Ship name prefixes

[Spartan159]

So I was looking at Wikipedia Ship prefix and I wondered what prefixes would be used in Traveller? Would an Imperial warship be IS or HMS? or ISS or HMSS? OTU? IYTU? Merchant vessels?

 

[whulorigan]

So I was looking at Wikipedia Ship prefix and I wondered what prefixes would be used in Traveller? Would an Imperial warship be IS or HMS? or ISS or HMSS? OTU? IYTU? Merchant vessels?

Canonical/OTU:

INS: Imperial Naval Ship (IN)
ISS: Imperial Scout Ship (IISS)
TGS:Trader's Guild Ship ^*

* (from T5 Core Rules and associated Beowulf Deck Plans)
​

Non-Canonical:

ISCV: Interstellar Commercial Vessel ^*
ISPMV: Interstellar Para-military Vessel ^*
SFV: Stellar Fighting Vessel (Small Craft Fighter) ^*
ZISMV: Zhodani Interstellar Military Vessel ^* - [Presumably an Imperial designator]

* - from FASA
​

IMV: Imperial Merchant Vessel (?) ^**

** - Crew Jacket seen on front cover of GT:Starports
​

 

[mike wightman]

Hmm, is the Trader's Guild something new for the Galaxiad setting?

 

[Spartan159]

Trader's Guild huh. Sounds like a separate subject to bring up, where would be best... here, OTU, or T5?

 

[GypsyComet]

Hmm, is the Trader's Guild something new for the Galaxiad setting?

Not that I can tell. Commercial vessels have had a variety of prefixes since Leviathan.

In an overly bureaucratic Imperium, these will be standardized and applied evenly across wide swaths of space.

In a less bureaucratic Imperium, there may be a standard list but application is spotty, or you see prefixes like the (FASA sourced) second group above tacked on in written records but always expressly spelled out in electronic records. And since the real ID is frequently via transponder ping, all that alphabet soup is often just ego.

You might also see standard prefixes only for certain professional associations.

In an un-bureaucratic Imperium or out in the stateless wilds, you may have local tradition but little else. You may also see prefixes change with local language or opinion. You may refer to your ship as "IS Hector" to establish that you are from the Imperium, but that world full of Marx-reading neo-Communists out in Foreven may write you down in the port logs as "CRD Hector" to establish that you are money-grubbing insults to the Vargr race.

 

[mike wightman]

There is no hint of anything called a Trader's Guild in the 1105 -1130 period that I can recall - but it will give me something to do this weekend . The Guild appears in TNE.

 

[whulorigan]

There is no hint of anything called a Trader's Guild in the 1105 -1130 period that I can recall - but it will give me something to do this weekend . The Guild appears in TNE.

The first time I have ever seen it mentioned is in T5.

T5.09p.726:

Within the Imperium, there are five commonly known starship recognition guides:

The Trader’s Guild Catalog Of Ships
Maintained by the Trader’s Guild, the Catalog Of Ships provides basic information about most commercial ships operating within the Imperium. Its naval forces supplement is sketchier and details basic information about armed ships which may be reasonably encountered in and near the Imperium.
.
.
.

And the Beowulf Deck Plans produced by FFE for T5 call it the TGS Beowulf.

Those are the only references I know of.

 

[mike wightman]

So is this Marc retconning the 1105 era (notice how the Imperial Marines are now the Imperial Star Marines in his novel?) or is it something for the new setting?

 

[Condottiere]

Pournelle termed them Fleet Marines, Mongoose mentions Star Marines as the shipboard variant.

 

[whulorigan]

Pournelle termed them Fleet Marines, Mongoose mentions Star Marines as the shipboard variant.

So perhaps Star Marines is the term casually applied to Imperial Marines assigned to the role of Ship's Troops.

 

[ovka]

Many sources use the ship's purpose/ship type/ship class for a hull designator. Note that I have left out some cases from the indicated sources where a ship designation was given for a ship (e.g. FP for patrol frigate followed by a High Guard USP), but there was no tail number. All of the examples below use the designators as part of the ship registry/tail number.

