History of SS Mary Rose

Created by Captain Rueben Gregnol on Fri Nov 18th, 2016 @ 11:32pm

The SS Mary Rose has a long and varied past, which is expected considering she has seen over 150 years of life under her belt. Originally commissioned as the USS Ishimura in April of 2243, the ship was one of the first Constitution Class vessels ever minted. Named for the famed Starfleet captain Sakuma Ishimura, a hero of the Earth-Romulan War, the vessel was headed by an experienced crew and considered with great expectations. In accordance with the times, the Ishimura’s original mission was a five-year assignment to explore the outer edge of the Orion Arm, a region which the Federation wouldn't mount another series of explorations into until nearly a century later.

However, the early days of space exploration where fraught with unknown dangers. Despite a year’s shakedown run, during which the ship and all hands performed most flawlessly, contact with the vessel was lost before they reached the destination of their first mission trajectory. After a search and lengthy investigation, the USS Ishimura and crew were official marked as missing, assumed lost on June of 2246. 

It was not until 2264 that the fate of the USS Ishimura was finally revealed. The Vulcan Science Vessel ‘Skyvaam’ found the husk of the USS Ishimura on star date 1301.1, floating in the Devorn Cloud. Derelict and damaged, with her computer cores wiped and valuables pillage, it was assumed pirates operating out of the silent triangle, a region of hazardous space very near the Devron cloud, had attacked and striped the ship.

In honour of it’s crew, Star Fleet arranged for the vessel to be towed back to port, where it was to undergo a full refit of it’s initial systems and be recommissioned for immediate return to duty.

The USS Ishimura Refit left Kenedy Space Dock in 2266 after being completely rebuilt. Enjoying several years of trouble free duty, the ship was not to meet disaster again until 2272. During a mission to help colonize a small moon a lethal infection was contracted by several members of the crew, who unknowingly bought the disease on-board. The ship was quarantined immediately, however less than quarter aboard survived.

This left the USS Ishimura with somewhat of a reputation among the fleet, making Captain and Crew rather reticent to board here. Due to the increasing notion of the ship as a ‘Bad Luck’ charm, and the vessels increasing age, she was officially redacted in 2285 and put into mothballs. Here she laid for nearly two decades, all but forgotten about in Starfleets floating graveyard.

It took a time of great need to force Starfleet into dragging the USS Ishimura back onto the line. Pulled from storage and once again pressed into emergency service; this time as an escort for a medical fleet. Realizing the ship was to old to act as an escort, she was later hurriedly out-fitted to serve as a make-shift hospital barge in order to aid in the emergency evacuation of a crippled space station. The hospital fleet assigned to this task was decimated by a superior force of Romulan Warships during the evacuation process.

The Ishimura was damaged heavily in the assault, her ship-wide life-support systems had been disabled in the attack. In the end, she was left once again adrift and derelict, this time carrying hundreds of wounded from space-station catastrophe.

After her second recovery, it had become clear to Starfleet that the Ishimura had out-lived her usefulness to them and was now to old to continue in their service, so the decision was made to fully decommission her. Following her clean-up and repair, she was immediately put up for auction for private use, and was just as quickly snapped up. Her new owner, a collector of rare and exotic items, jumped at the chance of owning such a unique piece; even going as far as making his home on her. Aligning with regulations, the ship was placed on the civilian register as the SS Mary Rose and re-fitted with automation systems, enabling her to be operated by a much smaller crew.

As the collector grew older, so did his desire of ownership. In mid 2379 he mysteriously went missing, leaving the ship vented and empty. It was salvaged and used for approximately six months by an ore transportation firm. The SS Mary Rose was bought in for further refitting, this time for a full Cargo Conversation and updated automation, in 2390. However, the firm went bust during the re-fit, so the vessel was again abandoned.

The SS Mary Rose was acquired by a salvager as a bulk package, along with several other ships. Towed to yet another floating ship yard, she sat adrift until Barton bartered for her himself, finding a unique sense of kin-ship with the ailing vessel, he was keen to give her a new sense of life. It wasn't long before the Barton was arrested by Starfleet leaving his ship to his best friend who decided to carry on.