Structure of the Starship Database

The database encompasses all vessel types that ever appeared in Star Trek - all that could be seen on screen or whose name or class was spoken out. In the broadest sense, every distinct design of manned ships or shuttles, unmanned probes and space stations has been included. Starfleet ships are listed alphabetically by class, alien ships by the name of the civilization.

The following items do *not* qualify for the database:

Unidentifiable vessels seen in the far background
Vague mentions by characters such as "47 ships were destroyed" or "I once served on a Terellian freighter"
Vessels and vehicles that exist in the real world
It would be pointless to list just the selection of existing vehicles that appeared in the series like the Saturn V or Pathfinder (and that are better described elsewhere).
Planet or moon-based facilities, (wheeled) ground vehicles, generic "shapeless" torpedoes and spaceborne lifeforms
There may be single exceptions like the Argo jeep or the "living starships".

This database has strict standards to avoid speculation and fan fiction being listed on par with canon facts. Aside from observations on screen (which supersede anything else), only data from these official publications is taken into account (like everywhere on this website): the Star Trek Fact Files, Star Trek: The Magazine, the Star Trek Encyclopedia I-III, the TNG Technical Manual, the DS9 Technical Manual and, for the sizes of ships in modern Trek, the booklets of the Official Starships Collection. In many cases, however, there will be only very little specific information, particularly for "alien-of-the-week" vessels. If the confirmed information is scarce, the annotations may easily become much more extensive. Any such musings may not provide ultimate solutions and should be taken as suggestions and not as a dogma. As non-canon sources, even if quoted only in the annotations, would only cause more confusion than necessary, they are usually not taken into account.

For more about canon, I recommend reading the extensive write-up What is Canon? or the FAQ.

Sample Listing

Ambassador

General description

The description in this field is directly based on facts that were on screen or that are obvious without the need of being explicitly mentioned. Where nothing else is available, the text may be restricted to something indistinct like "It's a really big ship", although it may read silly.

Known ships

Only vessels are listed of which either the name or the registry is known. Only vessels are listed that definitely belong to this class or type. This may include entries from the Star Trek Encyclopedia or other official reference manuals, although several of them may not be verified on screen.

Annotations

This field comprises remarks about the ship type as seen on screen and behind the scenes. In particular, the following topics may be covered:

General information about the ship type's screen appearances and the episodes where it could be seen.
Behind-the-scenes information about how the ship was designed and constructed and by whom - in particular if the miniature or CGI is a re-use.
Oddities and inconsistencies concerning the ship's look, its specs or its appearances on screen - including tentative solutions.
If possible and desirable, an assessment of the ship's size.
Information and presumptions about variants and design lineages.
Oddities and trivia about the class name, the registries or the names of individual ships.

Class specifications

This field contains only the very basic specs and only those that were mentioned on screen or in official reference manuals. In particular, figures about the power or weapon systems are not included, as they are intrinsically contradictory. I will list the length of the ship if at least a rough size comparison is possible.

Battleship	General description The image on the left usually depicts a starboard view of the ship type and sometimes a top view of a station or probe. If available, the class name like "Constitution" or "Vor'cha" is listed underneath the image thumbnail. If the class name is unknown, it is the name of an individual ship of this class such as "Aeon type" or "Bok'Nor type". If no name is known, a generic term like "Military freighter" or "Battleship" is used.	Known ships The name of the class ship or prototype ship is redundant and is not listed here - unless its registry is known too.
	Annotations Note that these remarks are usually non-canon and often speculative, but may be useful to assess the available facts. Don't quote this as "canon" or even as "EAS claims that it's canon".	Class specifications Ship type Length: ? Deck count: ? Max. speed: ? Crew complement: ? First commissioned in ?

Sphere builder ship 2

General description

There may be two reasons why the small thumbnail is not clickable:

No side view of higher resolution is available.
I have decided that we don't want so see a larger image of it because the same studio miniature or CGI was used for ships of different sizes, of different eras or from different corners of the galaxy, so it can't be all the same design. In some cases the thumbnail is modified to look at least slightly different than the (clickable) thumbnail of the other, incompatible variant.

Known ships

Note that most ships of the "minor" alien races are not given an individual name, so this field is often empty.

Annotations

Sometimes a clickable screen capture of a ship is depicted here, especially if no clear side view is available or if it is useful for further analysis.