Adriatic
the armed civilian ship of the Fleet
Adriatic was a civilian ship that escaped the Fall of the Twelve Colonies with the Fleet. The only civilian vessel known to carry weapons, it sided with Roslin at Kobol and was later lost in the radiation-soaked star cluster on the way to the Algae planet.
Adriatic was a civilian ship that escaped the Fall of the Twelve Colonies with the refugee fleet led by the Battlestar Galactica. It was the only civilian vessel in the convoy known to be armed, carrying short-range ship-to-ship missiles, and it played a part in the split that briefly divided the Fleet. It was lost during the dangerous passage to the Algae planet. (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part I"; "The Passage")
History#
Adriatic was a civilian ship in the Fleet that escaped the Cylon destruction of the Twelve Colonies alongside Galactica. The series never shows the ship on screen or explains how it came to carry weapons. (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part I")
Split in the Fleet#
When the Fleet divided after the discovery of Kobol, Adriatic joined the ships that followed President Laura Roslin to the planet in search of the way to Earth. When Kara Thrace returned from Caprica in a stolen Heavy Raider, Adriatic had the craft within weapons range, though it did not fire. The ship was later reunited with the rest of the Fleet when the two sides came back together. (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part I"; "Home, Part II")
The passage and loss#
During the food shortage that gripped the Fleet, the ships had to cross a star cluster pouring out stellar radiation to reach the Algae planet. Hardened Raptors shepherded the blinded civilian ships through in groups. Non-essential civilians were moved to Galactica first, and Adriatic went with the first outbound group, escorted by Raptor 118 under Lieutenant Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza. Costanza couldn't find Adriatic in the cluster and was forced to jump to the next waypoint to avoid radiation poisoning, and the ship was lost. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Passage")
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Adriatic?
- Adriatic was a civilian ship that escaped the Fall of the Twelve Colonies with the refugee fleet led by Galactica. It is the only civilian vessel in the convoy known to have been armed, carrying short-range ship-to-ship missiles.
- What role did the Adriatic play in the split in the Fleet?
- When the Fleet divided after the discovery of Kobol, Adriatic joined the ships that followed President Roslin to the planet. It had Kara Thrace's stolen Heavy Raider in weapons range when she returned from Caprica, though it never fired.
- How was the Adriatic lost?
- During a food shortage, the Fleet had to cross a star cluster flooded with radiation to reach the Algae planet. After non-essential civilians were moved to Galactica, Adriatic made the first outbound trip led by Raptor 118, flown by Brendan Costanza. He lost track of it in the cluster and had to jump on without it, and the ship was never recovered.
- Was the Adriatic ever seen on screen?
- No. The ship is only mentioned in dialogue. Its exact design was never confirmed in the series.
Sources
- EpisodeHome, Part I, Season 2, Episode 6 (2005)
- EpisodeThe Passage, Season 3, Episode 10 (2006)
- EpisodeHome, Part II, Season 2, Episode 7 (2005)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Galactica
Galactica was a Jupiter-class battlestar that served the Colonial Fleet from the Cylon War until the discovery of Earth. Never networked, it survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and shepherded the last fifty thousand humans across uncharted space before being scuttled into the sun.
Heavy Raider
The Heavy Raider was an FTL-capable Cylon craft introduced with the renewed war on humanity, combining the roles of troop transport and gunship. Armored, windowless, and brain-piloted, it ferried Centurions to the colonies and later carried both Cylon assaults and a rebel alliance with the Colonial fleet.
Algae planet
The algae planet was a habitable world orbiting an unstable star, once visited by the Thirteenth Tribe and later sought by human refugees for its algae before a supernova destroyed it.
Cylon
The Cylons were a race of sentient machines created as military robots by Graystone Industries on Caprica. Built from research into artificial consciousness, they rebelled against their human masters, fought a long war, and forty years later returned to annihilate humanity.
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
A single day of Cylon attack killed billions of people across Colonial space. Barely fifty thousand escaped in a refugee fleet.
Kara Thrace
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace was the finest Viper pilot in the Colonial Fleet, a gifted and self-destructive officer whose attitude often thwarted her own advancement. After her death over a gas giant, a figure bearing her identity returned to guide humanity to its new home.
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