Merchantman Class

The Merchantman-class freighter is a common trading vessel built by multiple Alpha and Beta quadrant powers over the course of the 23rd century. Capable of hauling both medium-sized cargo loads and around a dozen passengers simultaneously, they can be found all over the galaxy in a wide variety of commercial and logistics roles, in both private and government hands. Originally a Federation design, the Merchantman was used by the Starfleet Auxiliary and Federation civilian agencies for over a century, but it has since been retired. Variants of this vessel are endless, even including a patrol vessel used by the Peliar Zel.

Engineering

Developed during the late 22nd century, the Merchantman was built with similar design principles to the much larger Antares I . The propulsion systems on the Merchantman use very similar principles to the older vessel: the ship's impulse engines push the ship through a subspace field created by coils around the ship, rather than with Cochrane-style warp nacelles. The Merchantman includes wing-like structures with grills of subspace field coils on either side of the main hull which make this so-called linear warp drive operate more efficiently. The wings also have many mounting points under them for small cargo pods.