What is a Safari Ship?

[robject]

What, in your opinion, differentiates a Safari ship from a Liner, a Yacht, or some other kind of vessel? Is a Safari ship a Liner? Is it a Yacht?

And now the other question: is a Liner also a Safari ship? How about a Yacht? How about some other type of vessel?

And finally: if you listed distinctives, are they inherent in the ship's design, or are they simply bits of equipment you can buy and bolt onto any ship, or shove into the cargo hold?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

It's a subtype of Yacht (too specialised for its own classification)?

A Yacht is a pleasure ship, a Safari Ship is a pleasure ship specialised on hunting expeditions.

 

[whulorigan]

What, in your opinion, differentiates a Safari ship from a Liner, a Yacht, or some other kind of vessel? Is a Safari ship a Liner? Is it a Yacht?

If owned privately, I would say a Safari Ship is a "poor-man's yacht", so to speak. Something a Local or Imperial Gentleman would have, as opposed to a Baron or Marquis. But it could likewise be something owned by an organization that is chartered for particular purposes. The Yacht would specifically have Luxury fittings and ostentation.

(And note also, that between several iterations of T5 and earlier versions of Traveller, the Yacht is variously described as either 200 ton or 500 ton).

200 ton Type K Safari - Local/Imperial Gentlemen OR Charter
200 ton Type Y Yacht - Lesser Nobles OR (possibly) Charter
500 ton Type Y Yacht - Higher Nobles

A Liner is a commercial passenger transport.

In T5 there is also the Type-K Expedition - similar to a Safari Ship in certain ways, but less for sight-seeing or pleasure, and (apparently) more for an extended "expedition". Perhaps an analog of Ernest Shackleton's Ship that went to Antarctica, or something similar.

And now the other question: is a Liner also a Safari ship? How about a Yacht? How about some other type of vessel?

A Liner is in regular scheduled commercial service, so I would say it is definitely not a Safari Ship or Expedition (except under a unique situation, perhaps). A Yacht could be a Safari Ship, depending (especially if the Noble is also an an avid Hunter or similar outdoor-hobbyist).

And finally: if you listed distinctives, are they inherent in the ship's design, or are they simply bits of equipment you can buy and bolt onto any ship, or shove into the cargo hold?

I would say that a "proper" Yacht would be more integrated (there is an image to maintain, esp. when entertaining colleagues). An Expedition would probably need cargo space for extended duration supplies (perhaps more so than a Safari). The Safari and Expedition are more likely to be modular than a Yacht.

 

[Condottiere]

You can easily shoot wild things with cameras.

Safari implies expedition to untamed wilderness, usually tourism.

 

[Spinward Flow]

What, in your opinion, differentiates a Safari ship from a Liner, a Yacht, or some other kind of vessel? Is a Safari ship a Liner? Is it a Yacht?

Safari ships are not Liners.
Safari ships are a type of Yacht.

To be more specific ...

Liners are about moving people from place to place. They're people transporters.

With a yacht, the "trophy" is the ship itself.
With a safari ship, the "trophy" is what the ship enables the passengers to go GET and bring BACK to show off.

Both a yacht and a safari ship are mainly about that "trophy" aspect of things.
A yacht explicitly IS the trophy.
A safari ship enables the ACQUISITION of trophies.

However, in both cases for the yacht and the safari ship, that whole "trophy" deal isn't something that is intended for mass marketing appeal. Indeed, the whole point of these "trophy starships" is their appeal to substantially the same clientele of upper class wealthy individuals who live in the lap of luxury.

This is why I take the view that a safari ship is functionally a sub-group of yacht.
The purpose of a safari ship is to "see and be seen" by peers (typically) and winds up being operated in a manner with a lot of overlap with a (proper) yacht. Likewise, I can easily envision some safari ships actually are yachts for the idle rich to use as diversions to stave off the boredom of their overly privileged lives with a little bit of excitement (and trophy taking that lets them say "I did that" to their peers).

Some safari ships can be operated as commercial enterprises, offering (package) "tours of exotic locales" in other star systems ... but again, that isn't going to be something with MASS market appeal to the common sophont. Some may offer "sporting" events on the itinerary that could involve various forms of hunting, with the purpose being trophy taking ... but it's not going to be done on an industrialized mass market scale.

So in my mind, safari ships are functionally "another kind of yacht" due to the clientele overlap for starships with those capabilities.

