USS Farragut (NCC-1647)

The USS Farragut (NCC-1647) was a Federation starship operated by Starfleet in the 23rd century.
== Service history ==
=== Construction and Launch ===
The Farragut was constructed at the ground-based facility of the San Francisco Fleet Yards in California, Earth. The ship was launched on October 2, 2243, and was named for American naval officer . (USS Farragut dedication plaque, SNW: "A Quality of Mercy")
=== Early Service ===
In the 2250s, the Farragut was commanded by Captain Garrovick. ()
Nurse Christine Chapel had served aboard the Farragut prior to her assignment to the in 2259. For Starfleet Remembrance Day that year, she wore a Farragut pin to memorialize the crewmates she had lost from this ship. ()
=== 2255 ===
In 2255, Lieutenant James T. Kirk's was assigned to the Farragut as his first deep space assignment after his graduation from Starfleet Academy, where he was assigned to a phaser station. ()
=== 2257 ===
While exploring Tycho IV in 2257, the Farragut encountered a dikironium cloud creature that proceeded to kill nearly half the crew, some two hundred personnel including Captain Garrovick. Nearly ten hours of record tapes chronicled the encounter. According to the tapes, Kirk insisted upon blaming himself for the incident because of his delay in firing phasers at the creature. The executive officer disagreed, stating for the record: "Lieutenant Kirk is a fine young officer who performed with uncommon bravery." 
Eleven years later, it was determined that Kirk could not have prevented the death of his captain and crewmates, when the encountered the same creature and discovered that phasers were ineffective against it. ()
=== 2259 ===
In 2259, the Farragut was docked at Starbase 1 alongside the Enterprise. () James Kirk was still serving aboard the Farragut at this time. ()
Later that year, Kirk was promoted to first officer of the Farragut, breaking his father's record as the youngest first officer in Starfleet, although Kirk wouldn't actually assume the position for a few more months as Kirk needed to train his replacement for his previous position first. The Farragut joined the Enterprise, under the joint command of newly promoted fleet captain Christopher Pike, to bring a deuterium refinery online. After the decision was made to destroy the refinery instead, the Farragut collected all of station's shuttles and escape pods. ()
Some time after, the Farragut temporarily transferred Kirk to the Enterprise, to allow him to shadow Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley in preparation for assuming the duties of first officer. ()
The Farragut was near the and the when the Enterprise discovered a subspace fissure. ( display graphic)
== Alternate timeline ==
In an alternate timeline where Captain Christopher Pike remained in command of the Enterprise and avoided the accident that exposed him to delta radiation, Kirk became the captain of the Farragut and Commander La'an Noonien-Singh served under him. In 2266, he responded to the distress call sent by Outpost 4 as it came under Romulan attack. At Kirk's suggestion, the Farragut and the Enterprise shadowed the Romulan Bird-of-Prey responsible, preparing to engage it in a pincer move once it entered the tail of the comet Icarus IV and became temporarily visible through its cloaking device.
However, the Romulan Commander had anticipated their plan and positioned his vessel behind the Farragut. Kirk ordered his ship to turn and engage the Bird-of-Prey, but the Farragut was hit by a plasma torpedo at close range and sustained catastrophic damage to its saucer section. With failing, the surviving crew were evacuated to the Enterprise. ()
== Command crew == 
* Commanding officer 
**Garrovick (2257)
**Christopher Pike (2259) 
**James T. Kirk (2266, alternate timeline)
* First officer
**James T. Kirk (2259)
== Appendices ==
=== Related Topics === 
* USS Farragut dedication plaques
=== Appearances ===
*
** (Season 1)
** (Season 2)
**
** 
=== Background information ===
The Farragut was "named for American naval officer , who commanded Union ships during the American Civil War, famous for his rallying cry, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"" ()
Although no official registry or class was established during the TOS-era when this ship was mentioned, both the Star Trek Concordance and the , using the information created by Greg Jein in his The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship article, identified this ship as a heavy cruiser with the registry number NCC-1647. Doug Drexler reiterated this on his Drexfiles blog. In the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 262), there was a starboard profile pictured of the Farragut as a Constitution-class vessel.
Many other publications, beginning with The Making of Star Trek, p. 165 and Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual, listed the Farragut as a Constitution-class heavy cruiser. The Technical Manual. giving the ship a registry of NCC-1702, also listed the vessel as being destroyed, as does The Making of Star Trek, although there was no canon evidence supporting that assertion.
The registry of this ship and its class were finally established in canon in the episode "A Quality of Mercy". Though the ship retained the registry NCC-1647, it ultimately belonged to a different ship class.
Like other Federation starships of Strange New Worlds, there were two dedication plaques on the ship's bridge. The ship's class would be mentioned on these plaques. They are not readable in the episode. Clearly readable versions of both plaques were however published in Fanhome's third issue outing of their publication of January 2025. In the accompanying magazine of the partwork (p. 14), it was divulged on one of the plaques that the ship's motto was indeed the rallying cry the historical David Farragut had made during the American Civil War, providing further confirmation of the ship's historical namesake as emphatically mentioned on the second plaque as well.
In a tweet, art director Tim Peel wrote that he believed the class of this ship to be Bellerophon. This was based on information he had received from other members of the production crew. This was also reaffirmed in the aforementioned Fanhome January 2025 publication on the other plaque.
For the ship's appearance in "The Broken Circle", black stripes and white text were added to the ship's nacelles. This matches how the ship appears in Star Trek Online.
=== Apocrypha ===
Two DC comic books in the second volume provided non-canon appearances of the Farragut in "Behind Enemy Lines!" and "All Those Years Ago...". The ship appeared in the Gold Key TOS issue "Murder Boards the Enterprise". Further appearances in DC issues included "" showing a model of the Farragut with the NCC-1647 registry, while the comic "Debt of Honor" showed the ship with the registry NCC-1702 (matching the Star Fleet Technical Manual).
In the by William Shatner, Kirk participated in an early holodeck recreation of his first encounter with the creature that confirms that he could have done nothing; if the Farragut had fired on the creature, the entire ship would have been destroyed. The ship also made appearances in a number of other novels including Web of the Romulans, The Rings of Tautee, Crisis on Centaurus, The Covenant of the Crown, and Treaty's Law.
In the novel The Captains' Honor, the Farragut had been decommissioned from Starfleet and was operated by the Romans of the planet Magna Roma as the USS Centurion. However, "Debt of Honor" shows the Farragut separating her saucer section and the engineering hull being destroyed by self-destruct after it was overrun by the inter-dimensional creatures in the aftermath of the encounter with the Cloud Creature.
In the computer games and Star Trek: Judgment Rites, Kirk mentions that his first dealings with the were as a lieutenant on the Farragut.
In The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, the Farragut was a starship.
=== External links ===
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Farragut, 23rd century