CT-A01-Kinunir uses
->BC - Battle Cruiser

CT-A04-Leviathan uses
->CNS - Not sure what the designation means (Cruiser, Non-Standard, Survey?), but they are the ships owned by the Imperial Grand Survey, Spatial Phenomena Investigation Branch
->MC - Merchant Cruiser
->SCP - Again, not sure what the designation means (Strike, Cruiser, Provincial?), but the ship is in service with MANS (Marches Auxilliary Naval Service) and officially designated a Reconnaissance Cruiser

CT-A07-Broadsword uses
CP - Mercenary Cruiser


CT-S05-Lightning Class Cruisers uses

->CF - Frontier Cruiser
->FI - Fleet Intruder
->ISC - Imperial Scout Cruiser
->QC - Auxiliary Cruiser

This book also has the following note.

Commercial ships generally drop any prefix but retain the tail number as a registry number.

The Traveller wiki also has these pages for ship types and hull designations:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Ship_type_codes
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Ship_Hull_Designations

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[Condottiere]

For the Solomani, I'm going with SCS (Solomani Confederation Ship), and MV (Merchant Vessel).

Though you could have JS (Jumpship).

 

[Garnfellow]

So is this Marc retconning the 1105 era (notice how the Imperial Marines are now the Imperial Star Marines in his novel?) or is it something for the new setting?

The Invasion Earth boardgame counter inventory called the marine units "Star Marines."

 

[mike wightman]

Good catch - there is one other reference to them being called star marines, but I can not remember where I have seen it.

In LKW article the term is never used, nor is it used in the Kinunir.

 

[Timerover51]

H. Beam Piper, for his future history series, uses Terran Federation Navy for his military ships of the Terran Federation. I have not found any prefixes for civilian ships. In Space Viking, he uses the Royal Mardukan Navy for Marduk.

Andre Norton, in her Solar Queen series calls the "Solar Queen" a:

Galactic Free Trader spacer

.

Applied to the Imperium, that would be an Imperium Free Trader starship, if registered in the Imperium.

The megacorporation ships carried the name of the corporation as the prefix.

In Star Hunter, Norton has the one of the two main characters be a member of the Out Hunters Guild. That would be appropriate for a Safari ship.

 

[Hemdian]

Many sources use the ship's purpose/ship type/ship class for a hull designator.

I think you might be muddling the name prefix with the tail/hull number prefix ... which is understandable as in RL this changes from time to time and from country to country too. But currently, for example, the Nimitz carrier is referred to as the USS Nimitz even though it is CVN-68. Likewise, in the OTU, the Kinunir is INS Kinunir (BC-9514).


.

 

[Selandia]

The designations such as USS, HMS and others, exist to differentiate Ship of State (with all the implications) from merchant ships. Even then, some countries (France) do not use them

Special legal status for non comissionned ships are also prefixed: RMS (Royal Mail Ship) or CGS (Canadian Government Ships not comissionned in the RCN, as oppose to HMCS)

Designation such as SS (steamship) or MV (motor vessel) for merchant ship appears much later (there is no such thing as SaShi Mayflower). Civilian sailing ships had no designator in the atlantic world, while in Japan: Maru (litterally : round) has been the designator for merchant ship for centuries. Civilian designation tend to be inconsistant or used inconsistantly. While English language literature use the English prefixes SS and MV for French merchant ships, the French do not use them at all.

BTW HMS is in use since 1789. So there is no compulsion to use them in your Pocket Empire unless culturally or functionnally required.

May be designator are used to differentiate spaceship from starship?
May be designator are used to differentiate trade ship from warship/ship of state?
May be designator are used to identify special legal status?
May be designator are used as status symbol (bragging right for steamship in the early days) as well as a functionnal/legal designation (Powered vessel have special constraint in the Rules of the Road and some Tariff)
So the Lucky may be Collector Ship =CS Lucky, Hop Drive= HD Lucky ...
All of the Above?

So a crew member may wear a jacket writen Trade Guild Ship because of the owner of the ship, because it is the generic for merchant ship or because it differentiate in that system the locals from the strangers???

Have fun

Selandia