8.17 McCormick Class Factory Ship
The McCormick class factory ship carried advanced refining capability out to remote colonies that had raw materials but no means to process them, until the replicator and transporter rendered the type obsolete and many hulls were rebuilt as Brek class transports.
Service Entry Date (Old Calendar): 2179
The factory ship concept came about as a way to move advanced refining capability out to colonies located in distant areas of Federation space. These usually had abundant raw materials but no means by which to process them for transport. The ideal would be for a McCormick class starship to land near the colony (usually in a nearby ocean or other large liquid body that could support its mass) and have the materials brought to it. Once it had processed all that it could, it would then take off and carry its cargo back to the nearest commercial company hub for distribution or further processing. The invention of the replicator, followed within decades by the perfection of the materializer (i.e. transporter), would eventually make such ships obsolete. A number of these old hulls would find new lives, stripped of their on-board refining capacity and retooled for bulk cargo hauling, as the Brek class transports of the 23rd century.
Specifications
- Length: 300 m
- Beam: 275 m
- Draft: 94.8 m
- Mass: 230,600 DWT
- Crew: 200
- Armament: none
- Cruising speed: warp 2.8
- Maximum speed: warp 3.2