However, several 21st century nautical services from a wide variety of seafaring nations observe the practice of continuing to use sailing ships as training vessels (the US Coast Guard, for example, has used the barque Eagle for cadet training since the 1940s). 217) It was debatable whether a ship that old would still be useful as a training ship over 125 years later, except possibly as a study of antiquities. Moore, also an avid TOS fan and the writer of "Valiant", stated that the mention of Republic in that episode was probably to the same ship that Kirk served on. 217) This notion has been adhered to in every (in-universe) reference work since, encompassing the Star Trek Fact Files and the more recent Haynes Enterprise Manual. Through reference books he subsequently wrote and following the original intent of the TOS producers, Okuda has propagated the notion that Republic belonged to the Constitution-class. Senior Scenic Artist Michael Okuda – who is, like Greg Jein, a TOS fan – was also aware of the original reference and used the correct registry in his below-mentioned "Operation Retrieve" mission charts, and thereby overturning Jein's assumption. Republic's registry number is, as above indicated, derived from "Court Martial" itself, where Kirk explicitly states the number in dialogue.
SHIPS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC SERIES
Yet, as the ship was never shown on screen (nor did the remastered version of the series allow for retconning the ship into any of the episodes, as was the case with USS Intrepid), either as the ship proper or in any graphical representation, its configuration was never established in canon. However, Jein has included the ship in an effort he made to marry Constitution-class vessels to established registry numberss, citing Republic as an older "Mark VI" sub-class variant. 165) When he embarked on his influential " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" article and became aware of the original reference, TOS fan Greg Jein, like many other contemporary fans, proceeded from the assumption that Republic was no longer in service as a "front line" ship, as its registry number was not included on a starship status chart in Commodore Stone's office at Starbase 11 in "Court Martial". Fontana and Robert Justman, who composed a fourteen ship list at the start of its 1967 second season, belonging to the Constitution-class, then still referred to as Starship-class by them and including Republic.
Actually, these theories were backed up by production sources such as Star Trek: The Original Series producers D.C. Theories about Republic began early on, with reference works published in the 1960s. Kirk himself stated in the episode " Court Martial" the ship's nomenclature as "United Starship Republic, number 1371". ( TOS: " A Private Little War") Garrovick, therefore, may not have been Republic's captain.Īlthough many reference sources included Republic as a Constitution-class heavy cruiser, its status in canon is, to date, uncertain. This is also consistent with him saying he was a "young lieutenant" when he visited Neural in 2255. This suggests that Kirk was assigned to Republic as an ensign while he was still in the Academy. However, multiple mentions in other episodes date Kirk's Academy years from 2252 to 2257. In " Obsession", Kirk says that Captain Garrovick was his commanding officer from the day he left the Starfleet Academy until his death in 2257 while on the USS Farragut, suggesting that Garrovick may have captained the Republic.