Hey all, Ric here! It’s been a while since we’ve done a Star Trek legacy video so I
thought we’d jump back in with a pseudo-relevant vessel the namesakes of the USS Odyssey. This
had one canon iteration and several soft canon iterations as well as a myriad of real world
vessels that share the name. The name’s origin is from the Latin word
Odyssea and the name of the protagonist of Homer’s works, Odysseus, or Ulysses. The
story was the tale of the Greek king who took ten years to return home after the fall of
Troy and along the way encountered all sorts of perils and mythical adventures. The word
has since come to mean such as “an epic journey”, whether that is a physical one
or otherwise and therefore seems the likely title for many a ship.
So let’s get started with a look at the earliest Odyssey I could find which actually,
only dates back to the Second World War. During which, there was an HMS Odyssey that actually
was the name of an accounting base in Ilfracombe then London where it maintained documentation,
record keeping and cipher works. Many of the so called Stone Frigate’s operations are
apparently still classified to this day so that kind of puts an end to that.
If we look at the name Ulysses however, we have a bit more luck. I’m including this
as a similar namesake as they technically share a naming origin, but I won’t treat
them as such for the fictional Star Trek vessels. In the late 18th century, there was a Roebuck-class
frigate of the Royal Navy that operated in Caribbean waters and was dismasted in 1781
during a storm. She was decommissioned in 1815.
In 1913 there was a destroyer launched under the name HMS Ulysses however it was rechristened
the Lysander. In 1914, there was the SS Ulysses, a transport
ship that ended its service sometime in 1929 while there was the HMS Ulysses of 1917 to
1918. There was also the HMS Ulysses R69. She was
destroyer commissioned in 1943 and scrapped in 1970 after being decommissioned in 1963.
She took part in the Invasion of Normandy and was refit in 1955 to become a type 15
anti-submarine frigate. There are several civilian ships bearing the
name and several variations such as the Royal Odyssey and the World Odyssey. These tend
to be passenger liners and the like and are too numerous to mention really. It’s also
the name of the Odyssey Marine Exploration organisation that salvages deep-sea wrecks.
Moving into Star Trek, to me the name Odyssey is one of those like “Discovery”, or “Explorer”,
a name that seems to be an obvious choice for Starfleet. But the first one that we see
is the ill-fated galaxy class Starship sent to reinforce and rescue Commander Benjamin
Sisko. It’s captain was Declan Keogh and the vessel was launched in 2364 under his
command. The USS Odyssey NCC-71832 was the fourth Galaxy- vessel to be commissioned.
According to extra content, this would have been Captain Picard’s next command after
the Stargazer had the appointed commander of the USS Enterprise not passed up the flagship.
From what can be gathered, the USS Odyssey engaged in typically Galaxy-class missions
from preventing non-corporeal entities from destroying the galaxy to helping establish
Bajoran farms in the Bajor sector. Most of her operations seem to be along the Cadassian
Boarder deep in the Alpha Quadrant, a kind of mirror to the USS Yamato and USS Enterprise,
similar vessels which mainly operated close to the Beta Quadrant sides of Federation space.
They were on patrol along the Cadassian Demilitarized Zone when they were then tasked to their final
operation in 2370. The rescue was successful, but during the retreat the ship was rammed
by a Jem’Hadar fighter, destroying the vessel and all aboard. A standard Galaxy class could
house over 1000 crewmembers. This was seen by many as the beginnings of the Dominion
War There are references to a galaxy dreadnaught
style ship called the Odyssey, but I doubt this was an actual ship as in 2375, a new
intrepid class Starship was commissioned with the name USS Odyssey NCC-74650. Records of
this vessel’s tenure are not clear, but by the end of the 24th century, plans had
begun to commission the new class of explorer that would surpass the Sovereign so I doubt
it was still in service at this time. Matters are complicated somewhat by the Star Trek
Picard prequel comics but I’ll do my best to fold in all the sources. The Odyssey-class
was first seen in 2381 and the USS Verity NCC-97000 seemingly the first of its class,
however the designation of Odyssey class remains constant and the NCC registry as opposed to
the customary “NX” suggests that this may in fact be the prototype, merely renamed
when it was fully commissioned. The vessel was an explorer at heart but its
immense size made the USS Verity suitable for use as Admiral Picard’s vessel from
which he could command the Romulan Relocation efforts. This mission was undertaken until
its cancellation in late 2385 when Starfleet recalled all assets in preparation to defend
itself after an attack on Utopia Planetia. However in 2409, the Odyssey-class was overhauled
and had a rear hanger added that would accommodate and Aquarius-class escort vessel as well as
saucer separation abilities, this was in response to the Klingon Defence Force’s own new Bortas-Class
flagship and it beefed up the Starships capabilities in combat. The Aquarius class is a small raider-style
vessel that is sort of a lightweight defiant style combat ship and has been deployed as
its own ship not just and Odyssey attachment. T he naming conventions for this may date
back to the launch of Apollo 13. The command module’s call sign was Odyssey while the
lunar landing module was Aquarius. Another unique feature of this Starship is
its bridge design which features a multi-levelled design and a lower observation port that doubles
as sort of situation room. The USS Odyssey itself remains in operation in 2410 defending
Earth Space Dock while the class of the starship went on to become the basis for the USS Enterprise
NCC-1701-F.Captain Va’kel Shon, an Andorian took command of the vessel and is the first
of his species to command the Federation’s flagship.
This ship became the new poster vessel for the Federation and there were many variations
and specialties of this design, some with both the Aquarius class hanger and with great
scientific implements such as the Yorktown Variant that the Enterprise was refit to and
the Verity. In real life the vessel was created in a competition to design “a new Enterprise”,
so it seems fitting that in some way, Picard managed to command one of this line.
I expected there to me more ships named the “Odyssey” in both real life and Trek and
was surprised by the lack of information I could dig up. Ulysses is a far more common
name and dates back to a far older time, but although originating from the same place,
it’s not quite the same. Ulysses is a name while an Odyssey has become a word for a great
journey. There doesn’t seem to be a conveyed theme to the vessels of this name, but I do
like the NASA references for the Star Trek Online design. You could also look at the
destruction of the USS Odyssey by the Dominion as a foretelling of the dark times ahead for
Starfleet, with a ship named for exploration and journeying being destroyed, symbolic of
the change in priorities Starfleet was about to undertake.
Thanks for listening to this legacy video documenting as much as I could find on ships
named the Odyssey. And some Ulysses. There is a lot of memory beta content here, otherwise
the video would have ended with only one mention and that didn’t end well. Leave a suggestion
for another ship name for me to look at and let me know if you know of any other Odyssey
vessels that I couldn’t find. Thanks again, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time
for another lore, gameplay or discussion video. Goodbye!