Why do Vulcans have ships?

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I mean, they live on a desert world, with minimal surface water, so it's unlikely that they would on their way up the technological tree, have any major use for sea vessels or boats of any kind. They should have gone from land to air to space, with no need for immersion at any point.

Yet they travel the stars in ships, transport cargo in freighters, and use adapted naval nomenclature just like humans.

Surely their space craft designations should be rendered by the universal translator as trucks, juggernauts, locomotives, spaceplanes, vans, tanks, jeeps, lorries, whirlybirds, and anything not at all remotely connected with water.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Very interesting point. I surmise that the terms are translated in naval terms for simplicity and consistency with humans (and obviously the audience). The same would goes for klingon and cardassian craft, whose planets are shown to have little surface waters. Curiously, the one usually fixated with avian names seems to be the romulans, and Romulus seems the only (main) planet with a fair proportion of waters. Funny.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

chalk it up to another miracle performed by the universal translator

 

[Meredith]

Vulcan may not be the Vulcan's planet of origin!!!!!!!! Either that or maybe some of the iconians used them as slaves and they settled on other planets, you know the "proto-vulcans" from the one planet that shot picard with the arrow. Maybe they got their hands on some tech and being all smarty pants they figured it out and saw the benefit of technology, plus they could develop tech faster than earth since a longer life span = more inventions, Imagine if DaVinci lived to be 200, he could have finished many of his project that were left 1/2 done.


Personally I like the Idea of Vulcans being a long forgotten slave race who may have a homeworld that is yet to be discovered.

Could make for a great book, especially if their world of Origin was found in the space of a species that is hostile to the federation.

If they have a "long forgotten homeworld" building ships could be a cultural thing, like exploring to find their roots.

 

[JM1776]

Perhaps some planet-wide catastrophe altered the surface of Vulcan, rendering it dry and inhospitable. Before that, a naval tradition may have been long established.

 

[captcalhoun]

i think Vulcan must have some seas somewhere or how the hell would life survive or even evolve?

 

[backstept]

Perhaps some planet-wide catastrophe altered the surface of Vulcan, rendering it dry and inhospitable. Before that, a naval tradition may have been long established.

there have been many allusions to Vulcan's violent past before Surak founded the teaching of logic . . . so this could be plausible

 

[Mister_Atoz]

Though I think the "lost homeworld" idea is an interesting one, the Natural Catastrophe may not have been so natural if we believe the events established in "Enterprise"

The planet Vulcan we are seeing may be the result of a particularly brutal Nuclear War in Vulcan ancient history. Vulcan may have fewer and/or smaller oceans when compared with earth but they may still have had enough strategic importance to encourage the building of navies. After all, there was a time when Canada and the USA operated warships on the Great Lakes.

 

[voyagerfan]

Plus I think Romulans and Vulcans effectively came from the same sort of gene pool!

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

Personally I like the Idea of Vulcans being a long forgotten slave race who may have a homeworld that is yet to be discovered.

agreed. the idea of the ultimate slave revolt is intriguing. u could even go so far as to say the tables turned in some respects, as the Vulcans became the Big Brother of the developing AQ as i understand it

 

[Lyon_Wonder]

Personally I like the Idea of Vulcans being a long forgotten slave race who may have a homeworld that is yet to be discovered.

agreed. the idea of the ultimate slave revolt is intriguing. u could even go so far as to say the tables turned in some respects, as the Vulcans became the Big Brother of the developing AQ as i understand it

There was also a world that had primitive vulcan-like humanoids in the third season of TNG.

 

[Meredith]

Personally I like the Idea of Vulcans being a long forgotten slave race who may have a homeworld that is yet to be discovered.

agreed. the idea of the ultimate slave revolt is intriguing. u could even go so far as to say the tables turned in some respects, as the Vulcans became the Big Brother of the developing AQ as i understand it

There was also a world that had primitive vulcan-like humanoids in the third season of TNG.

In my full post i referenced this.

 

[ALF]

I thought it was well known that Vulcans were Romulans that rejected emotion to prevent the extreme violence perpetrated by the Romulan society?

In that case, the ships initially served to facilitate their exodus from Romulus to Vulcan.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

I thought it was well known that Vulcans were Romulans that rejected emotion to prevent the extreme violence perpetrated by the Romulan society?

In that case, the ships initially served to facilitate their exodus from Romulus to Vulcan.

other way around

 

[ALF]

I thought it was well known that Vulcans were Romulans that rejected emotion to prevent the extreme violence perpetrated by the Romulan society?

In that case, the ships initially served to facilitate their exodus from Romulus to Vulcan.

other way around

I stand corrected. I just woke up. Romulans are Vulcans. Okay... so then I guess they need ships to protect themselves from their warlike cousins?

 

[Anwar]

Didn't Spock say that the Vulcans were descended from Sargon's people in "Return to Tomorrow"? That means that Vulcan was one of their surviving colonies.

Also, there are the other theories that Vulcan is the way it is now because of the violent wars that ravaged the planet before Surak. Other theories that the original Vulcan homeworld/colony was destroyed in a violent war and it's one of the asteroid belts in the system, the survivors relocating to the current desert world.

 

[Good Will Riker]

Though I think the "lost homeworld" idea is an interesting one, the Natural Catastrophe may not have been so natural if we believe the events established in "Enterprise"

The planet Vulcan we are seeing may be the result of a particularly brutal Nuclear War in Vulcan ancient history. Vulcan may have fewer and/or smaller oceans when compared with earth but they may still have had enough strategic importance to encourage the building of navies. After all, there was a time when Canada and the USA operated warships on the Great Lakes.

Didn't Spock say that the Vulcans were descended from Sargon's people in "Return to Tomorrow"? That means that Vulcan was one of their surviving colonies.

Also, there are the other theories that Vulcan is the way it is now because of the violent wars that ravaged the planet before Surak. Other theories that the original Vulcan homeworld/colony was destroyed in a violent war and it's one of the asteroid belts in the system, the survivors relocating to the current desert world.

Life and vegetation starts growing again after a cataclysmic nuclear attack, and the planet is still capable of harboring life.

Watch the upcoming Terminator Salvation, and witness all the vegetation that starts growing again after a nuclear war and fall out.

 

[TheChronicOne]

Interesting topic!

 

[Dayton3]

According to one of the novels "Spock's World" IIRC, Vulcan has a couple of seas about the size of the Mediterranean.

In reality, I think it would be almost impossible for a planet like Vulcan to exist that humans could survive on (as they clearly can) without having some open bodies of water.

 

[Timo]

I'm in the camp that says the references to "ships" are just an English translation of the Vulcan term. Perhaps Vulcans and Romulans mainly believe in air transportation, which is why they consider spaceships to be "warbirds" or "birds of prey" (and no doubt "birds of burden", "seekerbirds" and so forth, too).

However, it's quite possible that Vulcan has seas. Many novels make reference to those, at any rate. The Arabian peninsula is no less a desert for the proximity of the sea, for example - and indeed is a desert partly because of the proximity of the sea.

If not, well, Terry Pratchett described a civilization of water-dwellers who explored the vast deserts of their world in sail-powered wagons, with small trolleys to be used in case of crash, or in case the ship threatened to slip over the edge of the world.

Timo Saloniemi