USS Essex The USS " Essex " ( NCC - 173 ) was a 22nd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . In 2167 , the " Essex " was commanded by Captain Bryce Shumar . The " Essex " operated out of Starbase 12 , under the sector command of Admiral Uttan Narsu . It carried a crew of 229 . In 2167 , the " Essex " visited an M - class moon of Mab - Bu VI . There , non - corporeal criminal s from Ux - Mal , who had been imprisoned on the moon centuries before , attempted to escape by possessing the " Essex " crew . However , the ship could not make it out of the area and it was destroyed with all hands by an electromagnetic storm . The ship ' s distress call continued to signal . In 2368 , the detected the distress signal of the " Essex " , over two hundred years old , and investigated the moon . The criminals impersonated the crew of the " Essex " and attempted to take over the " Enterprise " , but were unsuccessful . ( ) Personnel . This crew was active in 2167 . Background information . It should be noted that the appearance of " Essex " had not been established in canon . However , production staff fans , most notably Doug Drexler , Greg Jein , and Michael Okuda ( in his and reference works in particular ) have vigorously championed the appearance of the " Daedalus " - class – to which " Essex " was established to belong in " Power Play " – as derived from a 1964 by Art Director Matt Jefferies . Jein , on his own volition , constructed an " Essex " reference model for Okuda to photograph and photoshop , and who had it prominently featured in his works . As the official franchise has as of 2002 deemed the contents of Okuda ' s two works as " quasi - canon " ( thereby becoming the only ones they consider as such from then on ) , it follows that the " Daedalus " - class appearance has attained this status as well . ( ) Okuda had the model , upon delivery by Jein , originally labeled ( NCC - 176 ) for its entry in the " Chronology " , before relabeling it as USS " Essex " , but felt no need to change its registry as he was aware that it would not be discernible in the small black and white pictures . Therefore the model was in the first 1994 edition of the " Encyclopedia " , though he had the ship endowed with the intended " NCC - 173 " registry , in both the individual entry ( p . 94 ) , as well as in his starship list ( p . 320 ) . Okuda has not corrected this for the " Chronology " and second and third editions of the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " , when he took new color photographs of the model , but by careful angling and lighting , the registry for " Essex " has remained obscured . For the fourth edition of the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " , new illustrations of the " Daedalus " - class starships were created . For further information on the model , see " Daedalus " - class model . The name " Essex " might be derived from any one of several sources , though the reference book " The Making of Star Trek " , pages 164 - 165 , made it very clear that " " producers D . C . Fontana and Robert Justman had the World War II aircraft carrier , in mind when they came up with their name list in the summer of 1967 as possible candidates for what they , at the time , still called the " Starship " - class . In effect , an USS " Essex " nearly made the cut initially , as it was already referenced to in first script draft dialogue treatment , dated 30 September 1967 , page 64 , for the second season episode , which contained a line having Lieutenant Uhura state , The reference , though , was dropped from the episode as aired . See also in this respect NCC - 1697 . For more information , see for a list of additional possible name origins . Apocrypha . The " Essex " received a mention in the Pocket ENT novel " " , as being one of the starships sent to help repair after its encounter with three Romulan - controlled Klingon warships over Draylax . The " Essex " was also featured in " " , " Beneath the Raptor ' s Wing " , and " A Choice of Futures " , as well as in the reference book " " .