The Fleet (TRS)

This article involves the fleet of faster-than-light-capable civilian ships in the Re-imagined Series. For information on its sublight counterpart in the Original Series, see The Fleet (TOS). For general information on the military of the Twelve Colonies on both series, see Colonial Fleet.

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 Series.

Unofficially, many viewers refer to the Fleet as the "RTF"; "Rag Tag Fleet", or more fully, "RTFF." These nicknames come from the term "Rag Tag Fugitive Fleet," a name used in the opening credits voiceover (performed by Lorne Greene) describing the civilian refugee fleet from the Original Series.

Overview

"The Fleet" begins as a convoy of about sixty stranded commercial and civilian ships around the area of Caprica, gathered by Laura Roslin and Sharon Valerii in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon attack. Twenty ships of the convoy are abandoned to an imminent Cylon attack because they lacked FTL drives. The remainder of the Fleet joins with the battlestar Galactica, the only known surviving warship in the first months after the events of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies (Miniseries).

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. Often the term is used to refer to the civilian populations as opposed to the military personnel of Galactica and Pegasus. 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. By "The Passage", there are likely fewer ships left in the Fleet after the Cloud Nine destruction (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II) and the settlement and emergency exodus of New Caprica (Exodus, Part II).

Ships

Colonial ships use launch keys to activate the ship's systems (Precipice). The keys are unique to each vessel and are extremely difficult to copy.

Military Vessels

Galactica, last remaining original battlestar, main protector and flagship of the Fleet, under direct command of William Adama (Miniseries)
Pegasus, a Mercury class battlestar formerly commanded by Helena Cain (Pegasus), Jack Fisk (Resurrection Ship, Part II) and Barry Garner (The Captain's Hand). Under the command of Lee Adama when it is destroyed during the Battle of New Caprica (Exodus, Part II)

Government Vessels

Cloud Nine, a luxury liner designed to mimic the environment of a habitable planet
- Meeting place of the Quorum of Twelve (Colonial Day)
- Destroyed by a nuclear warhead along with at least three other ships (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
Colonial One, President Laura Roslin's flagship and seat of the spaceborne Colonial government (Miniseries)

Civilian Vessels

Astral Queen, a prison ship where Tom Zarek is found and later leader of the Laura Roslin faction ("Bastille Day", "Home, Part I")
Botanical Cruiser: A sublight-only vessel that was destroyed (Miniseries)
- One FTL-equipped Botanical Cruiser still exists within the Fleet (The Passage)
Daru Mozu, the Fleet's tylium refinery ship. Damaged by a suicide bomber (Epiphanies) and the site of a worker's strike much later (Dirty Hands)
Gemini, a freighter (Miniseries)
- At least one similar ship is seen throughout the Fleet
Gideon, a supply ship involved in an incident where four civilians are killed by Galactica Marines. Later appeared on voting tally boards during the election and survives after New Caprica. ("Resistance", "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", "The Son Also Rises")
Prometheus, an "off the grid" freighter involved in the black market
Space Park, arguably the easiest identifiable civilian ship due to its large ring. (No specific name has been given to the ship other than its Sci Fi Channel website reference. (A notable closeup of the ship is seen near the end of "Dirty Hands".)
At least six Colonial Movers heavy transport ships, at least three of which are among the remaining ships of the fleet (Crossroads, Part II)
- One is destroyed in the Cloud Nine disaster

Luxury liners

Chrion, successfully shepherded to the algae planet (The Passage)
Olympic Carrier, destroyed after an apparent Cylon takeover (33)
An unnamed Gemenon Liners Passenger Cruiser (33)
An unnamed Orange Passenger Cruiser (Miniseries)
An unnamed Pan Galactic spaceliner (Miniseries, "Exodus, Part II", "The Passage")

Celestra Type

Celestra (mentioned only) (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
Striker, damaged in a refueling operation overseen by Captain George Birch (Home, Part I)

Kimba Huta type

Gemenon Traveller, a civilian ship where a copy of Leoben Conoy is captured. Later seen in voting tallies in the election ("Flesh and Bone", "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II")
Kimba Huta, a cold storage vessel. Featured in "The Farm" and visible on the vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Thera Sita, successfully shepherded to algae planet (The Passage). Temporarily transfers refugees to Galactica in "The Woman King"
- At least four similar transports throughout the Fleet, at least three remain after New Caprica.

