Ghost Galleon class Carrier Liner
| Ghost Galleon class Carrier Liner | |
|---|---|
| Type: RV Modular Freighter | |
| Category | ACS |
| Size | 600 Tons |
| Hull Configuration | Cylinder Hull |
| Streamlining | Streamlined Hull |
| Tech Level | TL–11 |
| Engineering | |
| Computer | Model/3 |
| Jump | J-2 |
| Maneuver | 3 G |
| Fuel Treatment | Scoops, Processor |
| Armaments | |
| Hardpoints | 2 |
| Offensive | 2 triple turrets w/ 1 sandcaster & 2 beam lasers |
| Accommodations | |
| Staterooms | 9 |
| Personnel | |
| Crew | 9 |
| High/Mid Passengers | |
| Payload | |
| Cargo | 2 Tons |
| Fuel tank | 325 Tons |
| Carried craft | 1000t jump net |
| Construction | |
| Construction Time | 10 Months |
| Origin | Terran Confederation |
| Price | |
| Cost | MCr312.55 |
| Maintenance cost | Cr26,046 |
| Statistics | |
| Quick Ship Profile | RV-FS32 |
| Universal Ship Profile | RV-B6823S |
| Images | |
| Blueprint | Yes |
| Illustration | No |
| Source | |
| Canon | Unpublished, fan design |
| Designer | Adrian Tymes |
| Design System | Mongoose 2nd |
| Era | Interstellar Wars |
| Reference | MGT Forums |
The Ghost Galleon class Carrier Liner is a TL–11 Carrier Liner.
Also known as a Jump Trains or Cargo Ships (...indeed, the original naval architects called the class "Ghost Galleon class Cargo Ship"), but by 1000 those terms properly apply to Transports, which are at least 2,500 tons. The Ghost Galleon is quite a bit short of this threshold.
Description[edit]
A Ghost Galleon is designed to ferry Jump-1 starships, as well as spacecraft lacking jump drives. As a secondary function to assist belt mining efforts, it can take loose ore or cargo containers (...or high-value asteroids that have yet to be mined, in large chunks if necessary). The "ghost" in its name refers to the virtual 1,000 ton cargo hold created by its jump net.
Fitted with oversized engines suited to 1,600 ton ships, a Ghost Galleon suffers no performance degradation when hauling a full 1,000 ton load, although these engines do not give any improved performance when the Ghost Galleon is unladen. The ship's grappling arm can arrange cargo within its jump net, or cargo can be prearranged, floating in space, for the Ghost Galleon to slip next to, extend its jump net, and jump out with immediately, not entirely dissimilar to Express Boat operations. Unloading is likewise simple for delivery to a point in space: just go there and retract the jump net.
This is best done near an orbital shipyard or highport, as a Ghost Galleon can not safely enter an atmosphere while carrying cargo in its net. (If it tries, the net deactivates under the strain of trying to control the mass of air inside the net, and the ship is suddenly surrounded by cargo in uncontrolled freefall. Exactly how high up this happens depends on the atmosphere's density.) A Ghost Galleon can safely land cargo on a vacuum (Atmosphere 0) world, though it should at least be hovering while its jump net is active so it does not intersect the ground (to the same effect); fortunately, the arm can extend past the net to load or offload cargo. Most Ghost Galleons simply never do business where there is not a highport, but if necessary they can briefly leave their cargo in orbit while they dive down to a watery world or gas giant to refuel.
General Description & Deck Plans[edit]
- Deck Plans for this vessel.
Basic Ship Characteristics[edit]
Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. [1]
| Basic Ship Characteristics [2] | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Category | Remarks |
| 1. | Tonnage / Hull | Tonnage: 600 tons (standard). 8400 cubic meters. Streamlined Cylinder Hull.
|
| 2. | Crew | Crew: 1 Pilot, 1 Astrogator, 5 Engineers, 2 Gunners. |
| 3. | Performance | Acceleration: 3-G maneuver drive installed.
