- This article involves the caravan of sublight-speed civilian ships in the Original Series. For information on its faster-than-light capable counterpart in the Re-imagined Series, see The Fleet (RDM). For information on the military warships that protected the Twelve Colonies before their demise, see Colonial Fleet.
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 the guardianship of Galactica, the Fleet comprises of 220 civilian ships. 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 filled to (or over) capacity, removing the slower ships from the caravan is not a option.
Ships in the Fleet include:
- Battlestar Galactica, the only military vessel capable of defensive and offensive actions
- Celestra, an electronics ship (Take the Celestra)
- Prison Barge, a prison ship operated by members of Council Security
- Rising Star, a luxury liner and chancery
- Colonial Movers freighters
- An unnamed Flattop ship
- Freighter Gemini, from which Cassiopeia is rescued in "Saga of a Star World"
- Astradon, a freighter nearly lost in the Magnetic void (Lost Planet of the Gods)
- Edina, a civilian ship nearly lost in the Magnetic void (Lost Planet of the Gods)
- Tip Barge, possibly a garbage ship (Lost Planet of the Gods)
- At least three agro ships, including one named Agro Ship 9
- Battlestar Pegasus briefly joins the Fleet in "The Living Legend, Part I" and "Part II"
- The Comp-Tel ship is mentioned by Chameleon (The Man with Nine Lives)
- The livestock ship is mentioned in "The Man with Nine Lives".
- The Trainian, Pisces, and Borella are mentioned ships in the Fleet (The Man with Nine Lives)
- The Senior ship is mentioned by Adama when he tells of Siress Blassie's attempts to find out the whereabouts of Chameleon (The Man with Nine Lives).
- The freighter Delphi is shown in the "Galactica 1980" episode "The Super Scouts, Part I", and is the fleet's schooling ship