Fate of the original 12 Constitution Class Starships

[Jedi Marso]

I've seen people discussing the notion (considered by some to be canon, and not by others) that the Enterprise was the only surviving, original-build Connie Class ship by the end of Kirk's five year mission. So what happened to the others? We know the fate of some of them but I'm not sure if they are all accounted for.

What we do know:

USS Constellation was lost in the Doomsday Machine.

USS Lexington \
USS Excalibur \------- All lost in The Ultimate Computer
USS Potemkin /
USS Hood /

USS Defiant was lost in The Tholian Web

USS Exeter lost its whole crew in the Omega Glory, although the ship herself was intact.

Anybody know about the others? (Note: the Enterprise and her sister ships had been around for a while by the time of TOS; it's possible some of them were lost prior to Kirk commanding the Enterprise.)

 

[CorporalCaptain]

USS Intrepid was lost in "The Immunity Syndrome."

USS Farragut has uncertain class, but is established behind-the-scenes as Constitution-class. She suffered heavy losses while fighting the cloud creature that was ultimately killed in "Obsession."

Note that the class of the USS Republic is also uncertain.

 

[Timo]

All lost in The Ultimate Computer

How so? Only the Excalibur took fatal hits. And whether those crippled the ship beyond repair, or merely killed her crew, we never learn, beyond the fact that we saw no external damage.

Whether the Intrepid was a sister ship, we don't know. A computer model of a ship thus labeled appeared in the remastered "Court Martial", but this actually speaks against her having been the Intrepid, because that vessel supposedly was still undergoing repairs. We never actually saw the name or the registry, due to the camera angle.

One might also wonder whether Starfleet kept procuring further Constitutions beyond the TOS losses: the loss rate was rather significant, and unless it was an artifact of these specific years, Starfleet really should have had a casualty replacement program going, potentially involving further vessels of the class (even if slightly more modern in detail).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[uniderth]

The Exeter was cleaned out and given to Captain John Quincy Garrovick ("The Savage Empire," and "The Tressaurian intersection").

 

[Dilandu]

The "Potemkin" clearly served quite a lot and was decomissioned only after Khitomer Accords were signed.

 

[johnnybear]

We hear mention of The USS Yorktown once or twice as well in the series!
JB

 

[publiusr]

I think the novel had it that only Enterprise survived.

I can see others "vanishing" during a Section 31 stunt with only Enterprise coming back (publically)

Rittenhouse instead of Marcus...

 

[CorporalCaptain]

A computer model of a ship thus labeled appeared in the remastered "Court Martial", but this actually speaks against her having been the Intrepid, because that vessel supposedly was still undergoing repairs. We never actually saw the name or the registry, due to the camera angle.

Not in the slightest. If you're going to play the "we can't make out the name of the ship" card, then you have to also concede that you couldn't possibly make out myriad ways in which she might have been damaged, due to either camera angle, distance, or what have you.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I think the novel had it that only Enterprise survived.

Which novel?

 

[Forbin]

Which novel?

I'm guessing the noveliztion of TMP?

 

[MAGolding]

As far as we know there could have been a lot more or less than 12 Constitution class starships in the era of TOS. Kirk's statement in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" only proves that at that moment there were 12 (or possibly 13) ships in starfleet sufficiently similar for the purposes of Kirk's statement about how rare ships equal to the Enterprise were. We don't know if Kirk as counting ships by subclass, class, superclass or whatever, counting all starships or counting starships by assignment type (such as five year missions).

We know that all starships in that era had saucers, engineering hulls, 2 nacelles, and 3 struts connecting them, and in the same arrangement as Constitutuon class ships, because Spock described it as "starship configuration" in "the Doomsday Machine". We don't know if all the starships seen in TOS were Constitution class or if they belonged to different classes that looke very similar on the outside.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

We know that all starships in that era had saucers, engineering hulls, 2 nacelles, and 3 struts connecting them, and in the same arrangement as Constitutuon class ships, because Spock described it as "starship configuration" in "the Doomsday Machine".

No, that's not correct at all.

That line in "The Doomsday Machine" only means that all ships with that configuration (whatever configuration that Spock had in mind, by the way) are starships. It does not mean necessarily that all starships have that configuration.

If I see a Mustang and say, "By configuration, a sports car," it does not mean that all sports cars are Mustangs.

 

[OpenMaw]

Though I must admit I like the idea that Starship and by extension a "starship commander" (something said in both DDM and Errand of Mercy) is a special thing above and beyond just any space ship, even in the Federation starfleet.

