The Fleet (TRS)

For information on the military fleet of the Twelve Colonies before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, see Colonial Fleet. For information on the rag-tag fugitive Fleet of the Original Series, see The Fleet (TOS).

The Fleet is the convoy of ships that contain what is effectively the last survivors of humanity after the Cylon Attack. The Fleet forms the backdrop of the drama of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. Unofficially, off-screen many viewers also refer to the Fleet as the "RTF"; "Rag Tag Fleet", or more fully, "RTFF"; "Rag Tag Fugitive Fleet", a holdover name used in the voiceover for the Fleet of the Original Series.

Overview

"The Fleet" begins as a convoy of about sixty stranded commercial and civilian ships around the area of Caprica assembled by new President Laura Roslin in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon Attack (Miniseries). Of these ships, only a handful were Colonial military craft, such as Raptor 478 and three Viper Mark VII fighters. One ECO, Crashdown, is called a "refugee from Triton," suggesting that he escaped that battlestar's destruction with Roslin's convoy.

Twenty ships of the convoy are abandoned to an imminent Cylon attack because they lacked FTL drives. The remainder of the Fleet joins 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. 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.

The phrase "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 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

Military Vessels

Galactica, last remaining original battlestar and main protector and flagship of the Fleet, under direct command of Admiral William Adama (Miniseries)
Pegasus, a Mercury class battlestar formerly commanded by Helena Cain (Pegasus (episode)), Jack Fisk (Resurrection Ship, Part II) and Barry Garner (The Captain's Hand). It is currently under the command of Lee Adama (The Captain's Hand)

Government Vessels

Cloud 9, a luxury liner designed to mimic the enviroment of a habitable planet.
- Meeting place of the Quorum of Twelve. (Colonial Day)
- Base of operations for Demand Peace (Epiphanies)
- Destroyed by a nuke along with at least three other ships. (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
Colonial One, President Laura Roslin's ship, previously known as Colonial Heavy 798 (Miniseries)

Civilian Vessels

Astral Queen, prison ship noted for carrying 1500 prisoners, including Tom Zarek (Bastille Day)
Botanical Cruiser (While the original was destroyed in the Miniseries, various background shots have placed an FTL-equipped Botanical Cruiser in the Fleet.)
Daru Mozu, a tylium refinery ship. Damaged by a suicide bomber (Epiphanies)
Gemini, a freighter (Miniseries)
Gideon, a supply ship involved in an incident where four civilians were killed by Galactica marines (Resistance)
Prometheus, an "off the grid" freighter and den of mercenary-turned-crime boss Phelan
Space Park (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
3 Colonial Movers heavy transports
- At least one destroyed in the Cloud 9 disaster.

Intersun Passenger Cruisers

Olympic Carrier, destroyed in "33" after an apparent Cylon takeover.
Unnamed Orange Passenger Cruiser (Miniseries)
An unnamed Pan Galactic spaceliner (Miniseries)

Celestra Type

Celestra (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
Striker, damaged in a refuelling operation overseen by Capt. George Birch (Home, Part I)

Gemenon Traveler type

Gemenon Liner 1701, found by Colonial One shortly after Laura Roslin's hasty inauguration
Gemenon Traveller, a civilian ship where a copy of Leoben Conoy is captured (Flesh and Bone)
Kimba Huta, a cold storage vessel on which exiled President Roslin hides from Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh (The Farm)

Flattop Type

Flattop, a salvage and repair ship (Identified on official Sci-Fi Channel web site but not yet seen in aired episode)
Virgon Express (Water)

Mining Ships

Majahual, a mining ship digging for crucial metals (Scar)
Monarch, a mining ship that joined the Laura Roslin faction (Home, Part I)

Mentioned Only

Adriatic, a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles (Home, Part I)
Baah Pakal, a ship carrying unused DDG-62 engines onboard (Flight of the Phoenix)
Coronis (Litmus, deleted scene)
Demetrius, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Diomedes, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Embla Brokk, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Enkidu, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Epheme, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Fanu Sadin, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Freighter 212, a ship Louanne Katraine apparently has some "buddies" on (Final Cut)
Galatea, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Greenleaf, a freighter where Asha Janik and Ray Abinell were maintenance workers.
Harrak, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
McConnell, a supply ship frequented by Commander Jack Fisk
Mutem Wia, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Odysseus, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Persephone, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Picon 36, Miniseries
Rising Star, mentioned frequently but as yet unseen.
Salpica, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Sargon, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Scorpia Traveler, a civilian ship that carried a suicide bomber copy of Aaron Doral (Litmus)
Swordfish, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Tarbadeck, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Tauranian Traveler, mentioned in a deleted scene in "33" and visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
Zephyr (Fragged)

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

12 transports - incl. the Astral Queen, and the 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.
Alternatively, it is in fact possible that the populations of the colonies were grossly unequal. Though the structure of the Quorum of Twelve appears to maintain at least a fiction that the colonies were roughly equal, we know next to nothing about how the governmental system of the colonies was established or evolved over time. Indeed, the United States Senate, for example, by design expressly assumes that the various states constituting it are 'equal' even though this is clearly not the case in terms of their respective populations. Furthermore, the fact that a system of government is 'poor' or else not representatively proportional does not mean it cannot actually be implemented and even survive for long periods of time.

As for population distribution, we know the population of Galactica (2,693 as of Water), the Olympic Carrier (1,345 as of 33) and Astral Queen (1,500 as of Bastille Day, retconned up from 500 in the Miniseries). 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.

Notes

In the Miniseries, 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 Miniseries. (Look to the upper right corner for the ship in a still frame.)

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.