Hello, welcome to the legacy series where we look at the lineage of some of Starfleet’s
most iconic vessels starting with the real world inspiration and moving into the primary
and secondary lore of the Trek universe. I’m Ric and this time, we’re looking into the
namesakes of the Intrepid. Back in 1798, there was a USS Intrepid which
built for Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition and originally called the Mascito but was
captured by the American navy in 1803 by the USS Enterprise. Unfortunately it was probably
best known for being loaded up with explosives and detonating prematurely before it could
reach its target. This was followed up by the USS Intrepid of
1874 a Torpedo Ram vessel, it was a U.S. steam powered ship and carried the world’s first
self-propelled torpedoes. This was built in answer to the British’s own torpedo ram
design that was planned in 1872 but the Intrepid was completed first and captained by Commander
Augustus Cooke. She didn’t see much action being a prototype and was decommissioned in
1876. In 1882 she was to be refit into a gunboat but that never came to pass and she spent
the remainder of her days in dock. In 1904, there was a ship stationed at San
Fransico until 1912. It was decommissioned in 1914 then recommissioned form 1915 to 1921.
It again returned to service (of a sort) during World War 2 as a sludge removal barge.
Then we have the USS Intrepid CV-11, and Essex-class aircraft carrier commissioned in 1943. It
was overhauled several times to serve various purposes and received a lot of damage in combat.
In 1962 it acted as the recovery ship for the NASA Project Mercury, retrieving astronaut
Scott Carpenter In 1974, it was decommissioned and preserved as a museum ship in Philadelphia.
There was also a long line of HMS Intrepid(s) but the most recent was in 1967. A Fearless-class
Landing Platform Dock that was refit in 1985 for a further service in training missions.
The vessel was dismantled in 2008. The first of Starfleet’s intrepid vessels
was the prototype for the Intrepid class of the mid-22nd century. The SS Intrepid existed
in a time before the United Federation of planets, and was one of Starfleet’s fist
widespread vessels, formed of a half disc shape and a compact design it was the precursor
to the NX class. Launched prior to 2153 under the command of Captain Carlos Ramirez the
Intrepid went on to serve during the Earth-Romulan and changed captains to Bryce Shumar where
it served several missions alongside the Enterprise NX-01. Around 2160, the vessel was relieved
from service as many ships of this time were to make way for the influx of new designs
from the formation of the Federation. The NX-07 was constructed after the initial
4 pre-UFP NX class starships and named the USS Intrepid. This vessel vanished in 2161
in, what was at the time, deep space. It’s final transmission to Starfleet was from Captain
Lambert who suspected a Romulan minefield, but on investigation, no wreckage was found.
The vessel had in fact been jumped forwards 200 years due to being accelerated well beyond
warp 9. This, coupled with an inertial dampener failure, erm… splattered the crew. It was
destroyed in 2383 by the USS Challenger. In 2248, the USS Intrepid NCC-1708 was a constitution
class commissioned and built by the Vulcans and crewed by a primarily Vulcan crew, just
as the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was a predominantly human crew. It operated at the behest of the
Vulcan Science Academy being reassigned the registry NCC-1631. As befitting a constitution
class, the vessel undertook several first contact missions and deep space explorations
under Captain Satak. In 2268, the Intrepid encountered a space amoeba that syphoned off
all energy from its crew and components. This ship was lost. A new constitution class was
being built in 2269, around a major refit period, and it was to be christened the USS
Intrepid NCC-1730. As with its prior namesake, it was assigned
to operate from Vulcan, this time staying closer to home.
In 2294, there was an Oberth class USS Intrepid, though technically this was christened the
Intrepid 2, so perhaps the original and the constitution vessel were still in service
at the same time? By the turn of the century, the excelsior
class USS Intrepid NCC-38907 was under the command of Captain Drew Deighan and it responded
to the Khitomer massacre in 2346 when the Romulans attacked the planet. It evacuated
survivors including the child, Worf. Chief Petty Officer Sergey Rozhenko was serving
on this vessel at this time, also. In 2369, a new project was underway to develop
a faster, deep space vessel that incorporated the new bio-neural circuitry for faster processing
speeds and the latest in sensor technology. After 2370, it also took into account the
newly discovered subspace damage that prolonged Warp travel could inflict. The As with the
first intrepid class of the 2150s, the prototype was named the USS Intrepid NCC-74600. Soon,
three more vessels of this ilk were constructed, the USS Bellerophon, the USS Pathfinder and
the USS Voyager. In 2379, the Starship was assigned to the Sector 1045 task group to
intercept a potential Remen invasion. In Star Trek online, this USS Intrepid eventually
was presumed destroyed in 2409 and replaced with the USS Intrepid NCC-74600-A the first
of its namesake to sport a legacy registry. So that is a list of the vessels named Intrepid.
There are doubtless more out there not mentioned here, but again, as with prior vessels, we
see a similarity in the fiction with reality. Trek produced two entire lines of ship named
after their prototypes, the Intrepid in much the same way as the 1874 Torpedo Ram. These
were all early prototypes, though arguably Trek’s iterations met with greater success.
Trek goes on to continue to revitalise the name and apply it to ships throughout the
eras with it harkening back to its own in-universe legacy.
Thanks for watching this dive into the lineage of the Intrepid name and do be sure to let
me know if you can think of any other Starships you want to see the history of. Until then,
my intrepid viewers, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time, thanks again and goodbye.