Eliza Daniels, Senior Correspondent to Republic Navy HQ, RNN
EAU CLAIRE, BELLE TERRE (8 December 2502): After the explosion which all but completely shattered the Republic frigate Edmund Fitzgerald, the Republic Navy Headquarters in Eau Claire has issued a decommissioning order for all Republic frigates of the Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain class, effective immediately.
Commanding Admiral Joshua Underwood addressed the Republic following the funeral for his former pupil, the Fitzgerald's Captain Joseph Maerker, and the 28 men not incinerated by the blast which destroyed the Republic frigate, killing all 600 members of her crew. "This has gone on long enough," Underwood said. "The Imperials gave us an ineffective and altogether faulty frigate design. It is time to make a new class." There are approximately 11,000 Chamberlain class frigates in the Republic Navy, and nearly 8,000 of them have reported problems. Three, thus far, have exploded: the Chamberlain herself, the Warspite, and the Fitzgerald.
The Admiral, searching through his son's Starfleet ship records (his son, Joshua Wardell, Jr., had joined Starfleet in 2358 and had risen to become the director of Research and Development within twenty years. Only Underwood himself knew that J.W., Jr. was in Starfleet), found the design for the Admiral Graf Spee class dreadnought, which had been commissioned in 2379.
Admiral Underwood immediately sent the design for the 770-meter vessel to the shipyards of Outland Station in the Reydovan system. Because of the fact that the largest ships in the Republic Navy are over four kilometers in length, the Admiral Graf Spee class will easily replace the Chamberlain class in the role of the battle/scout frigate. The brand new Admiral Graf Spee was built in secret by Underwood's son and presented to the then-Chancellor last year, and has proved to work in the long run.
The first two officially-built vessels of the Admiral Graf Spee class, it has been determined, will be named the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Joseph Maerker, in honor of the ship and captain of the lost Republic frigate.
