Scrapping Old Starships

[Unicron]

I've often thought it would be interesting to see, within Trek, older "defanged" starships being used as merchant ships or for civilian research.

This was one of the options referenced by FASA, with some hulls being stripped of any sensitive material and sold to the civilian market. The Federation Merchant Marine is specifically mentioned on a few occasions.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That's also what happened to the Enterprise-A after STVI, according to the novel/comic The Ashes of Eden.