Sisko gets to name runabouts?

[t_smitts]

In "Family Business", DS9 is assigned a new runabout and Sisko promptly names it the Rubicon.

In retrospect, this strikes me as rather odd. As someone who admittedly knows very little about the armed forces, the commander of a navy or coast guard base doesn't get to pick the names of new support craft assigned there, do they?

There must be hundreds of runabouts assigned to stations and perhaps some larger ships like the Enterprise-D. Most of the well-known river names would get taken pretty quickly, so the naming exercise would get pretty dull or frustrating pretty quickly:

"I wanted to name our new runabout the Amazon."

"I'm sorry, sir. According to records, there's already a runabout assigned to Starbase 32 with that name."

"How about the Mississippi?"

"I'm afraid there's one at Deep Space 7 with that name."

"Thames?"

"Starbase 461."

"Nile?"

"Station Sierra Alpha."

"You know what? I don't care anymore. Just have the computer pick something that isn't taken. I'm getting a raktajino."


What do you think?

 

[kkt]

Maybe the river names all happened to be available? Maybe with a limited-endurance craft like a runabout, it's okay to just not duplicate names within the same or adjacent sectors?

 

[kkt]

Maybe nobody else wanted to name a ship after a military leader's defiance of civil law?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The runabouts may have been nicknamed by those who operated, like bombers or PT boats, rather than being given official names.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

He's The Sisko, who's going to argue with him?

 

[Phaser Two]

I always figured that Sisko said "I want to name it the Rubicon," and then Kira or whoever he was talking to promptly checked the database to confirm its availability. Or perhaps Sisko had previously asked the brass if he could name the runabouts after Earth rivers and got the okay. But more likely they were all named after Earth rivers, no matter where they were assigned, because they were the Danube-class.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The Titan novels show that Riker named the shuttles onboard his ship, so maybe it's standard practice for auxiliary craft to be named by the Commanding Officer. Before Sisko left his office he could've checked which names were available (or retained that information once he found out they were getting a new one) so had his choice of possibilities. I'd like to think that the runabouts can be named for any river on any planet, rather than yet another human-centric rule imposed on the fleet.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Nicknames need not be unique!

 

[The Wormhole]

The runabouts may have been nicknamed by those who operated, like bombers or PT boats, rather than being given official names.

No, the names were printed onto the sides of them.

 

[Tenacity]

^ Bombers had their nicknames painted on them.

I'd like to think that the runabouts can be named for any river on any planet

Or any availible name, and Sisko just liked rivers for names.

Sisko could have named them oak, pine, redwood, cedar, etc..

 

[Phaser Two]

The Titan novels show that Riker named the shuttles onboard his ship, so maybe it's standard practice for auxiliary craft to be named by the Commanding Officer. Before Sisko left his office he could've checked which names were available (or retained that information once he found out they were getting a new one) so had his choice of possibilities. I'd like to think that the runabouts can be named for any river on any planet, rather than yet another human-centric rule imposed on the fleet.

Yeah, that's good. The class naming convention was rivers on UFP planets, but Sisko wanted Earth rivers. That works well.

Nicknames need not be unique!

For vessels, they do so need. And they weren't nicknames; they were etched on the sides. Which leads to the question of why Starfleet let one go out without a name and whether O'Brien carried the proper regulation stencilling equipment on a Cardassian-built facility.

 

[GNDN18]

^ Bombers had their nicknames painted on them.

Yeah, that's good. The class naming convention was rivers on UFP planets, but Sisko wanted Earth rivers. That works well.



For vessels, they do so need. And they weren't nicknames; they were etched on the sides. Which leads to the question of why Starfleet let one go out without a name and whether O'Brien carried the proper regulation stencilling equipment on a Cardassian-built facility.

GEN. SAVAGE: You're gonna get a bellyful of flying.
You'll make every mission.
You're not air exec anymore.
You're an airplane commander.
And I want you to paint this name
on the nose of your ship:
"Leper Colony."

 

[Bad Thoughts]

For vessels, they do so need. And they weren't nicknames; they were etched on the sides. Which leads to the question of why Starfleet let one go out without a name and whether O'Brien carried the proper regulation stencilling equipment on a Cardassian-built facility.

WWII bombers had their names, and more, painted on them based on the pilots wishes. Paul Tibbets didn't need to get approval to name his B-29 "Enola Gay." If there had been another, I doubt it would matter.

I'm sure that in universe, SF would have a catalog of all names of all spacecraft it used, regardless of size. In practical matters, small craft would be identified by number rather than by name. Otherwise, it would be unwieldy.

 

[matthunter]

This would get around continuity errors for episodes where the crew come across abandoned shuttles from other ships/starbases that happen to have the same names as those from their own ship (since they re-used the prop). I'm not certain but I think there's such an example in TNG's "Identity Crisis".

 

[Tenacity]

Kirk therefor named the shuttle on his Enteprise Galileo and Columbia. When the first Galileo was destroyed, the replacement was also named Galileo.

If he inherited those shuttles from Pike, they may have sport different names of Pike's original choosing.

 

[GNDN18]

If the CO gets to name the support craft, then Kirk had an annoying fascination with the name Galileo. Come to think of it, so did the commanders of Starbase 4 and Starbase 11.

ETA Acknowledging the ninja by Tenacity. Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. No matter how long it took, I came up with a similar bon mot. On my own.

 

[tomswift2002]

Voyager seemed to indicate that ships carried the pieces or the ability to replicate the pieces of a shuttle. So it would be safe to assume that the captain would name the shuttle.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sisko is commanding officer of DS9 and everything attached to it, so IMHO it's perfectly logical that he should get the honor of naming the runabouts.

As for the names: Kira once said something like 'At the rate we go through runabouts, it's a good thing Earth has so many rivers". I'm sure if she asked Sisko to name one after a Bajoran river, he'd consider it, but if he says use Earth rivers, then they do.

 

[kkt]

If the CO gets to name the support craft, then Kirk had an annoying fascination with the name Galileo. Come to think of it, so did the commanders of Starbase 4 and Starbase 11.

ETA Acknowledging the ninja by Tenacity. Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. No matter how long it took, I came up with a similar bon mot. On my own.

Perhaps it's a tradition to name the first shuttlecraft on any starship Galileo?

 

[BobR]

No wonder the Ferengi think hoo-maans are all crazy.