Flattop type

Carina, a salvage and repair ship. Lost in transit in a star cluster (The Passage)
Virgon Express (Water). Visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"

Mining Ships

Majahual, a mining ship digging for crucial metals (Scar)
Monarch, a mining ship that joins the Laura Roslin faction (Home, Part I). Mentioned in "Collaborators".
- At least four mining ships remain (including Monarch) (Crossroads, Part II)

Mentioned Only

Adrastia, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Adriatic, a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles (Home, Part I). Lost in transit in a star cluster (The Passage)
Aether, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Argo Navis, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Aurora, visible on the vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Azimenarius, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Azmerak, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Baah Pakal, a ship carrying unused DDG-62 engines aboard (Flight of the Phoenix).
Boreas, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Bretan, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Carillian Trader, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Cassandra, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Coronis (Litmus, deleted scene)
Cybele, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II". Successfully shepherded to the algae planet (The Passage)
Clymene, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Demetrius, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II". Remained in the Fleet after New Caprica (Season 4).
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"
Faru Sadin, successfully shepherded to algae planet (The Passage)
Freighter 212, a ship Louanne Katraine apparently had 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 (Sacrifice). Mentioned in "Crossroads, Part I"
Harrak, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Hexare, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Hitei Kan, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Incron Velle, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Kara Nexal, 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
Picon Princess, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Pyxis, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II". Successfully shepherded to the algae planet (The Passage)
Rhadamantrys, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Rising Star, mentioned frequently ("33", "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", "Colonial Day", "Scattered")
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"
Tarbadek, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Tauranian Traveller, mentioned in a deleted scene in "33" and visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Tora Bashiri, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Virga, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Zephyr, carries the Quorum of Twelve (Fragged). Fake voting ballots come from this ship (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I). Home ship of Alan Hughes, Gaius Baltar's first lawyer (The Son Also Rises).
Zeusuda, visible on vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"

Note: Several of the ship names first seen on the voting board are also used in later episodes. From this it seems likely that the writers have a ship list from which they can pick names.

Seen but unnamed

Five-engined vessel, seen above Caprica City and during the escape from New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
Wedge-shaped vessel, seen briefly during the end of "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Tubed vessel, seen throughout the Fleet and jumping away from New Caprica at the end of "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"
Yellow vessel, seen throughout the Fleet until the destruction of Cloud 9 (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
Long-necked vessel, seen throughout the Fleet until the destruction of Cloud 9 (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)

Note: Any of these vessels is probably identical to one of the mentioned only ones above.

Demographics

A few points of information are available concerning the demographics of the Fleet. In "33", before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, there are 5,251 survivors from Sagittaron and 49,998 total survivors. In "Home, Part I", the Laura Roslin faction leaves the Fleet with 18,000 individuals, of which 9,500 ware Gemenese and 6,250 were Capricans. At that time the total population of the Fleet is 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 have more citizens in the Roslin faction alone than Sagittaron has in the entire Fleet. The Twelve Colonies are clearly not represented in equal proportion.
Before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, Sagittaron natives make up 10.50% of the Fleet. Solely for the purpose of argument, it is assumed 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 interpreted in several ways:

ASSUMPTION 1: All Gemenese and Capricans jump to Kobol with the Roslin faction.

Caprica: 6,250 persons (13%)
Gemenon: 9,500 persons (20%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (11%)
Others: 27,081 (57%)

ASSUMPTION 2: All Gemenese jump to Kobol with the Roslin faction, lured by the "religion card", but the Caprican portion of the Roslin faction is representative of the Fleet.

Caprica: 28,204 persons (59%)
Gemenon: 9,500 persons (20%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (11%)
Others: 5,127 persons (11%)

ASSUMPTION 3: Caprican and Gemenese portions of the Roslin faction are representative of the Fleet.

Caprica: 16,617 persons (35%)
Gemenon: 25,258 persons (53%)
Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (11%)
Others: 956 (2%)

Although it is plausible that the Caprican population is substantially larger than the other Colonies, as Colonial Heavy 798 is in the vicinity when the attack begins, and is the nucleus around which the Fleet rallies, 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 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 possible that the population of the Colonies are grossly unequal. Although the structure of the Quorum of Twelve appears to maintain at least a fiction that the Colonies are roughly equal,next to nothing is known about how the governmental system of the Colonies was established or how it 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 the population distribution, the population of several ships is known: 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 civilians 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 Miniseries.

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 leave 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. The first two of 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 ship does not appear in the Fleet.
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. All Season 1 opening credits use this shot, so Enterprise makes a very quick appearance with each of the first 13 episodes (This is best viewed from the Season 1 DVD set).
The ill-fated Botanical Cruiser in the sublight caravan in the miniseries 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. At least one FTL-capable version of this ship survives and exists in the Fleet (The Passage).