“ | It looks like a big chisel with an upside-down coffee cup on the back. | „ |
— Praxidike Meng in Caliban's War |
The Rocinante ("Roci") is a MCRN Corvette Class, light fast-attack ship with multiple roles, such as torpedo bomber and boarding party insertion. The Corvette class ships are the smallest naval ships equipped with an Epstein drive.
Originally called the Tachi, the ship was stationed as a fleet escort vessel and torpedo bomber on the Martian navy vessel Donnager. She was rechristened by James Holden after he and his crew used her to escape from the Donnager.
The ship's construction follows floor by floor from the drive cone and reactor up to the engineering deck, to the machine shop, then the galley and crew cabins and medical bays, storage deck containing the crew airlock, then on up to the command deck and pilot's farthest forward. Under thrust, it would be like a narrow building.
Her normal crew complement was over a dozen navy personnel and officers, and on many missions she’d also carry six marines.
Crew
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- Captain James Holden Books • TV S1
- Executive Officer Naomi Nagata Books • TV S1
- Pilot Alex Kamal Books • TV S1
- Chief Engineer Amos Burton Books • TV S1
- Gunner Bobbie Draper Books • TV S?🐎[1]
- Assistant Enginner Clarissa Mao Books • TV S?🐎
- 🐎 Joined crew after Nemesis Games (book)
History
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Eros Incident
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Disguised as a gas freighter
When the Donnager was destroyed, Jim Holden and his former crew of the Knight used her as an escape vessel.
Holden kept the ship, claiming it as salvage, giving it new transponder codes provided by Fred Johnson, and named her Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse. It was briefly disguised as a gas freighter during the Eros incident by engineers at Tycho station.

Battle for Thoth Station
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During the battle at Thoth Station, the Roci took out the comm array and the two defensive ships while Guy Molinari boarded the station. During the battle Roci took a lot of damage including a heavy gauss cannon round through the galley and machine shop.
Upon returning to Tycho Sam Rosenberg was the team leader in charge of her repairs much to Holden's admiration.
Later it was used by Holden and the crew to chase down Eros.
Ganymede Incident
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After the Eros incident, the ship and its crew were employed as pirate-hunters by OPA, until Fred Johnson fired Holden for insubordination.
The Ring
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After earning a large amount of money as an independent contractor, the crew did some upgrades on the Roci: The captain's quarters and the XO's quarters were combined into one large room by cutting out the bulkhead dividing them, a rail gun firing two-pound tungsten slugs was mounted on the ship's keel to have a backup weapon when they ran out of military-grade torpedoes, and the engines got some after-market upgrades on Callisto.
Media
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Trivia
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- Although Holden states in Leviathan Wakes that he named the Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse from the novel Don Quixote, the name is also used in the song "Cygnus X-1" by Rush, from the album 'A Farewell to Kings', a band Ty Franck is a big fan of[2], because of the following lyrics:
- Flew into the light of Deneb
- Sailed across the Milky Way
- On my ship, the "Rocinante"
- Wheeling through the galaxies
- Rocinante is Spanish for a work horse or low-quality horse, but can also mean an illiterate or rough man. Pronounced: 'Rah-sih-nahntay' (or 'Rahsee' for Roci).
- Tachi is a Japanese word and may have the following meaning in a military context. (1) Tachi (太刀): A type of sword predating the Katana. A Tachi is slender, narrow and light. (2) Tachi (立ち) literally "to rise", "rising up to face battle". In the TV show the crews uniforms show a Chinese "motto" or alternative name for the ships. For the Tachi it is 首次作战 - "first (time) into battle". The Chinese motto aligns best with meaning (2).
See also
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External Links
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- http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/photos/the-expanse-concept-art
- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=869402035
- http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
- http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/misconceptions.php#id--Rockets_Are_Not_Hotels
- https://plus.google.com/+WinchellChung/posts/5V3R6f8RpTk
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Josephus Miller was a guest from the midpoint through the end of Leviathan Wakes
Praxidike Meng was a guest from early through the end of Caliban's War
Roberta Draper was a guest from midpoint through the end of Caliban's War
Chrisjen Avasarala was a guest from midpoint through the end of Caliban's War
Basia Merton was a guest from early through the end of Cibola Burn
Fred Johnson was a guest from midpoint through the end of Nemesis Games - ↑ http://www.danielabraham.com/2012/12/10/its-not-really-fan-art-when-youre-a-professional/#comment-5080