The punk in Star Trek IV

[Christopher]

Given the high casualty rate suffered by Connies in those three years of TOS, it's possible there had been several dozen of them built but only a dozen survived as of "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

But really, it's not that surprising that the largest class of starship would be the least numerous. By analogy, the US Navy has only 11 aircraft carriers currently in service, and that's the largest carrier fleet in the world. From Wikipedia:

There are currently 11 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 55 destroyers, two littoral combat ships, 30 frigates, 10 amphibious assault ships, two amphibious command ships, nine amphibious transport docks, 12 dock landing ships, 53 attack submarines, 14 ballistic missile submarines, four guided missile submarines, 14 mine countermeasures ships, eight patrol boats, and one technical research ship (military intelligence ship, the USS Pueblo, which is currently held by North Korea).[1]

Support ships include two hospital ships, four salvage ships, two submarine tenders, four ammunition ships, five combat stores ships, four fast combat support ships, nine dry cargo ships, 15 replenishment oilers, four Fleet Ocean Tugs, four ocean surveillance ships, four container ships, 16 cargo ships (used for pre-positioning of Marine and Army materiel), and seven vehicle cargo ships (also used for prepositioning).[1]

The Constitution Class is pretty much analogous in size to an aircraft carrier (though its crew complement is far smaller), so it makes sense that there wouldn't be that many of them. Though one would expect a multiplanetary federation's fleet to be considerably larger than one nation's fleet.

But though there's no evidence onscreen, I like to think that maybe the ships we've seen represent the Earth fleet within the organization known as Starfleet, and that maybe there was also a Vulcan fleet (consisting of ringships), an Andorian fleet, a Tellarite Fleet, etc. That would explain why the Starfleet vessels we've seen always have Earth-derived names. And maybe those other fleets have their own heavy cruisers comparable in size and capability to the Connies.

 

[lstyer]

Given the high casualty rate suffered by Connies in those three years of TOS, it's possible there had been several dozen of them built but only a dozen survived as of "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

Now that is a good point.

Though one would expect a multiplanetary federation's fleet to be considerably larger than one nation's fleet.

Exactly. Again, though, like I said, this is a personal brain bug, so I probably worry more about it than it merits, even in terms of how much worry any aspect of a fictional universe merits.

 

[Bob Karo]

Given the high casualty rate suffered by Connies in those three years of TOS, it's possible there had been several dozen of them built but only a dozen survived as of "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

But really, it's not that surprising that the largest class of starship would be the least numerous. By analogy, the US Navy has only 11 aircraft carriers currently in service, and that's the largest carrier fleet in the world. From Wikipedia:

There are currently 11 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 55 destroyers, two littoral combat ships, 30 frigates, 10 amphibious assault ships, two amphibious command ships, nine amphibious transport docks, 12 dock landing ships, 53 attack submarines, 14 ballistic missile submarines, four guided missile submarines, 14 mine countermeasures ships, eight patrol boats, and one technical research ship (military intelligence ship, the USS Pueblo, which is currently held by North Korea).[1]

Support ships include two hospital ships, four salvage ships, two submarine tenders, four ammunition ships, five combat stores ships, four fast combat support ships, nine dry cargo ships, 15 replenishment oilers, four Fleet Ocean Tugs, four ocean surveillance ships, four container ships, 16 cargo ships (used for pre-positioning of Marine and Army materiel), and seven vehicle cargo ships (also used for prepositioning).[1]

The Constitution Class is pretty much analogous in size to an aircraft carrier (though its crew complement is far smaller), so it makes sense that there wouldn't be that many of them. Though one would expect a multiplanetary federation's fleet to be considerably larger than one nation's fleet.

But though there's no evidence onscreen, I like to think that maybe the ships we've seen represent the Earth fleet within the organization known as Starfleet, and that maybe there was also a Vulcan fleet (consisting of ringships), an Andorian fleet, a Tellarite Fleet, etc. That would explain why the Starfleet vessels we've seen always have Earth-derived names. And maybe those other fleets have their own heavy cruisers comparable in size and capability to the Connies.

Another thing to consider is that a super carrier isn't a class. Up until last year we had three classes of super-carrier active. I wouldn't find it hard to believe that Starfleet had several classes of ship that were of a similar purpose to the Connie at the time. Some new being deployed, some small runs of certain classes, older designs being phased out, etc.

 

[PaulSimpson]

As for Memory Beta, keep in mind that it lumps together all works of professional prose and comics without regard to continuity. My greatest problem with MB is that it treats all these frequently incompatible works as if they represented a single reality, which is misleading.

To be honest, I don't see what's invalid about that viewpoint. I used a similar viewpoint when I wrote the Borg article in Star Trek Magazine this month

True - but that's a rare occasion that we've taken that viewpoint. The instructions to the writers on the most recent assignments were specifically not to include off-screen appearances (with one exception, and even then it ended up with one sentence out of 800 words!). I count the off screen stuff as very important but, as Christopher says, you are dealing with incompatible stuff a lot of the time.

That all said, we are, at least at the moment, treating the 24th Century novel line continuations as the "official" continuation of Trek history - but how that viewpoint may change under any future editor and/or when Star Trek Online is fully up and running is obviously open (and if Orci/Kurtzman/Lindelof/Abrams do include anything from the Prime Universe in the next movie, then all bets are off once more...!!)

 

[Ssosmcin]

I always assumed there were plenty of other classes of vessels in the Starfleet back then. Remember in “Bread and Circuses” Merrick says something to the effect of Kirk commanding “not just a spaceship, but a starship.” This was, of course, before every ship in the fleet was considered a star ship. And since the SS Beagle obviously had warp power, it doesn’t refer to being able to reach another star. “It’s a very special vessel and crew.”

As for having all the characters in Trek Lit always interconnecting, I personally don’t like it. Like the conspiracy to make Trip Tucker seem dead being uncovered by Jake Sisko and Nog. I hate this penchant for constantly connecting all of the characters in unlikely scenarios. It makes it seem like Starfleet is made up of only the people who acted on one of the Trek series.

For all the bitching over Richard Arnold’s edicts, at least the universe seemed larger by introducing new characters in each book instead of hauling out “some dude from Voyager” or (ugh) Reg Barklay (Voyager really had a hard on for that guy) in a DS9 novel. I don't know if this sorta thing is running rampant in Trek Lit. It's only in the handful of books I've recently read, but it was enough to make me stop bothering.

 

[Christopher]

I always assumed there were plenty of other classes of vessels in the Starfleet back then. Remember in “Bread and Circuses” Merrick says something to the effect of Kirk commanding “not just a spaceship, but a starship.” This was, of course, before every ship in the fleet was considered a star ship. And since the SS Beagle obviously had warp power, it doesn’t refer to being able to reach another star. “It’s a very special vessel and crew.”

Well, Merrick washed out of the Academy and "SS" suggests a civilian vessel, so my take is that Merrick was using "starship" to mean "Starfleet vessel" as opposed to a civilian ship.