Expedition Ship

Line Combatants (Primary - Capital)				Escort Combatants (Secondary - Subcapital)				Military Auxiliary (Tertiary)
B- Battleship	C- Cruiser	O- Ortillery	V- Carrier	D- Destroyer	E- Escort	F- Fighter	H- Defense/Security	I- Combat Transport	Q- Combat Support	S- Scout	U- Utility	X- Commo	Z- Special

Mercantile Commercial Ships (Trade & Profit)				Non-Mercantile Commercial Ships (Industry & Profit)					Non-Commercial Ships (Nonprofit)			System Craft (Intrastellar)
A- Tramp	M- Freighter	R- Liner	T- Transport	G- Industrial	J- Prospector	K- Expedition	P- Corsair	U- Utility	L- Science	N- Medical	Y- Private	WB- Barge	WA- Satellite	WO- Space Station

Type-K Expedition Ships are tasked to go on extended trips whether for recreation (safari or tourism), exploration (colonization), diplomacy (first contact), or other tasks requiring purposeful travelling across vast distances.

• The Supraclass designation is also known as Ship Mission, Ship Mission Code, Mission, or Ship Hull Designation.
• It is a starship supraclass.

Library Data Referral Tree

Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information:
Starship:

• Starship User Types
  • Civilian Ship
  • Military Ship
  • Non-Commercial Vessel
  • Paramilitary Ship

• Advanced Ship Classifications
  • Ship Mission Code / Supraclass
  • Ship Type Code / Superclass
  • Ship Class Code / Class
  • Model (TL)
  • Bloc (Lot)

• Basic Ship Classifications
  • Adventure Class Ship (Auxiliary Class Ship)
  • Battle Class Ship (Bulk / Subcapital Class Ship)
  • Capital Ship (Capital Class Ship)
  • Fleet Class Ship (Capital Class Ship)
  • Size-Role Classification
  • Subcapital Ship (Small & Large Battle Class Ships)
  • QSP
  • USP
  • World Class Ship

• Ships by Function
  • Bigcraft
  • Boat
  • Capital Ship
  • Largecraft
  • Non-starship
  • Smallcraft
  • Spaceplane
  • Spaceship
  • Starship
  • Subcapital Ship
  • Subcraft
  • System Craft
  • Warship

Speed of Travel

• Astronomical Unit (AU)
• FTL
• Light Speed (c)
• Light-week (lw)
• Light-year (ly)
• NAFAL (STL)
• Parsec (pc)

Description (Specifications)

Expedition ships are built around the support of their main purpose and have limited uses outside of it. The designs intended for each archetypal role are very different. For example, a Safari Ship makes a poor Colony Ship, and an even worse warship.

Ships intended for recreational expeditions (...like the Safari Ship), are often designed with luxurious accommodations. Those that can afford to charter such a vessel expect to travel in style. There will be well-appointed lounges and facilities to handle and display trophies, as well as vehicles to explore the wilderness.

Diplomatic vessels also have lavishly appointed areas to entertain distinguished guests. They need to be able to carry a political envoy and several staff members, and they need to be able to support them until an embassy is established.

In contrast to this, ships used for colonial expeditions will often be constructed with more economically furnished, though even more spacious, living quarters. Civilizations without access to jump drive, including the Loeskalth, the Hhkar, and pre-jump Vilani and Terrans (European Space Agency Long-range Colony Mission), built long-duration sublight colony ships which would also fit the type K supraclass. Within the Imperium, individual high population worlds frequently send out colonies to underutilized worlds in their own region. For this purpose, they often use passenger liners and freighters that have been adapted and repurposed into Expedition Ships.

Image Repository

1. A brochure image of an Animal class Safari Ship deploying a Denuli class Hunting Launch.
   

Strategy & Tactics (Doctrine)

Like most civilian vessels, Expedition Ships are not designed for combat and should run whenever possible when facing marauders or pirate vessels. Many are equipped with light armament and defensive suites nevertheless.

Supraclass Roles

Expedition Ships typically serve the following roles:
Largecraft & Bigcraft:

T-class Transport & Tanker Supraclass Archetypes
Archetype	Type Code
Colony Ship	(KC)
Consular Corvette	(KD)
Consular Ship	(KD)
Diplomacy Ship	(KD)
Diplomat's Ship	(KD)
Embassy Ship	(KD)
Emmisary Ship	(KD)
Expedition Ship	(K) (Namesake)
Expedition Vessel	(K)
Expeditionary Colony Ship	(KC)
Expeditionary Diplomacy Ship	(KD)
Exploratory Cruiser	(K)
First Contact Ship	(KD)
Generation Ship	(KCG)
Hunter's Ship	(KH)
Safari Ship	(KH)
Settlement Ship	(KC)
Settlement Transport	(KC)
Sleeper Ship	(KCS)
Space Ark	(KC)
Worldship	(KC)

Smallcraft:

T-class Transport & Tanker Supraclass Archetypes
Archetype	Type Code
Expeditionary Smallcraft	(UK)
Hunter's Craft	(UK)
Hunter's Launch	(UK)
Safari Smallcraft	(UK)

Size-Class Roles for Expedition Vessels

1. Expeditionary Smallcraft (UK) (1 to 99 tons)
2. Very Light Expedition Ship (KVL) (100 to 2,499 tons)
3. Light Expedition Ship (KL) (2,500 to 99,999 tons)
4. Medium Expedition Ship (KM) (100,000 to 249,999 tons)
5. Heavy Expedition Ship (KH) (250,000 to 499,999 tons)
6. Superheavy Expedition Ship (KS) (500,000 to 999,999 tons)
7. Ultraheavy Expedition Ship (KU) (1,000,000 or more tons)

