Designed as a light freighter, the Tavares class has served with Starfleet and the civil sector for many years in that capacity. With a cargo capacity of 45,000 tons, these ships ply the spacelanes carrying out the duties of the Materiel Command. These vessels are not only used by Starfleet but are also found in the civil sector. The 1,226 vessels produced for Starfleet account for only one-fourth of the total built. These small freighters can usually be seen at any starport throughout the Federation and the Triangle.
The Tavares class appeared in central roles in two adventure books for FASA's Star Trek the Role Playing Game—The Triangle Campaign and The Mines of Selka. The ship was one of those rarities in FASA game books; a set of deck plans that actually fit inside the hull design and were reasonably well laid out. Plans were produced for a basic Tavares class Commercial Freighter and a Starfleet Intelligence Q-ship, with hidden compartments. For the present, I have chosen to do the basic ship. The Q-ship may follow later.
Oddly, the decks are numbered from the bottom up, like a building, rather than the standard top-down method usually used in ships. Therefore, Deck 06 is the topmost level and Deck 01 is the lowest level.
Of the 1,226 Type II vessels built for Star Fleet, 995 remain in active service, while 72 have been scrapped, 122 lost for various reasons, 40 sold to the private sector. The seven that were converted to Type Q models remain in operation somewhere.
