The Fleet (TRS)

The Fleet is the convoy of ships that contain what is effectively the last survivors of humanity after the Cylon Attack, and it forms the backdrop of the drama of the several television series all known as Battlestar Galactica.

Re-imagined Series

In the current series, "the Fleet" began as a convoy of about sixty stranded commercial and civilian ships assembled by Laura Roslin in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon Attack as depicted in the Mini-Series. It is not shown (and is unlikely) that any of these found ships were Colonial military craft, save Raptor 478. Of these, twenty ships were abandoned to an imminent Cylon attack because they lacked FTL drives. The remainder of the Fleet joined with battlestar Galactica, the only known surviving warship in the first months after the events of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. The Fleet represents the last vestige of humanity, protected by Galactica. The political and social troubles of the Fleet as it wanders through space function as a metaphor for all of humanity, since the Fleet literally is what is left of humanity in the television series.

In the series, the Fleet functions not only as a signifier for the actual ships of the convoy, but as a substitute for the people on board, and therefore for mankind. Usage of the term "the Fleet" has not gained more than an informal acceptance, as can be seen by President Laura Roslin's continued use of the term President of the Twelve Colonies. This may be interpreted as either an expression of hope that eventually the people on board the ships of the Fleet will reestablish themselves on a new colony permanently, or a psychological inability to confront that the Fleet may be the only home that humanity knows for a very long time.

Saul Tigh's assertion in "The Farm" that the twenty four ships which departed with the Laura Roslin faction during her insurrection represented "almost a third of the fleet" imply that the number of ships in the Fleet is approximately in the mid-70's.

Ships

Galactica, last remaining original battlestar and main protector of the Fleet (Mini-Series)
Colonial One, President Laura Roslin's ship, previously known as Colonial Heavy 798 (Mini-Series)
Olympic Carrier (destroyed in "33" after apparent Cylon takeover)
Gemini, FTL-capable freighter which Valerii escorts to the convoy. (Mini-Series)
Rising Star, mentioned frequently and notable for several reasons:
- First (reported) human birth after the exodus from the Colonies (33)
- Where Ellen Tigh was suddenly discovered three weeks after the attack (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down)
- Where Ellen Tigh intended her husband to meet with allies of Tom Zarek (Colonial Day)
Coronis (Litmus, deleted scene)
Virgon Express (Water)
Astral Queen, prison ship noted for carrying 1500 prisoners, including Tom Zarek (Bastille Day)
Scorpia Traveler, a civilian ship that carried a suicide bomber copy of Aaron Doral (Litmus)
Gemenon Traveller, a civilian ship that a copy of Leoben Conoy was captured on (Flesh and Bone)
Aturian, a refinery ship (The Hand of God)
Cloud Nine, meeting place of the Quorum of Twelve (Colonial Day)
Zephyr (Fragged)
Gideon (Resistance)
Kimba Huta, cold storage (The Farm)
Monarch, a mining ship that joined the Laura Roslin faction (Home, Part I)
Adriatic, a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles (Home, Part I)
Striker, damaged in a refuelling operation overseen by Capt. George Birch (Home, Part I)
Unnamed fuel tanker, same incident.
Celestra (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
Space Park (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
Flattop, a Salvage and Repair ship (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
Freighter 212 (Final Cut)
Boppa Kala, a ship carrying unused DDG-62 engines onboard (Flight of the Phoenix)
Botanical Cruiser (While the original was destroyed in the Mini-Series, various background shots have placed an FTL-equiped Botanical Cruiser in the fleet.)
Pegasus, a Mercury class battlestar commanded by Helena Cain (Pegasus (episode))

In the episode "The Farm", 24 ships leave the Fleet to return to Kobol. Dualla provides the following breakdown:

12 transports - incl. Astral Queen, Gemenon Traveller
7 freighters
3 construction platforms
1 private cruiser
1 mining ship - the Monarch.

Demographics

A few points of information are available concerning the demographics of the Fleet. In "33", before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, there were 5,251 survivors from Sagittaron and 49,998 total survivors. In "Home, Part I", the Laura Roslin faction left the Fleet with 18,000 individuals, of which 9,500 were Gemenons and 6,250 were Capricans. At that time the total population of the fleet was 47,857.