Civilian Subcraft

Civilian subcraft (...both smallcraft and bigcraft) are carried by some of these vessels:

1. Barge (WB)
2. Utility Craft (U)

Supraclass Archetypal Roles

These vessels typically serve the following archetypal roles:

K-class Expedition Ship Supraclass Archetypes
Archetype	Type Code/s	Exemplar	Remarks
Expedition Ship	K	Leaping Snowcat class Safari Ship	Type-K Expedition Ships are tasked to go on extended trips whether for recreation (safari), exploration (colonization), diplomacy (first contact), or other tasks requiring purposeful travelling across vast distances. K = Kiswahili (Name of Terran language used in an area where many significant safari expeditions occurred. Also known as Swahili)
Colony Ship	KC	C-Jammer class Settlement Transport	Colony ships, settlement transports, star arks, and the like bring a population of colonists across great distances to establish new mainworlds. Such vessels are often quite large, needing to bring all the necessities of life to the new world. C = Colony
Diplomacy Ship	KD	Type HE class Embassy Ship	Consular vessels, embassy ships, diplomat's vessels, first contact observers, and the like travel great distances to make diplomatic contact with new sophont societies, polities, and civilizations. Highly trained diplomats and the like must often safeguard sensitive information and sensitive communications requiring self-destruct devices in case of capture, and require secure communications equipment to safeguard state secrets. D = Diplomacy
Safari Ship	KH	Animal class Safari Ship	Safari ships are entertainments vessels that go on Safari. They bring privileged tourists great distances to observe and often hunt wild, exotic beasts. While most often used for the hunting of exotic game, some use it for the observation of, photographing of, hiking, and sight-seeing in exotic locales, a form of tourism. H = Hunter
Expeditionary Smallcraft	UK	Denuli class Hunting Launch	Expeditionary smallcraft are specialized utility craft designed to support the operations of expedition ships. They can range from specialized colony support craft, to stealthy first contact craft designed to unobtrusively observe newly discovered sophont societies, to hunting launches for safari ships, and a variety of other craft. U = Utility K = Kiswahili (Name of Terran language used in an area where many significant safari expeditions occurred. Also known as Swahili)
NOTES: There is semantic overlap between many of the classes and codes. Some codes organize by mission or capability, others by size and tonnage, and yet others by other characteristics.

History & Background (Dossier)

In around -50,000 the Hhkar launched purpose-built sublight Expedition Ships of an unknown type in order to colonize other worlds. The Vilani began launching sublight expeditions to nearby stars in -9394. In -4200 the Loeskalth launched a single asteroid ship on an expedition across the Great Rift to escape the Vilani Consolidation Wars. The Terrans launched multiple such colony missions in -2573, one to Prometheus, and others to the Islands Clusters in the Great Rift. There are likely numerous other examples of historical use of colony ships.

The Zhodani have built a variety of different ship designs to participate in their Core Expeditions starting in -4006. Each of these has been specialized as a type of Expedition Ship, and they vary from scouts to convoyed transports and tankers to individual ships designed to be self-sufficient as they branch off of the main expedition and rejoin it later.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Civilian Ship - Largecraft - Expedition Ship:
Type K class Expedition Ship

1. Type KC class Colony Ship
   1. C-Jammer class Settlement Transport
   2. Jump Conveyor class Settlement Ship
   3. Vrad class Generation Ship
   4. Xeng Kirr class Space Ark
2. Type KD class Diplomacy Ship
   1. Covenant class Consular Ship
   2. Dranzhrin class Consular Corvette
   3. Iigicih class Embassy Ship
   4. Type HE class Embassy Ship
3. Type KH class Safari Ship AKA Type K class Safari Ship
   1. Animal class Free Trader
   2. Animal class Liner
   3. Animal class Safari Ship
   4. Animal class Survey Vessel
   5. Animal class Yacht
   6. Nimrod class Safari Ship
   7. Leaping Snowcat class Safari Ship
   8. Safari-234 class Touring Ship
   9. Type KG class Safari Ship
      1. Excursion class Safari Ship
4. Type UK class Expeditionary Smallcraft
   1. Denuli class Hunting Launch

Ship Summary List

Some of the most commonly used vessels in this role or these roles include:

0 Representative Expedition Ship (K) Classes
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0 Representative Colony Ship (KC) Classes
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0 Representative Colony Generation Ship (KCG) Classes
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0 Representative Colony Sleeper Ship (KCS) Classes
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0 Representative Diplomacy Ship (KD) Classes
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0 Representative Safari Ship (KH) Classes
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0 Representative Expeditionary Smallcraft (UK) Classes
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References & Contributors (Sources)

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• This article is an amalgamation of many different materials published since 1977.
• Michael R. Mikesh Loren Wiseman. "Contact:Hhkar." Challenge 52 (1991): .
• Classic Traveller Trillion Credit Squadron
• Marc Miller. Safari Ship (Game Designers Workshop, 1984), .
• J. Andrew Keith. The Trail of the Sky Raiders (FASA, 1982), 23,53.
• Classic Traveller Alien Module 4; Zhodani
• Mongoose Traveller: Zhodani
• David L. Pulver. Alien Races 1 (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), TBD.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Baron) Matthew Kerwin of Thon