|
| 4. | Electronics | Model/5 ship's computer. |
| 5. | Hardpoints | 6 hardpoints, 4 unused. |
| 6. | Armament | None (though the beam lasers can be used offensively, and some Ghost Galleons carry fighter squadrons). |
| 7. | Defenses | Two triple-mount turrets, each carrying one sandcaster and two beam lasers. |
| 8. | Craft | None designated for the ship's use, though there are often smallcraft that can be used in emergencies among the 1,000 tons carried externally. Vacc suits required for EVA (extra-vehicle activity). Rescue Balls for crew escape unnecessary and not carried. |
| 9. | Fuel Treatment | It is typically equipped with a fuel purification plant and fuel scoops. |
| 10. | Cost | MCr312.55 standard (no architect's fees, having been amortized long ago). MCr281.295 in quantity. |
| 11. | Construction Time | 10 months standard, 7 in quantity. |
| 12. | Remarks | A small liner that carries almost twice its tonnage externally. |
History & Background[edit]
As of the Third Imperium, the Ghost Galleon is a truly ancient design, predating even the Second Imperium, though it has been reinvented multiple times since. It was intended to show off the cutting edge of TL-11 and ferry the many Jump-1 TL 9-10 ships in service when TL-11 was newly achieved by the Terran Confederation during the Interstellar Wars. Certain historians argue that the First Imperium had a similar design, though no conclusive proof has yet been found. Conversely, though there are not many definite records of it, few question that the Terran Confederation and, subsequently, the Second Imperium used Ghost Galleons to ferry fighters on an ad-hoc basis.
The original ship design records were lost during the Long Night (-2329 is a best guess from secondary records as to the start of service), but the design has been reverse-engineered back to standard blueprints from existing examples multiple times. Ghost Galleons can be found throughout Charted Space, having voyaged and then been reverse-engineered this way, or their blueprints distributed to eventually enable manufacture at some far shipyard. K'kree versions often bolt on extra living space (reducing the total available cargo tonnage), upgrade the power plant, and heavily automate the ship as well as cross-train the crew to reduce the crew count needed, being one of the few non-K'kree ship designs to readily support such adaptations without extra drives.
A Ghost Galleon's cargo load could be configured in a single pod, for ease of pickup and delivery. These pods are entirely compatible with a Brown class Jump Ship's jump pods, though there is no definitive proof that the latter (and the Brown class as a whole) were inspired by the former.
Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities[edit]
Ship Interior Details: The jump net's shape is reconfigurable but optimized for cargo to be behind the ship. The jump drive is designed so the jump bubble's center is usually toward the rear of the ship, the maneuver drive is similarly positioned, and even the bridge faces the rear so the crew can keep their eye on the cargo (often the only thing smaller than a moon within visual range).
The design has some well-known flaws, a result of the cost-saving mentality that went into saving credits by using a jump net instead of a proper hull around the cargo. The sensor pods are isolated from the main crew space, only servicable by going outside the ship. The defensive weaponry is an afterthought (though some say this keeps it plausibly commercial, just like the airlocks opening directly onto the bridge), and there is just barely insufficient power to operate all non-jump-drive systems simultaneously (the owner's manual says not to process fuel and fire the turrets at the same time). The crew commons (galley, laundry, et cetera) are mostly dispersed along a narrow corridor, though the bridge (which has dedicated stations for the pilot, astrogator, and gunners, but not the engineers who are over half of the crew) is spacious enough that it is often used to supplement the commons. There is only a tiny amount of on-board cargo space. Unclogging the side fuel processors usually requires going through someone's stateroom, while the jump and maneuver drives are designed to be crawled through for maintenance, and reaching the reactors requires crawling through the maneuver drives. Through-deck access from top to bottom is interrupted by the bridge and grappling arm. Some argue that having the captain's quarters exit directly onto the middle of the bridge is another flaw, but most Ghost Galleon captains disagree.
A Ghost Galleon's streamlining leads to the common observation of, upon sighting a Ghost Galleon with a full load of cargo behind it, "That's the most expensive bullet I've ever seen." This and close variations have been heard countless times by any veteran Ghost Galleon crew, so often that a well-known way to begin befriending such a crew is to make jokes likening jumpspace to a gun, or otherwise acknowledge they have heard that line.
Despite being liners, Ghost Galleons are named in as many and colorful ways as free traders. Many Ghost Galleons are so old that there is no longer any record of who originally named them, let alone why they chose that name.
Selected Variant Types & Classes[edit]
28 Representative Carrier Freighter (RV) Classes[edit]
References[edit]
| This article has metadata. |
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This ship was designed using Mongoose 2nd ship design rules.
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- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.
- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.