- For other uses, see Edward.
The Edward class[1] was a 24th century Federation starship class, a colony ship[1] and mining freighter[2] in Starfleet service from the 2360s decade. (TNG video games: Birth of the Federation, Armada)
History and specifications[]
The hull consisted of three sections. The primary hull was a half-saucer attached directly to the blocky compartment module, followed by warp nacelles suspended from nacelle pylons connecting a central, short engineering hull. (TNG video games: Birth of the Federation, Armada)
The class had a standard crew complement of 100. (ST video game: Armada)
Edward-class ships were in service by the 2360s. Around the year 2364, ships of this class were deployed by Starfleet Command to colonize uninhabited planets in the local space area of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. (TNG video game: Birth of the Federation)
By the 2370s, these ships operated as combined mining vessels and freighters, extracting dilithium from dilithium moons and ferrying it to their assigned or nearest Federation mining station. In 2376, some of these mining freighters were loaned to the Ferengi Alliance.
Edward-class freighters could be manufactured at Sigma-class starbases. When a Federation construction ship built a mining station, its workbees would also assemble one Edward-class freighter within that station. (ST video game: Armada)
In 2377, Federation mining freighters were modified to harvest raw latinum from latinum nebulae. The freighters were outfitted with a reinforced hull which made them capable of carrying large quantities of unprocessed materials, such as dilithium crystals or latinum but could not carry both resources at the same time. A larger version of the Aerie-class surveyor replaced the Edward-class as Starfleet's primary colony ship. (ST video game: Armada II)
As well as a reinforced hull, the mining freighters were equipped with heavy shielding which allowed them to take damage during combat. Unfortunately, the freighters were not equipped with any offensive capabilities. (ST video games: Armada, Armada II)
In the 3180s, dilithium was a scarce resource. After Starfleet secured the dilithium nursery of planet Theta Zeta in the Verubin Nebula in the year 3189, the Federation mining vessel USS Coloma mined enough dilithium to supply two Federation members, three unaligned worlds, and a starbase. The Crossfield-class science vessel USS Discovery-A was assigned to escort the Coloma on its tour. (DSC episode: "That Hope Is You, Part 2")
Livery[]
In the 2370s, the ship's hull was painted in metallic colors. Affiliation was displayed by adding colors to the hull. By default, the Starfleet color was white. When controlled by Ferengi, the color had a yellow/orange accent, and in Klingon Defense Force service it was red. (ST video games: Armada, Armada II)
Known vessels[]
Appendices[]
Connections[]
References[]
External link[]
- Edward class article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.