This information is sparse, but it gives a general idea of the population breakdown of the Fleet if a few assumptions are made for the sake of argument.

Note that Gemenon and Caprica had more citizens in the Roslin faction alone than Sagittaron had in the entire Fleet. The Twelve Colonies are clearly not represented in equal proportion.
Before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, Sagittaron natives made up 10.50% of the fleet. Solely for the purpose of argument, we assume that the Olympic Carrier's population breakdown was identical to the rest of the fleet's and that Sagittaron continues to make up 10.50% of the Fleet's total population.
The figures from the Roslin faction can be viewed in several ways:

ASSUMPTION 1: All Gemenons and Capricans jumped to Kobol with the Roslin faction.

Caprica: 6,250 persons (13.06%)
Gemenon: 9,500 persons (19.85%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
Others: 27,081 (56.59%)

ASSUMPTION 2: All Gemenons jumped to Kobol with the Roslin faction, lured by the "religion card", but Caprican portion of the Roslin faction was representative of the Fleet.

Caprica: 28,204 persons (58.93%)
Gemenon: 9,500 persons (19.85%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
Others: 5,127 persons (10.72%)

ASSUMPTION 3: Caprican and Gemenon portions of the Roslin faction were representative of the fleet.

Caprica: 16,617 persons (34.72%)
Gemenon: 25,258 persons (52.78%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
Others: 956 (2.00%)

Although it is plausible that the Caprican population is substantially larger than the other colonies, as Colonial Heavy 798 was in the vicinity when the attack began, and was the nucleus around which the fleet rallied, it is unlikely that the populations of each colony are grossly unequal, or else the Quorum of Twelve would be a very poor system of government. The likeliest scenario is therefore probably somewhere in between Assumptions 1 and 2, with nearly all of the Gemenon population (drawn by the "religion card") and a large portion of the Caprican population leaving with Roslin.

As for population distribution, we know the population of Galactica (2,693 as of Water), the Olympic Carrier (2,026 despite Roslin's spoken figure (33)) and Astral Queen (1,500 as of Bastille Day, retconned up from 500 in the mini-series). There are 176 civillians in the cargo hold of Colonial One in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". The fleet is stated at about 75 ships in "Resistance", retconned up from 40 in the mini.

Going by the 75 ship count, the remaining ships besides Galactica and the Astral Queen each carry about 600 persons on average.
The 23 ships that left with the Laura Roslin faction, apart from the Astral Queen, would have an average population of about 720 persons per ship.

Original Series

In the original series, the fleet comprised of the last surviving battlestar, Galactica, and 220 ships. With the exception of Galactica, the ships were not capable of lightspeed. The fleet was restricted in its speed for it had to accomodate the slowest ship within the fleet -- removing that ship (or ships) was not an option as all ships in the Fleet were filled to (or over) capacity.

Ships in the fleet include:

Battlestar Galactica, the only military vessel capable of defensive and offensive actions
Celestra, electronics ship (Take the Celestra)
Prison Barge, a prison ship operated by members of Council Security
Rising Star, a luxury liner and chancery
Freighter Gemini

Interesting Ship Cameos

In the re-imagined Mini-Series, astute viewers may recognize three spacecraft with notable resemblances of ships from other SF universes. These ships aren't considered a canonical part of the series or the Fleet, but their appearance adds a bit of humor and pays homage to other notable science fiction and their creative staff.

Serenity, the central ship from the TV series "Firefly" and the motion picture, "Serenity", appears briefly in the sky outside the window of a doctor's office where viewers first see Laura Roslin.

The original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the original Star Trek TV series makes a cameo in the last shot of the Fleet as Elosha chants a prayer in the memorial service near the end of the Mini-Series.

The ill-fated Botanical Cruiser was added in homage to the Agro Ship from the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, which in turn were the re-used models from the SF film Silent Running, a Universal/MCA movie that special effects guru John Dykstra worked on a few years prior to the Original Series.