Display MoreWhat's in a name? One of the great, small innovations in Wing Commander II is that any ship can be assigned a custom name. The game's mission designers took great advantage of this, naming all sorts of background spacecraft… including 23 different human transports across the three campaigns! WC2 did an excellent job of coming up with 'unusual' names for its ships; while many future settings simply put classic warships into space, WC2 found more unique choices… especially for the Clydesdales and Free Traders.
I recently made a surprise discovery while playing Special Operations 2: a Clydesdale which we had always listed as the "Coatmain" was actually the "Cootmain". Which obviously got me thinking: what the heck is a Cootmain? I wasn't able to find the term anywhere, not on Google, not in old Usenet posts and not even in the sum total of human knowledge stored at the Internet Archive! From there I decided to look at all of the freighters in the game and the results of that research are below!
Before we look at the individual ships, let's examine the classes themselves. The publishing bible actually establishes a pretty interesting naming system for both the Clydesdale and the Free Trader:
FREE TRADER
Other Names In This Class: Named informally by crews. Officially, use only callsigns, e.g. TC-9122.
In Service: WC2
Class: Merchant Marine Transport (true civilian transports are unarmed)
Length: 83 meters
Maximum Velocity: 150 kps
Cruise Velocity: 100 kps
Acceleration: Poor
Max. Yaw, Pitch, Roll: 2 dps
Mass: 2,000 tonnes
Ship’s Weapons: Flak Cannon (1)
Ship’s Armor
Fore and Aft Shield: 10 cm equivalent each
Front and Rear: 9 cm each
Right and Left: 7 cm each
CLYDESDALE
Other Names In This Class: Named informally by crews. Officially, use only callsigns, e.g. TM-24772.
In Service: WC2
Class: Military Transport
Length: 73 meters
Maximum Velocity: 150 kps
Cruise Velocity: 100 kps
Acceleration: Bad
Max. Yaw, Pitch, Roll: 2 dps
Mass: 4,000 tonnes
Ship’s Weapons: Flak Cannon (2)
Ship’s Armor
Fore and Aft Shield: 25 cm equivalent each
Front and Rear: 12 cm each
Right and Left: 11 cm each
Presumably M is for military and C is for civilian. This isn't actually referenced in the game and (where noted below) sometimes freighters are explicitly given the 'TCS' designation. We've also noted where each ship appears and where, which of Wing Commander II's NPCs are used on each ship and where a specific role for the transport is mentioned in a cutscene (like minesweeper or tanker). And where do the class names come from? Wing Commander II director Siobhan Beeman was kind enough to comment on the origins of the class names on BlueSky: "Free Trader is named for the classic Traveller PC ship category. Clydesdale is named for the horses, just because they’re big and beautiful. :)" There are still several that are totally unaccounted for… so join the conversation and get to thinking what a Bhomis is or who Wilie C. was!
Wing Commander II
Bhomis
Class: Free Trader
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Niven C; part of a convoy carrying medical supplies to Argarrio Two
Name Origin: Unknown
Notes: Explicitly TCS Bhomis, per cutscene
Bonnie H.
Class: Free Trader
Variant: Freighter
Comms: Paladin
Missions: Ghorah Khar B, Tesla A-C, Tesla (L) A & C; Paladin's top secret spy ship which visits the Concordia twice during the story
Name Origin: A term of endearment used in the 1986 film Highlander
Notes: H. stands for Heather; Angel notes that the ship is "not an ordinary freighter"
Dhalma
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Heaven's Gate B; part of a convoy that Blair and Spirit escort across Heaven's Gate
Name Origin: "I think Dhalma is an Arabic girl’s name meaning 'darkness'." - Siobhan Beeman
Excalibur
Class: Free Trader
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Niven C; part of a convoy carrying medical supplies to Argarrio Two
Name Origin: King Arthur's sword
Notes: Explicitly TCS Excalibur, per cutscene
Gunga Din
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Minesweeper
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Ghorah Khar C; Blair and Hobbes relieve the Gunga Din's Broadsword escorts for a strike mission against a Kamekh
Name Origin: Either the Rudyard Kipling poem or the said poem's title character ("You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din")
Mama's Boy
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Freighter
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Heaven's Gate C; freighter which transports missiles to the Concordia in advance of the assault on Heaven's Gate
Name Origin: Self-explanatory
Palomino
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Heaven's Gate B; part of a convoy that Blair and Spirit escort across Heaven's Gate
Name Origin: "Palomino is again because of horses (Austin is the middle of Texas ranch country)." - Siobhan Beeman; also a spaceship from the movie Black Hole
Sable Star
Class: Free Trader
Variant: Transport Carrier
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Ghorah Khar (L) B
Name Origin: May refer to the Texas Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)'s Order of the Centurions of the Sable Star or famed 1970s groupie Sable Starr
Notes: The debriefing makes it seem like the Sable Star is somewhat 'famous'; Angel knows the ship by name even though she doesn't expect it to be nearby
Valdez
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Tanker
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Novaya Kiev A; tanker you refuel at during a strike on a Kilrathi base
Name Origin: From the Exxon Valdez freighter which ran aground and caused a horrible oil spill in 1989
Willie C.
