HMS Fearless

Will we see HMS Fearless appear again in the novels? has not been see since Honor of Queen. Would love to see a reappearence of the ship that started the series. Wonder what class or type it is now, 20 plus years later.

Frankjg wrote:Will we see HMS Fearless appear again in the novels? has not been see since Honor of Queen. Would love to see a reappearence of the ship that started the series. Wonder what class or type it is now, 20 plus years later.

The second most important question, who will command her?

My request to the Admiralty, Abigail Hearns. Who better, to command Fearless than Honor's protégé?

Frankjg wrote:Will we see HMS Fearless appear again in the novels? has not been see since Honor of Queen. Would love to see a reappearence of the ship that started the series. Wonder what class or type it is now, 20 plus years later.

We've discussed this before. Presumably, it's still a cruiser. We don't know what happened to the Star Knight Fearless - it could still be around (Warlock survived until SoS). Most likely, the current Fearless is a Saganami-A or -C.

Sadly, it is also possible that she was among the casualties of First Manticore, and has not been rebuilt.

Fearless was put on the List of Honor after the Basilisk Incident. Unless destroyed, scrapped or sold, the ship should still be around somewhere.

HMS Nike was renamed, sold and bought back. It is possible this happened to the Star Knight Fearless during the Janacek build-down, so the ship could still be around, but with the name assigned to another newer hull.

munroburton wrote:Fearless was put on the List of Honor after the Basilisk Incident. Unless destroyed, scrapped or sold, the ship should still be around somewhere.

HMS Nike was renamed, sold and bought back. It is possible this happened to the Star Knight Fearless during the Janacek build-down, so the ship could still be around, but with the name assigned to another newer hull.

No, they scrapped her. She was old, outdated, had a gutted weapons suite and severely damaged.

kzt wrote:

munroburton wrote:Fearless was put on the List of Honor after the Basilisk Incident. Unless destroyed, scrapped or sold, the ship should still be around somewhere.

HMS Nike was renamed, sold and bought back. It is possible this happened to the Star Knight Fearless during the Janacek build-down, so the ship could still be around, but with the name assigned to another newer hull.

No, they scrapped her. She was old, outdated, had a gutted weapons suite and severely damaged.

I thought so too. IIRC, it was Honor who was hoping they'd be able to resuscitate her, but she was too far damaged for any mouth to mouth to matter.

Besides, being Fearless, if she was still sailing we'd have heard a peep from her by now. Or certainly would in the near future. Remember, Fearless has a habit of being at the scene of a crime. She's a bloodhound in that respect. Also, not just any CO can have her. I suspect, that were she still alive and kicking, that the grapevine would have rendered a grape or two of info by now. At least some juice regarding the identity of her CO.

Why, she's the Enterprise of the RMN.

Like the Enterprise, the original Fearless is more endearing. As much as for her crew and not her armament. The crew was part of her armament - as was the Enterprise. No bloody A, B, C, or D.

kzt wrote:

munroburton wrote:Fearless was put on the List of Honor after the Basilisk Incident. Unless destroyed, scrapped or sold, the ship should still be around somewhere.

HMS Nike was renamed, sold and bought back. It is possible this happened to the Star Knight Fearless during the Janacek build-down, so the ship could still be around, but with the name assigned to another newer hull.

No, they scrapped her. She was old, outdated, had a gutted weapons suite and severely damaged.

Original HMS Fearless, the Courageous-class from On Basilisk Station was scrapped. No question about that.

The Star Knight-class HMS Fearless from Honor of the Queen, was only a couple years old ... which wasn't that old for a ship at the time, and Star Knights were still being built through the first war, as the production lines were set up and the kinks all worked out. On the other hand, that Fearless had been shot to hell. That happens when you take a heavy cruiser against a battlecruiser, even one being fought mostly by computers. I do not remember whether it was said or not if this Fearless was too damaged for repair to be economically feasible, or if building a new ship would have been the better option.
Even if this Fearless was repairable, it's entirely possible that she was destroyed during the war.

Warlock survived in large part because she, by the statements in Shadow of Saganami, was implied to have never been involved in serious fighting after First Hancock. The CO said something along the lines of Warlock's name never having gotten to be redeemed after Young's disgrace at First Hancock.



At any rate, as Fearless was added to the List of Honor, and therefore an HMS Fearless kept in perpetual commission, there exists an HMS Fearless somewhere in the RMN, class unknown at this point.
Unless the latest Fearless was destroyed during Oyster Bay, or was destroyed prior to Oyster Bay but a new Fearless hadn't been designated and launched before Oyster Bay hit.

cthia wrote:Besides, being Fearless, if she was still sailing we'd have heard a peep from her by now. Or certainly would in the near future. Remember, Fearless has a habit of being at the scene of a crime. She's a bloodhound in that respect. Also, not just any CO can have her. I suspect, that were she still alive and kicking, that the grapevine would have rendered a grape or two of info by now. At least some juice regarding the identity of her CO.

I figure if the Star Knight Fearless wasn't massacred with the others in Battle of Manticore and/or Oyster bay, she was probably based in Marsh, operating in Silesia.

