Established Trek Starship Sizes

[Mike Have-Not]

Are there any Trek starships whose size is NOT debatable :-p

I find the debates fascinating, by the way. But, are there any Trek ships that have a definite size, having been established by onscreen evidence and/or dialogue?

 

[Timo]

Dialogue establishes that the Intrepid class masses 700,000 tons, the old Constitution masses nearly one million tons, and the various shuttlecraft can be directly compared against the sizes of the actors. Anything else is more or less debatable - even runabout size, despite the existence of partial (and partially accurate) "lifesize" props.

AFAIK, no dimensions have ever been quoted for any of the Starfleet vessels, or the commonest aliens. Basically, only very small or very large opponents warrant such a mention, such as the Nomad of "The Changeling" (one meter) or the Borg Cube of "Q Who?" and "BoBW" (three kilometers on side). I think there were other such utterances regarding the huge ships, but not too many...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SilentP]

Wasn't there a dialogue quote in an early DS9 episode as to the width of a runabout (the episode with Jadzia Dax and the Initiate) when they're navigating the wormhole? And a similiar incident in an early Voyager episode about doing a similarly tight move (think it's the one where Voyager is entering a hollow asteroid)?

 

[Longinus]

In First Contact Picard says that Enterprise is "almost 700 metres" long.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Which "First Contact" and which Enterprise?

 

[Longinus]

Which "First Contact" and which Enterprise?

In the film and Sovereign.

 

[T'Girl]

... the old Constitution masses nearly one million tons, ...
Timo Saloniemi

Scotty said the Enterprise was nearly a million "GrossTons". A measurement of volume, so the Enterprise is nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet. That seems just a little high. Scotty was nipping at the single malt whiskey again.

 

[JarodRussell]

Which "First Contact" and which Enterprise?

In the film and Sovereign.

Ha, is Sovereign class actually canon?

 

[Longinus]

Ha, is Sovereign class actually canon?

No. I don't think the class of the ship is spoken in the dialogue.

 

[JuanBolio]

Dialogue establishes that the Intrepid class masses 700,000 tons, the old Constitution masses nearly one million tons, and the various shuttlecraft can be directly compared against the sizes of the actors. Anything else is more or less debatable - even runabout size, despite the existence of partial (and partially accurate) "lifesize" props.

AFAIK, no dimensions have ever been quoted for any of the Starfleet vessels, or the commonest aliens. Basically, only very small or very large opponents warrant such a mention, such as the Nomad of "The Changeling" (one meter) or the Borg Cube of "Q Who?" and "BoBW" (three kilometers on side). I think there were other such utterances regarding the huge ships, but not too many...

Timo Saloniemi

Are those imperial or metric tons?

 

[Tigger]

[Are those imperial or metric tons?

Intrepid's is Metric Tons as that figure matches published figures from the Voyager Art Department which expresses that amount in metric tons.

 

[JuanBolio]

[Are those imperial or metric tons?

Intrepid's is Metric Tons as that figure matches published figures from the Voyager Art Department which expresses that amount in metric tons.

Massive, massive ships then. Many times the mass of a modern aircraft carrier.

Or are they? Carriers are often referred to as displacing around 100,000 tons of water... but how does this figure compare to the actual mass of a ship, say if you parked it out in space where there is no gravity or water?

 

[Forbin]

Gross tons is a measure of volume? News to me!

 

[JuanBolio]

Gross tons is a measure of volume? News to me!

Yeah, I know. I'm just saying we know what the displacement of a modern supercarrier is, but I've never heard anything about its overall mass to compare it to Star Trek ships.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Size should be measured by volume, not mass. 24th century ships could have found a way to make themselves lighter. It looks clear to me that Intrepid is larger than old Constitution, despite the mass, or am I wrong?

 

[Captain Robert April]

So, could it be that both the 190,000 ton figure from the Writer's Guide and Scotty's "almost a million gross tons o' vessel" could both be right?

 

[Timo]

Gross tons is a measure of volume? News to me!

Gross Register Ton is a measure of volume. Which is confusing. Which is why nobody ever says "gross ton" when meaning volume. It's always "Gross Register Ton", or then "Register Ton", with the capital letters to boot.

In contrast, "gross Ton" with the capital T (except in Canada) and without the word "register" in the middle is a unit of mass equal to the good old Imperial unit "long Ton", or 2240 pounds. Although a purist might say that the long Ton is a unit of weight rather than mass, or at least used to be.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

I'll be in the car...

 

[Wingsley]

So, could it be that both the 190,000 ton figure from the Writer's Guide and Scotty's "almost a million gross tons o' vessel" could both be right?

Sure. The smaller number indicates the mass of the TOS E empty and the larger number indicates the mass of TOS E, fully fueled and loaded.

 

[Vance]

So, could it be that both the 190,000 ton figure from the Writer's Guide and Scotty's "almost a million gross tons o' vessel" could both be right?

Scotty's line was meant to be hyberolic, said in a moment of frustration. IE, it wasn't meant to be taken all that literally. (And, indeed, the only technical readout shown on screen with the mass on it was an unreadable display lift from the technical manual for TMP, TWOK, and TFSF, making 195,000 'canon', for as much as 'canon' actually means... which isn't much.)

Sadly, Okuda DID take it literally, and the masses of all the other Feddie ships are very rough, and very bad, volumetric estimates from that number.