(http://img.masterunitlist.info/Spaceships/TRO%203057r/Merchant%20JumpShip.png)
And we're back, folks, with a new JumpShip of the Month. This time around, we're talking about one of the classics, the Merchant class JumpShip. First built in 2503, the Merchant class was designed to support, not surprisingly, merchant shipping. So, how well does it do in that role?
First, let's look at what it can do: carry two DropShips through hyperspace, along with a pair of small craft. Weapons? Nope. Passengers? Nope. Cargo? Well, 657 tons these days. Really, this is, at first glance, a no-frills ship, especially considering the Liberty, a JumpShip class only 34 years older than the Merchant class, carried twice the number of JumpShips, plus 22 passengers.
So, why is the Liberty gone, but the Merchant still around?
Well, as we saw last time (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,36768.0.html), the Liberty has its own issues. It's difficult to maintain. The crew quarters suck, and the passenger space does, too. It was bad enough, in fact, that it went out of production by 2570.
To contrast that, the Merchant crew uses what's considered standard-size quarters: 10 tons for the officers, 7 tons for the enlisted. These days, the Merchant class carries a crew of 21, with 4 officers and 17 enlisted but, back when it debuted, it carried a crew of 40, reducing that 657 tons of cargo down to 518 tons, which still isn't bad. These days, though, with the reduced crew, there's absolutely tons of room onboard for the crew.
Tech Readout 3057 and its Revised version don't tell us much about amenities, but DropShips and JumpShips does. For starters, there's the grav deck. Forty meters in diameter, and 5 meters wide, it's often used for crew quarters and, thanks to the smaller crews on modern Merchants, there's space for each crewmember to have their own private room. DS&JS also goes into detail describing the bridge, a dome-shaped section ringed by windows, with the captain sitting in the center, ringed by six duty stations. Modern Merchant class JumpShips have been rewired, allowing the bridge to be crewed by only two people: a pilot and navigator. That's got to be handy for keeping operating costs down.
One thing DS&JS makes clear, too, is that Merchant class JumpShips, since they're primarily owned by civilians, not governments or militaries, are often customized internally to suit the needs of their owners. In fact, many Merchants carry a supplemental module, ranging from 20 to 100 tons, that takes up part of one of the cargo holds, expanding out recreational facilities, passenger space, life support or supplemental emergency power supply.
So, the Merchant definitely had some positives going for it, when compared to the Liberty. Its crew is smaller, it's easier to maintain, and it's a hell of a lot better to spend time aboard than the Liberty was. But, it still only carries a pair of DropShips, two small craft, and 500-650 tons of cargo or so. So, while I'd probably give it an A for cargo (especially for her size), I'd probably only give it a B- to a C for DropShip capacity in general...but an A- based on her size, as you could, rounding up, fit only 3 DropShip collars on a ship this size. Of course, if you did, you'd pretty much compromise every other area of the ship.
Then there's the fuel capacity. Oh god, there's the fuel capacity. The good news is, at 120 kilotons, you only use 19.75 tons/burn-day/G, which means you're just under 2 tons/day for stationkeeping. That's the good news. The bad news? You have 85 tons of fuel standard. Yeah, that just plain sucks compared to the Liberty, but it's enough for emergency maneuvers, given you could do a fully-powered 0.1 G burn from Sol's jump point (or Saturn) to Earth, a 28-day trip, with fuel to spare, and you're hardly the worse-off JumpShip. You'll probably want to consider carrying some extra fuel in your cargo hold, though. Even better, carry a couple of spare sails: they mass less than the roughly 200 tons you'd need to do a fusion-powered jump. The Merchant, then, earns a C+ for fuel capacity, just because, in an emergency, it can get you to wherever you're going to be stranded.
When they first emerged, the Clippership V (the civvie version of the Czar), with its roughly 4000 tons of cargo, was one of the most common cargo DropShips, along with the bigger Jumbo class, which carried over 10,000 tons of cargo. The DroST I/II, later a cargo bird, was still a military dropper at this point, and the only other known cargo DropShip of the era was the Manatee, filling in at the smaller end of the spectrum with only 1000 tons or so of cargo.
Of course, modern Merchant class JumpShips could find themselves carrying damn near anything, and the general loss of JumpShips during the Succession Wars means that Merchant class skippers could easily find themselves pressed into military service. DS&JS indicated that the Lyrans had the majority of the Merchant class ships still in service during the Third Succession War (heh), with Ioto Galactic Enterprises manufacturing their ships. Rashpur-Owens Inc., meanwhile, manufactured the ship for the Capellans, and Stellar Trek built Merchant classes for the Draconis Combine. By the Jihad, meanwhile, the ship was far more common, making pretty much every availability list, including Clan.
What, then, do you get for the 120,000 tons the Merchant class gets you? Decent cargo and DropShip capacity for her size, somewhat lackluster fuel endurance, and a ship that, in theory, is cheap to operate and will keep her crew happy. This is a JumpShip that you'll never have on your board as anything other than a target in your tabletop games - you'll note I didn't cover its combat capabilities at all, 'cause it doesn't have any. However, a Merchant class JumpShip could easily make a great starting point and base of operations for an RPG campaign, whether you're playing a small Succession Wars merc or House unit, or a bunch of merchies.
MUL link for the standard Merchant class (http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/4623/merchant-jumpship-standard)
MUL link for the Clan Merchant class (http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/4622/merchant-jumpship-clan)