USS Columbia
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USS Columbia (NCC-97800) is a Columbia III-class Federation starship currently assigned to Fourth Fleet's Arcturus Wayfinding Flotilla. The prototype of the new Columbia III-class scout, Columbia carries on a long legacy of Starfleet vessels.
Namesake and Legacy
Columbia is the fourth Federation starship to bear the name, the fifth starship to bear the name, and the sixth space-going vessel of any kind to bear the name.
The name itself is a reference to a historical feminine personification of the United States of America that was used in the 18th and 19th centuries as an alternative to the word "America," in mimicry of other divine-adjacent feminine personifications such as Britannia for the Great Britain and Marianne for France. Columbia, as a personification, derives from the name of Christopher Columbus, who was popularly credited with the European "discovery" of North America until the late 20th century. A navigator born in Genoa, Columbus was commissioned by the Crown of Castile (part of modern Spain) to lead four transatlantic voyages between 1492 and 1504 CE. His famous 1492 voyage landed on various islands in the Caribbean, but never on the mainland. This continent had already been inhabited for millennia and had also been reached by Norse Europeans circa 1000 CE. As Spanish-appointed governor of the island Hispaniola, Columbus perpetrated atrocities against the indigenous Taíno population egregious enough that he was eventually arrested and sent back to Spain in irons—notable even for an era that was generally permissive of a wide variety of crimes against humanity. In the United States of America, Columbus was regarded as something of a founder-hero for much of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The details of his "discovery" of the continent were suppressed until the late 20th century, when historical opinions of Columbus began to shift. By that point, the United States of America's NASA program had already built and operated the first of its orbital space shuttles—the Columbia, which was the first reusable orbital spacecraft built by humans. Columbia was eventually lost with all hands following a structural failure during re-entry in 2003.
In the 22nd century, Earth Starfleet's first warp 5 vessel, the NX-class Enterprise, was named after the prototype space shuttle that preceded Columbia for atmospheric flight tests. The second NX-class ship was then named Columbia after the orbital vehicle and after the sacrifice of the astronauts lost in 2003. Thus, subsequent Federation starships have been named in that lineage, while understanding the original origin of the name. Indeed, the type of colonial venture Columbus conducted upon the people of Hispaniola, is precisely what Starfleet regulations like the Prime Directive exist to prevent.
The Earth Starfleet vessel Columbia was eventually refit into her own sub-class, the Columbia-class cruiser. Lost before the founding of the Federation, Columbia's name was taken up by a Hermes-class scout in the 2260s, before being replaced by a scout of the new Columbia II type in the 2290s, which was mean to be a modern revision of the Columbia class. This ship remained in service until the mid-24th century, when it was replaced by the Galaxy-class USS Columbia.
Notable Crew
Commanding Officers
Starbases