- You may also be looking for the 22nd century J class freighter.
The class J starship was a small, antiquated starship design used by the Federation and independent traders alike well into the mid-23rd century.
In 2266, Harcourt Fenton Mudd possessed an unregistered small class J cargo ship which he utilized as a transport vessel. The ship was ultimately destroyed by an asteroid collision, after it's engines had overheated, and it was no longer able to dodge the asteroids. (TOS: "Mudd's Women")
With overheated impulse engines and warp drive.
The same year, Starfleet maintained an old class J starship, with an apparently defective baffle plate, as a cadet vessel. When the defective plate ruptured Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, onboard on an inspection tour, received severe delta radiation poisoning when rescuing the cadets. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I")
The Deneva colony also had a class J starship at their disposal, described as a one-man vessel of Denevan configuration. The USS Enterprise was unable to intercept it, after it came into sensor range, even at warp 8 before it was destroyed by the heat of the Denevan sun. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")
In 2269, the Federation operated the space cruiser Aurora. The ship was stolen by Dr. Sevrin and five of his followers in search for the mythical planet Eden. The ship was destroyed when attempting to pull free from a tractor beam. (TOS: "The Way to Eden")
Ships of the class
Appendices
Appearances
Background
It was initially believed that when the J class was introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise that the writers were tipping their hat to the ship class that was twice referenced in the original Star Trek. This association was discovered to be false when "Mudd's Women" was remastered and Mudd's ship was given a completely new design from what was shown in Enterprise.
In the case of the Denevan starship, the class J model, albeit slightly scaled down, was a reused to represent that ship as well. In the case of Aurora the engines were slightly modified and new windows were added.
