The Core Systems Free Republic requires all jumpworthy vessels, foreign- or domestic-owned, to have a hull code registered to the vessel, its name and its owner of record. Not all nations or individuals observe this requirement seriously, but the vast majority of ships plying the stars of the Republic are marked externally with a 9-10 character code, and have a formal record of same registered to their owner of record. A sample of a hull registry code would be that of the CSRS Imhotep, CSNDH1827:
Nation of Origin | Owner Type | Ship Class | Department or Group | Unique 4-Digit Identifier |
---|---|---|---|---|
CS | N | D | H | 1827 |
Nation of Origin
The first two characters refer to the ship's nation of origin:
- CS - Core Systems Free Republic
- SB - Spartan Brigade
- PB - Penitent Brotherhood
- KC - Kanbei Cartel - The Kanbei vessels themselves tend to identify themselves with a KG, denoting their preferred name, the Kanbei Group
- MI - Mirandolans - applied as a blanket to all the Project colonies
- BL - Bolivar League
- JC - Jensai Concordance - this has been reserved for later use, even though to date the Jensai have not made any gesture to register their ships
Owner Type
The third character denotes the nature of the vessel's owner:
- C - Corporate
- G - Governmental
- M - Merchant Marine Service
- N - Naval
- P - Private Individual
- Q - Unconventional/Unknown - usually applied in the case of salvaged ships of unknown provenance
- S - Scout Service
Ship Type
The fourth character signifies what class (or general purpose) the vessel is assigned:
- A - Superheavy - esp. 300,000+ dtons
- B - Battlecruiser/Battleship
- C - Light/Heavy Cruiser
- D - Destroyer
- E - Escort - frigates/gunboats/corvettes
- F - Freighter - esp. 1000+ dtons
- Q - Unconventional/Unknown - usually applied to ships subject to heavy modification, as in the Swordcane Q-ship
- S - Scout
- T - Tender/Support Ship
- Xx - Prototype Vessel - the small x is replaced with the ship's projected use (eg. XE for a prototype gunship); X is never used alone
- Y - Yacht/Recreation Vessel
Owner Code
The fifth character signifies the owner of a ship; this is primarily used for megacorporations or, within the Navy, to designate fleet.
- D - Dragon Sector Fleet
- H - Hydra Sector Fleet
- M - Manticore Sector Fleet
- P - Phoenix Sector Fleet
- T - Titan Sector Fleet