cruiser...

An NCC registry sounds good to me, in the TNG era context. But being unarmed would be atypical - even a hospital ship had phaser strips in TNG "All Good Things.."!

Timo Saloniemi
 
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