History of the Indefatigable

While other ships may come and go, the Indefatigable has lived up to her name, and continues to persist. The Indie has seen more conflict, exploration, and people than most other ships do in their entire lifetime.

The name Indefatigable can be traced back to 1784, with the HMS Indefatigable. The third rate, ship of the line, had a distinguished career, participating in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and capturing some 27 prizes over the course of her life.

While other ships with the name Indefatigable would come and go, the only other one of note was another HMS Indefatigable, a British Aircraft Carrier, that served during the Second World War. Her most notable role actually took place before she entered service, as British Operatives (Such as Peter Fleming, older brother to famous James Bond writer, Ian Fleming) supplied disinformation to the Japanese, leading them to believe that the Indefatigable was operating in the Far East when she was still in dock. After her actual launch the Indefatigable took part in raids on the Tirpitz, the Battle of Okinawa, and was in Tokyo Bay for the formal surrender of Japan, and the end of the Second World War.

The Indefatigable was also popularized by C.S Foresters, Horatio Hornblower series of novels, in which the original Indefatigable was a key ship. The series also gave the Starship Indefatigable her nickname; The Indie.

The current USS Indefatigable has been in service since 2295. For much of her early career, the Indefatigable was assigned to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone, an eventful duty if there every was one. With peace between the Federation and the Klingons becoming a reality, and the Romulan's entering a period of isolation, patrols along the Neutral Zone became more limited. The Indefatigable was consistently assigned to exploration missions, plunging deeper into the black than any other Federation vessel had gone before. As the Indie led what was a fairly easy life as far ships go, she was one of a number of Excelsior's that stayed in good condition for most of her service. As such while other Excelsior's and ships of her vintage were beginning to enter mothballs, or being retired from service, the Indefatigable continued well into the 2360's, having been reduced to courier or light patrol missions. The Indie was slated to be retired from active service in 2370, but was spared by the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367. The battle led to a panic in Starfleet, which decided to refit older ships such as the Indefatigable to help bolster Starfleet's numbers in the face of the Borg threat.

In 2372 when the Dominion War broke out, the Indefatigable was refitted to the standards of the Lakota Subtype, and the ship participated with distinction in many of the early battles of the war. During the First Battle of Chin'toka the Indefatigable was nearly split in two, after taking a severe beating from several of the Cardassian's torpedo platforms. In peacetime, the Indie might have been scrapped, but with the war on there was a manpower shortage for shipbuilding, and the decision was made to repair the Indefatigable instead.

The extent of the damage meant that the Indefatigable was in dock for a long period of time, and she didn't relaunch until two months after the end of the war. While the Indefatigable was still an older vessel, the rebuild had served as a modernization program for the ship, and with with Starfleet still left with a shortage of ships, the Indefatigable's continued service was guaranteed. Since the end of the war, the Indie has led a quiet life, typically assigned patrol missions in the Cardassian DMZ. Shortly after the Hobus Incident she was reassigned to the Breen Border to help bolster Starfleet's presence in the contested zone.