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This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page. Also, if you wanted to search for the term "Barge", click here.
Prison Barge
[show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default only.
The Colonials flew an old-style class of liner relegated to support roles or adopted as cargo transports.
Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, however, at least one of these old vessels is transformed into a prison barge, where criminals were detained.
The Eastern Alliance enforcers led by Commandant Leiter that were captured on Paradeen are briefly incarcerated aboard the Barge. As a result of Sire Domra's ill-advised attempt to negotiate with Leiter, he and his enforcers align with Baltar and the Borellian Nomen trio to escape; all but Baltar are successful (TOS: "Baltar's Escape"). Baltar later negotiates his freedom in return for providing assistance on attacking a lone Cylon basestar(TOS: "The Hand of God").
The Prison Barge features numerous amenities for its inmates. In addition to solitary cells, some of which are located on Epsilon deck, Beta deck is the location of the ship's mess hall, Mess Alpha(TOS: "Baltar's Escape").
An armory and storage area are aboard, where the prisoners' possessions are kept following their intake; the Nomen and Eastern Alliance enforcers make use of this to acquire their equipment, clothing, laser rifles, and laser bola(TOS: "Baltar's Escape").
An earlier design of the Prison Barge featured a spherical main body, from which protrude a cockpit module at its fore and a larger engine section at its back. The model, as well as its successor, were built by Apogee, Inc. As with other Original Series' models, this earlier design was repurposed by Universal Hartland for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as Zykarian battlecruisers in "Journey to Oasis."
After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies in a devastating genocidal attack on the Colonial worlds, Commander Adama orders all survivors to find what operational ships that remain on their shattered worlds and fly them towards battlestarGalactica, the sole surviving battlestar after her sister warships are also destroyed in the two-prong Cylonattack. With nowhere else to call home, Adama decrees that the remnants of humanity will search for the Thirteenth Tribe on a planet called Earth.
Under Galactica's aegis, the Fleet comprises 220 civilian ships of various creeds and assortments, including Borellian Nomen. With the exception of Galactica, the ships are not capable of lightspeed flight. The Fleet's overall speed is limited to that of the slowest ship within the group. As all ships in the Fleet were either filled to or over capacity, removing the slower ships from the caravan is not an option.
According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):
Prior to the Final Destruction, space freighters accounted for over two-thirds of all intercolonial travel. They hauled heavy loads of minerals, manufactured goods and even food in times of need among the Twelve Colonies and to their distant provinces. The surviving freighters, now under the protection of the BattlestarGalactica, have been largely converted into living space for the refugees. [2]
A dejected Apollo tells an equally-dejected Starbuck that he found a little place on board the freighter that "with a little paint, and some nice curtains, it's so cozy".
Ship on the route taken by the transport shuttle Canaris. From the name, this is likely the ship from whence Bora, Maga, and Taba came, and is presumably run by Borellian Nomen (given their disdain for other Colonials).
Conning his way out of paying for passage to Rising Star, Chameleon—claiming to be IFB's president—tells the ducket taker on the shuttle Canaris to head over to this ship so that he may be interviewed.
Edina
Civilian ship
Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II
According to Colonel Tigh, this ship almost goes astray when in the magnetic void en route to Kobol.
Freighter with indigent and disaffected refugees; the "Borays of humanity" reside here.
Livestock Ship
Agricultural ship, civilian
The Man with Nine Lives
Commanded by Captain Dmitri, this ship is presumably a source for meat and other poultry. Chameleon posed as Dimitri in order to con some Borellian Nomen (Bora, Maga and Taba) into buying parts to build a ship of an unknown type.
Starbuck complained about being able to see a sanitation ship out the porthole of the dining chamber of the Rising Star as an excuse to book an additional chamber to keep Athena and Cassiopeia from accidentally meeting, as he engaged in a dinner-date with both at the same time.
Senior Ship
Elderly caretaker ship, civilian
The Man with Nine Lives
SiressBlassie bombarded Galactica with messages asking about the whereabouts of Chameleon from this ship. Adama later remands Chameleon to this ship as Blassie has offered to take custody of the apparent vagrant.
In "Space Croppers," the Galactican Fleet is shown to have three agro ships, despite the fact that two were destroyed nearly three decades before. (This can be seen as a continuity error.)
The Fleet is also comprised of shuttles and Colonial Vipers, which are likely not indicated in the "220 ship" figure given in "Saga of a Star World." It is indicated that there are non-military shuttles that ferry people and, possibly, supplies throughout the Fleet. One such craft is the shuttle Canaris(TOS: "The Man with Nine Lives"), in addition to Celestra's shuttle piloted by Aurora(TOS: "Take the Celestra").
Fleet identification chart. Note that a Cylon mine and an Eastern Alliance warship can be seen in the far distance in a number of late TOS episodes, e.g. "Take the Celestra"...
The Yarborough, a freighter that sent a distress signal to Galactica in the magnetic void in a continuation of the scene on the bridge as the fleet entered in "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II".
The Crucible, SiressBlassie's billet ship where the residents were largely over the age of sixty yahrens and likely corresponds to the "Senior Ship" mentioned onscreen in "The Man with Nine Lives".
↑This term is derived from the outro narration for the series.
The term "outlaw fleet" is also mentioned by Commander Cain when discussing the transmissions Pegasus intercepts during their guerrilla actions against Gamoray(TOS: "The Living Legend, Part I").