The Fleet (TOS)

A shot of the "rag-tag fugitive fleet".

The Fleet, also known as the "rag tag, fugitive fleet", is a convoy consisting of the last remnants of the Twelve Colonies of Man.

Origin

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 battlestar Galactica, the sole surviving battlestar after her sister warships are also destroyed in the two-prong Cylon attack. 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.

Tie-in Material Information

• 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 Battlestar Galactica, have been largely converted into living space for the refugees.

Known Ships

Active

Name	Ship type / function	Last Seen	Notes
Agro Ship 9	Agro Ship / food supplier, civilian	War of the Gods, Part II	Last surviving agro ship after an extremely successful Cylon attack against both her and her sister ships.
Astradon	Freighter, civilian	Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II	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".
Borella	Unknown, civilian	The Man with Nine Lives	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).
Celestra	Electronics ship, civilian	Take the Celestra	Formerly commanded by Commander Kronus. This is the "command ship" for a small group of ships Adama assigns him to command.
Comm-Tel Ship	Inter-Fleet Broadcasting ship, civilian	The Man with Nine Lives	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.
Galactica	Colonial battlestar, military escort	The Hand of God	Last known surviving battlestar, roughly 500 yahren old.
Gemini	Gemonese freighter, civilian	War of the Gods, Part I	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.
Orphan Ship	Orphan care, civilian	Baltar's Escape	The purpose of the Orphan Ship appears to be oriented towards the care and processing of children orphaned during the fall of the Colonies. Chameleon claims to be a geneticist from the Orphan Ship and claims that the list for genetic testing is "yahren long" (TOS: "The Man with Nine Lives"). Colonel Tigh later comments to Siress Tinia that Council Security would be unable to stop an escape from the Orphan Ship (TOS: "Baltar's Escape").
Pisces	Unknown, civilian	The Man with Nine Lives	One of the ships on the route taken by the transport shuttle Canaris.
Prison Barge	Prison ship, civilian	Baltar's Escape	Operated by members of Council Security.
Rising Star	Luxury liner and chancery, civilian	The Man with Nine Lives	Formerly operated by Trans Stellar Spacelines. Used to evacuate children and their caretakers off Caprica during the Cylon attack.
Sanitation Ship	Sanitation ship, civilian	The Long Patrol	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	Siress Blassie 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.
Tip Barge	Refuse ship, civilian	Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II	Mentioned by Apollo while engaging in mock stereotypical feminine conversation with Starbuck; Apollo claims that he procured valcron from this ship.
Tauranian	Unknown, civilian	The Man with Nine Lives	One of the ships on the route taken by the transport shuttle Canaris.

Destroyed

• At least two agro ships ^{(TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors")}.

Unknown

• Battlestar Pegasus briefly joins the Fleet in "The Living Legend, Part I" and "Part II," but loses contact with the Fleet during the Battle of Gamoray.

Other ships

• Colonial Movers freighters
• An unnamed Flattop ship

Galactica 1980

• The freighter Delphi is shown in Galactica 1980's "The Super Scouts, Part I" as the Fleet's schooling ship.
• 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.)

Support Crafts

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")}.

In addition to their ship compliment, the Colonials have at least one Cylon Raider in their possession, as a result of their victory at Galaxy's Edge ^{(TOS: "The Hand of God")}.

Notes

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"...

• In the scripts for "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I" and "The Man with Nine Lives," two ships are mentioned in scenes that were either cut or never filmed.

• 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, Siress Blassie'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".

See also

• Count of the Fleet population
• Alternate depictions of the Fleet in separate continuity materials