 

[Condottiere]

Pirate hunters.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

You can easily shoot wild things with cameras.

Great! Now convince the Kzin Aslan about that...

 

[kilemall]

Pirate hunters.

We’re going to need a bigger boat…

 

[whartung]

What, in your opinion, differentiates a Safari ship from a Liner, a Yacht, or some other kind of vessel?

All of the heads mounted to the walls.

 

[Enoki]

A yacht with a gun rack in the back window and a taxidermist with a shop on board as part of the crew...

 

[robject]

A yacht with a gun rack in the back window and a taxidermist with a shop on board as part of the crew...

That would be a Flatbed Pickup Yacht....

 

[Grav_Moped]

On a first impression, the distinction is what you do when you get to your destination.

A yacht is a mobile castle of sorts. The payload is the luxury accommodations; cargo, as such, is basically luggage. There won't be a lot of it, proportionately.

A Safari ship is less a mobile castle than a vehicle to transport the owner/clients to somewhere to do something (photography, adding to one's dead animal zoo) -- and the equipment needed to do that something (weapons, cameras/production studios, miscellaneous supplies). This means copious cargo space and specialized vehicles and carried craft -- and the craft should be able to carry the vehicles without too much EVA wrangling.

 

[Grav_Moped]

That would be a Flatbed Pickup Yacht....

Travis McGee has entered the chat.


(At least one of the books had him driving an old Rolls Royce that had been converted into a pickup truck.)

 

[Spinward Scout]

How about some other type of vessel?

I could see a Mercenary Cruiser being used for a big Hunting Expedition. It's already set up for people who shoot at things. The Modular Cutters would definitely be landing craft. Not sure where they could put anything they killed/caught, tho. If they go after a Godzilla-sized creature, there's no where to fit it.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Try these two?
The Spirit is getting and upgrade and the Stingray, I don't know about? It's on my ta do list.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Post it on meowtube, and the target will drop dead of embarrassment.

2. Our Safari Ship is specifically equipped for wilderness planet hunting; could easily be an old converted free trader.

3. Or stealth ships that drop in low teched planets, to probe the inhabitants.

 

[Condottiere]

4. I wasn't sure, but African Queen is considered a safari film; and that could be the equivalent of what you charter.

5. Of course, the Rock (and I think Disney) ripped that off in the Jungle Cruise.

6. Hatari, and I guess Jurassic Park sequels, gives the option that you can leave the mothership in orbit, and use specialized smallcraft, or air/rafts, instead of having the mothership purpose built.

 

[robject]

Shocked, I say, shocked am I, that nobody has defended the self-evident nature of the Safari Ship. Maybe I need to do a COTI poll to find out what's important to COTI members... because it's clearly not starship type distinctions

 

[McPerth]

I lean towards the ones that see the safary ship as a kind of a yacht.

IIRC the safaari ship first appeared in :Citizens of the Imperium, as a mustering out benefit for the Hunter, and the Hunter career really surprised me, as it's the one I find more difficulty to justify.

I mean, I can understand most of the careers, as I imagine their roles in any society, but I don't imagine the professional hunter in such a high tech society. I assumed hunting would be (as it's now in manyt countries) more a passtime than a profession.

In this way, I understand most hunters as diletantes who spend their lives facing the challenge of hunting i ndifferent environments and against different preys.

The fact a ship class is specifically designed for hunting (when it's done planetfall, so any ship could move you from planet to planet to hunt) really puzzles me, as it's a ship without a true space mission (and I have serious doubt it would have enough demand to justify the class).

So, being, to my understanding, basically a diletante mobile house for his hunting expeditions (and to show the trophies) I can only see it as a yacht, albeit one adapted to its master's hobby. I also would expect to see many a safary ship adapted for oterh yacht uses, by adapting the trophy lounge and other specialized space to other uses.

In fact, as I saw the yacht as too limited in speed for most nobles uses (something already discussed in the yacht design contest thread), I often allowed any noble receiving a yacht twice to have instead an adapted safary ship (also a way to make the play able to move faaster along the spacelanes, something I use to like in my games).

Of course ,that's my view of the Hunter career and the Safary ship, and YMMV...

 

[Rigel Stardin]

There is a scientific use for Safari Ships as well. We look at them as the Big Game Hunter ship's but they can be used on botanical side as well, or the persons who stock the local Sector zoos. There is also the local tourist trade that deals with those world designated as 'nature sanctuaries'. So yeah, there are many uses for the ship.