posted
Finally, stuff I could find! The Curry write-up is by Epoch, with a picture by TSN.
Curry-Class Federation Starship
A. Conjecture
I. Background
Back in the late twenty-third century, Starfleet had less of a variety in ship designs, and therefore the efficiency of the fleet was often hampered by the fact that these vessels were designed with specific purposes, some of which were often neglected due to the necessity of fulfilling other fleet-wide objectives first.
Starfleet engineers had little success in looking into this problem, originally, but ultimately ships like those of the Miranda class were constructed and Research & Design took the initiative from there on out. A few decades later, the Curry class was developed and tested as a multi-purpose vessel.
II. Design History
In the 2380s, Starfleet began the experiment known as the Excelsior class. While its primary mission, the use of and testbed for transwarp drive, was a failure, the design itself held up remarkably well in many situations. Although it would later become a firm backbone in the Fleet, the Excelsior class was still in the relatively early stage of life.
Rebounding off such a success, R&D looked into dozens of possible redesigns for Excelsiors. Among the proposals was the Curry, which would utilise all previously established elements from other vessels, much like the Miranda class before it, the engineers mused. The encoporation of the Constitution-type nacelles into the Excelsior main body would prove an easy task, they counted on, otherwise the project would be a complete failure.
Approval for testbed production was approved by the C-in-C on stardate 9926, years after the first Excelsior contruction. The U.S.S. Curry's basic premise never changed, although the engineers originally toyed with the idea of flipping the Constitution-type nacelles and pylon structure that the Curry would bear. The position of the shuttlebay was also one of great controversy in the latter stages of production; some of the greatest minds -- Vulcan, Deltan, Betazoid, Terran -- at R&D couldn't decide on how production should be made. Both designs were just as efficient as the other and had their own merits. The original U.S.S. Curry was finally built with the nacelles facing precisely how they did on the Constitution-class ships, much to the dismay of the opposants and to the cheers of those who valued tradition, aesthetics, and efficiency over simple productiveness. Some later versions of the class, mostly those from the 2340s, bore the side-flipped nacelles and a rear-facing shuttlebay.
As the Curry was being brought into reality and leapt off the padd it was designed on, difficulties arose with the warp core restructuring. Using the Excelsior secondary hull for the position of a Constitution system was becoming more and more demanding. Many of the internal systems used aboard the Excelsior class were scrapped or utterly relocated to comform to the differences in the warp assembly of the Constitution/Miranda. A full grueling year after the problems cropped up, they were quelled, and the greatest challenge of the construction-design process was overcome.
The Starship Curry, NX-41174, was christened in August of 2336 at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars, in the Sol Sector. Within a span of eight years, seven more of the class had been built at the same location and three more at the Antares Shipyards.
III. Purpose & Current Status
The original purpose of the Curry class was that of a gap in the fleet to be filled: a multi-purpose starship of no glory.
Type-B Currys, those with aft shuttlebays and turned nacelles, were later used as the Miranda were originally used. It only took a matter of years before the Type-A Currys also followed suit and filled a widening hole in the fleet's resources, as Miranda-class starship were become scarcer.
Today, the Curry class has had an undistinguished record and production of the ships has long since stopped. Of the eleven ships ever contructed, only six remain in the fleet, most of the lost vessels destroyed in the Dominion War, one in which they were particularly vulnerable, largely due to their lack of manoevrability and outdated design elements.
During the War, the bulk of the Curry-class ships was assigned to the protection of planets inside the Federation, such as at Betazed -- where two members of the class were lost with all hands when they attempted to reenter the Betazed system much too late, after the Dominion invaded -- but other ships, including the Curry herself and the Balkhash, were assigned to strike missions with the joint Klingon-Federation fleet. The U.S.S. Irtysh and the U.S.S. Balkhash particpated in the raid on the Taurus III shipsyards at the beginning of the war, but only the Balkhash came back; and the Curry was part of the Sixth Fleet as of 2374.
Because of their lack of manoevrability, Currys did not regularly have a hand in the massive battles of the war. Not once did a Curry-clas ship participate in a massive battle such as those of Chin'toka or the Battle to Retake Deep Space Nine. This simple fact most likely saved the entire class from extinction at the hands of the Jem'Hadar.
During the 2340s, 2350s and 2360s, the most common assignments for a Curry-class vessel included general border patrol, regulation of traffic, and scientific research; also up until that point, only one Curry-class starship had ever been lost on a mission.
Rescue was often a major responsibility of the Curry class. On more than one occasion, a starship has been assigned to an aftermath. The Marne was part of a small crew that helped after the massacre at Wolf 359. The San Matias helped out at the seismic instability inceident on Pacifica. The Starship Hallantha avoided a diplomatic incident with the Romulans in 2368, when a misunderstanding arose.
Following the conclusion of the war, the remaining Curry-class starships in the Federation were:
Name Registry Number Captain Other
U.S.S. Curry NCC-41174 Georges Lavoisier U.S.S. Marne NCC-51206 Tal'Igran U.S.S. La Grange NCC-51210 Yethanl Belar Type-B U.S.S. Balkhash NCC-49601 April Clemenceau U.S.S. Caspiron NCC-49800 Ralek ki'Maucthon Type-B U.S.S. San Matias NCC-55134 Selan
While production of the class has been on a complete halt for decades, the future of the Curry isn't too obscure. At the moment, the Currys continue to provide valuable help throughout the fleet and have doubtlessly assisted along the path of Starfleet history. Even though the design elements are becoming more and more out of date and more and more refits are required per ship, the Curry class will remain as a proud member of the fleet until Starfleet deems it otherwise necessary.
B. Canonical Appearances and Information
The only canon information for the Curry lies in the fact that it is apparently an Excelsior kitbash with Constitution nacelles. The Curry name isn't even canonical (but it comes from Stipes), but the NCC-4xxxx registry number for it is. The shuttlebay appears on the front of the ship in "A Time to Stand", its only appearance on-screen, but in the DS9 Technical Manual (non-canon), the shuttlebay is on the aft section of the ship and the Constitution nacelles are too long and turned on their side.
posted
I like it. That's why I did the picture. Never did finish the top view.
By the way, I believe I did that back before we got the photos of the DS9 models, so blame inaccuracies on that. (Though, I am proud to say I always maintained that the ship had ginormous nacelles, which turned out to be true.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I prefer it with Excelsior-style nacelles, but I still think it's a cool ship, and a good drawing too.
I'll read the writeup tomorrow...sometime...when I'm actually awake.
-------------------- Fell deeds await. Now for Wrath... Now for Ruin... and a Red Dawn... -Theoden, TTT
Lord Vorkosigan does not always get what he wants!
Registered: Feb 2004
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
I think the secondary hull should be pushed back a bit. Makes it a bit more "Oberth" like.....
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Looking (Oooking? God I wish I could spell...), it seems as if the neck/saucer is a little far back. I always though that it connected in the forward half of the secondary hull.
-------------------- Fell deeds await. Now for Wrath... Now for Ruin... and a Red Dawn... -Theoden, TTT
Lord Vorkosigan does not always get what he wants!
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
It's actually far better written than most of the articles in STTM.
I really like the schematic views (inaccuracies aside) that accompany these articles- very clean. Too many schematic views try to add every little detail and make for muddy illustrations.
I this case though, I far prefer the smaller sized nacelles as on the version posted at EAS.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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