 

[Timo]

^^Indeed, beyond the logical fallacy, Spock only says "by configuration" to drive home the point that he is unable to make a detailed study and has to rely on what amounts to a silhouette. Essentially, he's saying "I guess this is a starship, but since I'm going just by configuration, I might be in error". Which he of course is not.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Though I must admit I like the idea that Starship and by extension a "starship commander" (something said in both DDM and Errand of Mercy) is a special thing above and beyond just any space ship, even in the Federation starfleet.

Yeah, agreed. I chose the sports car analogy to try to drive home () the idea that not all space ships are starships. "Bread and Circuses" said so. Not all cars are sports cars.

^^Indeed, beyond the logical fallacy, Spock only says "by configuration" to drive home the point that he is unable to make a detailed study and has to rely on what amounts to a silhouette. Essentially, he's saying "I guess this is a starship, but since I'm going just by configuration, I might be in error". Which he of course is not.

Yeah. Spock also wasn't getting "normal energy output," because all power plants were dead, as he subsequently reported, when he also reported that subspace interference limited what sensors could tell him. Palmer also said that heavy subspace interference almost blocked the whole disaster beacon signal, which might explain why she wasn't able to identify the ship before they closed in.

 

[Warped9]

Not all spaceships are starships, but all starships are spaceships.

 

[Forbin]

And not all Mustangs are sports cars.

 

[Griffeytrek]

I think the novel had it that only Enterprise survived.

I can see others "vanishing" during a Section 31 stunt with only Enterprise coming back (publically)

Rittenhouse instead of Marcus...

But we have it as onscreen canon that a non refit Constitution survived and is in the Starfleet Museum. Picard says as much in "Relics" when he identifies the bridge of the 1701 on the holodeck. I always assumed it was the Constitution herself, although that is never stated.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

I've seen people discussing the notion (considered by some to be canon, and not by others) that the Enterprise was the only surviving, original-build Connie Class ship by the end of Kirk's five year mission. So what happened to the others? We know the fate of some of them but I'm not sure if they are all accounted for.

What we do know:

USS Constellation was lost in the Doomsday Machine.

USS Lexington \
USS Excalibur \------- All lost in The Ultimate Computer
USS Potemkin /
USS Hood /

USS Defiant was lost in The Tholian Web

USS Exeter lost its whole crew in the Omega Glory, although the ship herself was intact.

Anybody know about the others? (Note: the Enterprise and her sister ships had been around for a while by the time of TOS; it's possible some of them were lost prior to Kirk commanding the Enterprise.)

To be honest we don't know the names of the original 12.

I would love to know - personally, I think they were named after WW2 American aircraft carriers - as a statement of deterrence to the Klingon Empire. I'm not American, it just seems like a logical honor for Starfleet's finest ships in an era of Cold War with the Klingons.

I think I remember some AMT kit had those kind of names, when I was little.

As a Devil's advocate, I'm gonna suggest that the original contract of 12 ships bear consecutive registries (and that the reason for lower numbers on later ships is because other shipyards were awarded contracts to build "a ship" prior) - obviously this is for fun and has no basis canonicity:

Batch 1 (San Francisco Fleet Yards):

USS Constitution NCC-1700
USS Enterprise NCC-1701
USS Hornet NCC-1702
USS Hood NCC-1703
USS Intrepid NCC-1704
USS Independence NCC-1705
USS Franklin NCC-1706
USS Midway NCC-1707
USS Iwo Jima NCC-1708
USS Lexington NCC-1709
USS Yorktown NCC-1710
USS Wasp NCC-1711

Batch 2 (Antares Fleet Yards):

USS Constellation NCC-1017 ???
USS ?????????? NCC-???? ???

Batch 3 (Utopia Planet Fleet Yards):

USS Potemkin NCC-1659 ???
USS ??????? NCC-???? ???
USS ??????? NCC-???? ???
USS ??????? NCC-???? ???
USS ??????? NCC-???? ???
USS Excalibur NCC-1664 ???

Batch 4 (41 Eridani Fleet Yards):

USS ????? NCC-???? ???
USS Exeter NCC-1672 ???

Batch 5 (San Fransisco Fleet Yards):

USS ?????? NCC-???? ???
USS Defiant NCC-1764 ???

Batch 6 (Utopia Planetia Fleet Yards):

USS ???????? NCC-???? ???
USS Endevour NCC-1856 ???

 

[Jedi Marso]

Well, according to the FJ Tech manual, the originals were:

Constellation
Constitution
Enterprise
Excalibur
Exeter
Farragut
Hood
Intrepid
Kongo
Lexington
Potemkin
Republic
Valiant
Yorktown

That's 14, not 12, I know.

The FASA Federation Ship Recognition Manual lists the original twelve as those above minus the Valiant and the Kongo.

Canon or not, take it for what it's worth.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the names Hood, Valiant, Intrepid, Excalibur, and Enterprise have also been used by the Royal Navy at various times over its long history.