Groumall type

Groumall type

The Groumall-type was a type of starship utilized throughout the Cardassian Union during the late 24th century.

During the early 2370s, this class of vessel, was utilized primarily as a freighter or transport, and occasionally fielded by the Cardassian Central Command.

Composed primarily of a forward command section and a rear engine section, the middle of the ship was made of modular cargo containers for the rapid transport of material. This class of vessel was significantly inferior to Klingon Birds-of-Prey, and could be easily disabled by a Maquis raider. (DS9: "Return to Grace", "For the Uniform")

The Federation retained knowledge of this class, dating back to the early 2370s. A graphic display of a military freighter appeared on the USS Voyager's library computer screen that was viewed by One after Seven of Nine had activated the drone's linguistic database, and allowed him to assimilate information. (VOY: "Drone")

Ships of the class

Named

• Groumall

Unnamed

• Unnamed Groumall-type starships

Appendices

Appearances

• DS9:
  • "Return to Grace"
  • "Rules of Engagement"
  • "For the Uniform"
• VOY:
  • "Drone" (LCAR display)

Background

The Groumall-type model appeared under three different monikers, "military freighter," "Cardassian freighter," and "Cardassian transport," all while retaining the same design. Since the differences in the designations are superficial, and there is no other indication that these ships were of an altogether different design, it is assumed that are all from the same class.

Studio model

First take on the design

The studio model 3/4 aft view

After John Eaves joined the art department of DS9, one of his first jobs was designing the Cardassian freighter that was able to conseal a large gun, tasked to him in August 1995.[1] His first take on the design was a tip of the hat to Rick Sternbach's Template:ShipClass."I took the front end of a Galor-class Cardassian ship and tried to fan off from that. Using the front end, kind of sculpting it a little bit differently, and putting all these cargo bays in a row.", as he remembers (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 2, page 22). The producers found the design to militaristic looking and asked for a more industrial, "freighterish" looking design. Elaborating further,"It was just a series of boxes, all stacked on top of each other in series of sixes, with a big engine detail on the back and the familiar looking Cardassian fork on the front. They wanted it very "freighterish" so I put the bridge on the back like it is on an oiler tanker of today.(...)That's where this design had come from: it's a bunch of huge, huge engines on the back which take it wherever you want to go. They wanted this more than the other one because it is very industrial looking."

It took Eaves another three months of refining before coming up with a design the producers signed off on in November. Though it was becoming less and less customary to produce full orthographic blueprints for model shops by that time (three-quarter views were deemed sufficient), in this case Eaves did, and sent them off to Tony Meininger's Brazil-Fabrication & Design in December, where the studio model was constructed, making its debut in "Return to Grace".

The model was used twice more as a Cardassian freighter, but would also be redressed twice to represent freighters belonging to other species: the first time, repainted but otherwise unmodified as a Nekrit freighter in VOY: "Fair Trade" (It was in this color scheme that the model would later make its last appearance as a Cardassian freighter). The second time the model was again repainted but this time modified with the addition of warp engines and klingon markings, to represent Klingon cargo vessels in "Sons and Daughters". This was the last appearance of the studio model. No CGI model was ever constructed of this design.

The model, known as lot#483 was listed in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction and estimated at $2,000-$3,000. It was sold on October 6, 2006 with a winning bid of $5,000 ($6,000 including buyer's premium) in the modification it was last used as, namely as a klingon cargo vessel. A foam core camera test model sold in May 2008 for $384.00 in a It's A Wrap! sale and auction.[2]

Technical Manual

The following specifications, which describes this vessel simply as a Cardassian freighter, comes exclusively from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual:

• Production Base: Cardassia Prime Orbital Three Assembly Facility.
• Type: Freighter.
• Accommodation: 30 plus flight crew.
• Power Plant: One M/A warp system; two or more impulse systems.
• Dimensions: Length, 255.65 meters; beam, 55.13 meters; height: 63.21 meters.
• Mass: 1,340,000 metric tons (est.).
• Performance: Warp 6.5 (observed).
• Armament: Four or more spiral-wave disruptors, one medium aft disruptor wave cannon; possibly other weapons.

External link

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