USS Exeter ( NCC - 1672 ) The USS " Exeter " ( NCC - 1672 ) was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . In 2267 , the " Exeter " was under the command of Captain Ronald Tracey . ( ) History . In 2267 , the " Exeter " was one of several starships undergoing repairs at Starbase 11 . ( ) Later that year , the " Exeter " was assigned to a mission patrolling the region surrounding the Omega system . While arranging preparations for a planetary survey of Omega IV , with the village elders , Tracey and his landing party contracted an unknown bacteriological disease . When the landing party , " sans " Tracey , transported back to the " Exeter " , they infected the entire crew . Tracey was able to survive due to remaining on the planet ' s surface where a natural immunization to the disease occurred due to the planet ' s atmosphere . Six months later , after Starfleet lost contact with the " Exeter " , the came across the missing ship . The " Enterprise " would discover the undamaged and apparently deserted " Exeter " in orbit of planet Omega IV ; the ship ' s complement of four shuttlecraft was still present in the hangar deck . When boarded , the ship ' s helm was found left on automatic and the entire crew of four hundred were found dead , in the form of dehydrated crystals . Upon reviewing the final log entry made by the ship ' s chief medical officer , Dr . Carter , it was discovered that the crew had died as a result of contamination from the , otherwise undetected , bacteriological disease . Captain Tracey would be located on the planet ' s surface , and eventually arrested for violating the Federation ' s Prime Directive . With Tracey placed under arrest , and the mission over , Kirk declared the " Exeter " abandoned . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The registry of the " Exeter " ( NCC - 1672 ) was not confirmed until it was seen on the CGI model in the 2007 remastered version of " The Omega Glory " . Prior to that it had been seen without context on a list of starships in . The registry was first connected with the starship in Bjo Trimble ' s " Star Trek Concordance " and later in the by Michael Okuda . Both Trimble and Okuda took their cue from Greg Jein ' s influential " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship " article , published in the April 1973 issue 27 of the " T - Negative " fanzine . In the article , Jein had made an attempt to " logically " couple the registry numbers as seen in " Court Martial " with the names listed in the reference book " The Making of Star Trek " . When the remastered series began its release , Okuda , then visual effects producer for the project , made use of the opportunity to elevate Jein ' s until then conjectural ship ' s registry to canon . The name of the ship had already been established by the producers at the start of second season of , when they composed a definitive fourteen ship list belonging to the , then still referred to as " " Starship " - class " by them , including the " Exeter " . The annotations of D . C . Fontana and Producer Robert Justman on their first two memo proposals , made it clear that the ship was named after the historical British World War II heavy cruiser . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 164 - 165 ) For some reason the ship was named USS " Argentina " in an early draft of the script according to " The Star Trek Compendium " – as was confirmed earlier by Jein who owned all the script drafts of the " Original Series " – until it was decided to adhere to the list . " Exeter " s dedication plaque on the bridge was quite a bit larger than the ones on the " Enterprise " or the . During filming on " The Omega Glory " , a memo from " Original Series " producer Bob Justman to costume designer William Ware Theiss addressed the fact that the the " Exeter " crew wore their own , distinct assignment patch . Justman stated that this was an error , likely stemming from the insignia worn by the crew of the " Antares " in , which Justman stated was " " the equivalent of merchant marine or freighter personnel " " . Justman stated that , going forward , all Starship personnel should wear the Starship emblem that the crew of the " Enterprise " wear .