Federation Starbase 23 - Federation Vessels

Federation Shiplist - USS Nonsuch


Introduction


Another of the plaques that came about from my recent deluge in all things Golden Age of Sail. The Nonsuch is one of these, being one of the many ships served on or commanded by C.S. Forrester's rather complex character, Horatio Hornblower. The Nonsuch is Hornblower's flagship as a Commodore in the Baltic, and is a 74-gun (Third-rate) 2-decker sailing ship-of-the-line. For you non-Age of Sail enthusiasts, Ships of the First to Third Rates are classified as ships of the line, or battleships. Ships of the Fourth to Sixth Rates are classified as frigates, or cruisers in modern parlance. So, like the Sutherland, the Nonsuch is the smallest of the battleship classes.

Again, I didn't want to make the Nonsuch a battleship type. Just getting a feel for the name itself, I didn't think it suited a Constitution-class, as it didn't sound "strong" enough. Similarly, it wouldn't suit an Excelsior either. However, I also didn't think it fitted a Miranda-class, as it is rather an eclectic name, and the Mirandas seem to have ordinary-sounding names. Nonsuch is a rather odd word, but I finally came to the conclusionthat it lent itself handily to one of the brand new Constellation class ships coming into service from the mid-2280s. They carried names like Hathaway, Stargazer, Magellan and such.

The motto for this ship is pretty much a work in progress. It is taken from the appropriate Hornblower book, 'The Commodore', but I'm still looking for a decent quote. This is the most appropriate one I have found so far, but I'm not sure if I really like it. It may grow on me and stay, or I might find something better by the time I've finished my read. And so, we have the plaque below.


The re-commissioning dedication plaque of the Constellation-class light cruiser USS Nonsuch NCC-25919