Assuming still Star Knight, she'd have the right crew mix to operate extensively in anti-pirate operations, and for longer periods than the Saganami variants. History of being a good bloodhound, so as long as the captain's good, they'd have a fairly solid reputation even if they don't have Beauty and the Beast sniffing for contraband.


And if Fearless was updated to a Saganami variant, she'd still be fairly ideal as a Silesian patroller, this time operating more in a Hunter-Killer role, perhaps still teamed up with an older vessel. Stays in more of a stealthed role, waiting for a pirate to start a stalk only to abort, with DDM's waiting.

Kytheros wrote:Original HMS Fearless, the Courageous-class from On Basilisk Station was scrapped. No question about that.

The Star Knight-class HMS Fearless from Honor of the Queen, was only a couple years old ... which wasn't that old for a ship at the time, and Star Knights were still being built through the first war, as the production lines were set up and the kinks all worked out. On the other hand, that Fearless had been shot to hell. That happens when you take a heavy cruiser against a battlecruiser, even one being fought mostly by computers. I do not remember whether it was said or not if this Fearless was too damaged for repair to be economically feasible, or if building a new ship would have been the better option.
Even if this Fearless was repairable, it's entirely possible that she was destroyed during the war.

Warlock survived in large part because she, by the statements in Shadow of Saganami, was implied to have never been involved in serious fighting after First Hancock. The CO said something along the lines of Warlock's name never having gotten to be redeemed after Young's disgrace at First Hancock.



At any rate, as Fearless was added to the List of Honor, and therefore an HMS Fearless kept in perpetual commission, there exists an HMS Fearless somewhere in the RMN, class unknown at this point.
Unless the latest Fearless was destroyed during Oyster Bay, or was destroyed prior to Oyster Bay but a new Fearless hadn't been designated and launched before Oyster Bay hit.

Agreed. Fearless is out there somewhere, either in Silesia (we so need at least a short story covering the troubles Sarnow is having integrating manticore's half of Silesia into the Epmire) or closing off wormhole Terminaii is my guess.

by rights CO should be an old Fearless hand but almost of the named ones barring a few like Max Stromboli(?) who have never appeared again since book 1 are either on honor's staff i.e. Mercedes Brigham, have ship commands of their own like Rafe and Scotty or dead.

I like Abigail but she is barely a Lt (SG), I suppose she might get a destroyer command as a LT comm but we have no idea what type of ship Fearless is currently, Defiant went from a Battlecruiser in "Short Victorious War" to a light cruiser at the start of "shadow of Saganami".

anything bigger then a destroyer then no way will she be even close to eligible to command before making full commander, plus you normally have to spend some time as a XO before you get a ship, though that might have been waived during the wars for truly gifted officers.

Dauntless wrote:

Kytheros wrote:Original HMS Fearless, the Courageous-class from On Basilisk Station was scrapped. No question about that.

The Star Knight-class HMS Fearless from Honor of the Queen, was only a couple years old ... which wasn't that old for a ship at the time, and Star Knights were still being built through the first war, as the production lines were set up and the kinks all worked out. On the other hand, that Fearless had been shot to hell. That happens when you take a heavy cruiser against a battlecruiser, even one being fought mostly by computers. I do not remember whether it was said or not if this Fearless was too damaged for repair to be economically feasible, or if building a new ship would have been the better option.
Even if this Fearless was repairable, it's entirely possible that she was destroyed during the war.

Warlock survived in large part because she, by the statements in Shadow of Saganami, was implied to have never been involved in serious fighting after First Hancock. The CO said something along the lines of Warlock's name never having gotten to be redeemed after Young's disgrace at First Hancock.



At any rate, as Fearless was added to the List of Honor, and therefore an HMS Fearless kept in perpetual commission, there exists an HMS Fearless somewhere in the RMN, class unknown at this point.
Unless the latest Fearless was destroyed during Oyster Bay, or was destroyed prior to Oyster Bay but a new Fearless hadn't been designated and launched before Oyster Bay hit.

Agreed. Fearless is out there somewhere, either in Silesia (we so need at least a short story covering the troubles Sarnow is having integrating manticore's half of Silesia into the Epmire) or closing off wormhole Terminaii is my guess.

by rights CO should be an old Fearless hand but almost of the named ones barring a few like Max Stromboli(?) who have never appeared again since book 1 are either on honor's staff i.e. Mercedes Brigham, have ship commands of their own like Rafe and Scotty or dead.

I like Abigail but she is barely a Lt (SG), I suppose she might get a destroyer command as a LT comm but we have no idea what type of ship Fearless is currently, Defiant went from a Battlecruiser in "Short Victorious War" to a light cruiser at the start of "shadow of Saganami".

anything bigger then a destroyer then no way will she be even close to eligible to command before making full commander, plus you normally have to spend some time as a XO before you get a ship, though that might have been waived during the wars for truly gifted officers.

Why does your post have to be so spot on. Whereas I'm seeing the smoke of my imagination of Abigail in command of Fearless evaporating.

Defiant went from a Battlecruiser in "Short Victorious War" to a light cruiser at the start of "shadow of Saganami".

Of course you know that that's because Buships knows that oftentimes it's not the size of the ship, but the size of the fight in the ship.

At any rate, RFC has his work cut out for him in casting the right CO on Fearless' bridge. Whereby, I have faith in the "creator."