Well, there is cargo, and then there is cargo.
Usually Kirk's ship was tasked with hauling high priority cargo: stuff that may at times have been bulky (such as the chemicals sprayed to cure entire planets of disease), more typically was compact in size, but always was needed in a hurry. Starfleet's explorer-warships would always be on alert for "troubleshooting", so they'd be the ones most easily and quickly diverted to ship emergency cargo like that. Also, an explorer-warship would be built to be fast, while many freighters would be built to be slow if that were more economical (like it is today for certain types of freighter - although for example a big container ferry may be much faster than warships for reasons of economy).
OTOH, sometimes Kirk hauled very small amounts of cargo to destinations no freighter would visit: places too far away to be profitable as stops on a distribution route, or perhaps even completely off limits to civilian vessels, such as those criminal asylums.
Of course, there would at times be military uses for cargo hauling capacity, too. Reinforcement of forward bases at locations too risky for a clumsy and poorly armed transport, for example.
Finally, "being out on the frontier" might as such involve hauling cargo - say, founding important outposts or colonies.
Timo Saloniemi
Usually Kirk's ship was tasked with hauling high priority cargo: stuff that may at times have been bulky (such as the chemicals sprayed to cure entire planets of disease), more typically was compact in size, but always was needed in a hurry. Starfleet's explorer-warships would always be on alert for "troubleshooting", so they'd be the ones most easily and quickly diverted to ship emergency cargo like that. Also, an explorer-warship would be built to be fast, while many freighters would be built to be slow if that were more economical (like it is today for certain types of freighter - although for example a big container ferry may be much faster than warships for reasons of economy).
OTOH, sometimes Kirk hauled very small amounts of cargo to destinations no freighter would visit: places too far away to be profitable as stops on a distribution route, or perhaps even completely off limits to civilian vessels, such as those criminal asylums.
Of course, there would at times be military uses for cargo hauling capacity, too. Reinforcement of forward bases at locations too risky for a clumsy and poorly armed transport, for example.
Finally, "being out on the frontier" might as such involve hauling cargo - say, founding important outposts or colonies.
Timo Saloniemi