Class: Free Trader
Variant: Freighter
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Gwynedd D; freighter whose departure clearance prevents Blair and Shadow from landing on Caernarvon
Name Origin: Unknown; the only celebrity listed in the Wikipedia that fits is musician and activist Willie Colón
Unnamed
Class: Free Trader
Variant: Courier
Comms: Female Comm Officer
Missions: Novaya Kiev D; courier ship in the Talbot system which ejects a comm package for you to pick up before it is destroyed
Notes: Does not appear in flight; destroyed in a cutscene
Special Operations 1
Bonnie H.
Missions: Ghorah Khar 1 A, Ghorah Khar 2 B & C
Notes: The same Bonnie Heather which appears in Wing Commander II, see previous listing for details. The Bonnie Heather acts as your home ship for several missions in the second half of Special Operations 1 and several scenes are set aboard her.
Tinderbox
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Tanker
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Ghorah Khar 1 B; tanker you escort to jump to N'Tanya
Name Origin: Container that stores fuel for a fireplace
Notes: Explicitly called a tanker but also said to be "running guns and supplies"
The Doric
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Tanker
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot (Rigel D), Female Freighter Pilot (Second Chance B)
Missions: Rigel D & Second Chance B; one of the tankers heading to the Rigel depot without knowing it has been taken over by pirates
Name Origin: Relating to ancient Greece
Notes: Pilot gender varies based on mission
The Pathos
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Tanker
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot (Rigel D), Male Freighter Pilot (Second Chance B)
Missions: Rigel D & Second Chance B; one of the tankers heading to the Rigel depot without knowing it has been taken over by pirates
Name Origin: The quality of sadness
Notes: Pilot gender varies based on mission
Special Operations 2
Camelopard
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 1 A; one of the ships the Kilrathi attack to cover Jazz's escape
Name Origin: Archaic term for giraffe.
Bastille
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Prison Ship
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 1 A; the transport which is hijacked while moving Jazz to the TCS Alcatraz
Name Origin: Prison famously stormed during the 1789 French Revolution
Notes: The Bastille's captain is Male Comm Officer, per cutscene
Delphinium
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Freighter
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 1 A; one of the ships the Kilrathi attack to cover Jazz's escape
Name Origin: Type of flower
Notes: Explicitly a "TCS freighter", per cutscene; the SOS is sent by a female comm officer who is either aboard the Delphinium or the Xebec
The Polemic
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 1 A; one of the ships the Kilrathi attack to cover Jazz's escape
Name Origin: A speech or presentation which is specifically critical
The Xebec
Class: Clydesdale
Variant: Freighter
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 1 A; one of the ships the Kilrathi attack to cover Jazz's escape
Name Origin: A type of ancient sailing ship
Notes: Explicitly a "TCS freighter", per cutscene; the SOS is sent by a female comm officer who is either aboard the Delphinium or the Xebec
Cootmain
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 3 A; the ship carrying Mandarin prisoners for the exchange
Name Origin: Unknown; essentially a googlenope
Iguana
Class: Clydesdale
Comms: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Canewdon 3 A; the ship carrying Confederation prisoners home from the exchange
Name Origin: A type of lizard
Notes: Blair refers to the Iguana as an "unarmed ship"
