Lead ship
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The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. Almost always, this is only applicable for military ships and larger civilian craft, not small craft such as motorboats, etc.
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[edit] Overview
Large ships are complicated internally, and may take as much as five to ten years to construct, so it is rare to have two of them that are completely identical. Additionally, often the plans for building a new class of ships do not foresee various issues actually involved in the building of the ships. For example, when the United States built the USS Ohio as the lead ship for the SSBN class of submarines, they found that the access hatches would not accommodate loading in some internal components only after they had nearly completed the entire ship. Solutions to problems discovered while the lead ship is in operation will be incorporated into later instances of the class.
The second and later ships often must be started before the first one is even launched. Nevertheless, building copies is still more efficient and cost-effective than building prototypes, and so the lead ship usually will be the one that guides the construction of the others in its class. Typically, these copies will have minor improvements that are not always retrofitted to the lead ship. Occasionally, the lead ship will be launched and commissioned for 'shakedown' testing before following ships are completed, making the lead ship a combination of template and prototype, rather than expending resources on a prototype that will never see actual use.
[edit] Naming
There are two ways a ship class is commonly named, with the class name either echoing that of the lead ship (such as the Pennsylvania class battleships, whose lead ship was USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), or will indicate a theme which runs through the names of the vessels in the class (as in the Royal Navy's Tribal-class frigates). If a ship class is produced for another fleet, the first active unit will become the lead ship for that fleet (such as the Oliver Hazard Perry class, which is known as the Adelaide class in the Royal Australian Navy).
In fiction, these are usually followed as well, such as the Constitution-class cruiser being the basis for the Enterprise of Star Trek, or the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer in Star Wars.
[edit] Examples
Lead ships are seen in the military, in civilian fleets, (such as the Pacific Sun, the lead ship of the Sun class cruise ships), and in fiction, with Star Trek's Starfleet using lead ships as prototypes.
