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Spacecraft and mechanics in the Harlock universe

Section Four: Earth spaceships




Earth cargo ships

Lightly-armed transport vessels that bring goods produced on offworld farms back to earth, along with jewels, saké, slot machines, and other goodies for earth's elite. Harlock regularly raids these ships for their foodstores, stockpiling them on Pirate Island Eight as a safeguard against the day when mankind's self-indulgent lifestyle reduces it to poverty and famine. He dumps the rest, including the saké, much to Dr. Zero's chagrin.



The Dream, as it unsuccessfully attempts to lure the Arcadia into a trap.

A fleet of food transport ships on their way to earth, just before the Mazone wipe them out.




The Earth Garrison fleet

Commanded by Garrison Commander Kiruta, the Earth Garrison fleet spends most of its time attempting to rout the pirates that are breaking away from earth's tyrannical government. Following the creation of the Arcadia, the garrison can really do very little against said pirates, though not for Kiruta's lack of trying. After the Mazone invasion becomes known, Kiruta attempts to rally the garrison to combat the invasion, but unfortunately, they fare little better than they did against Harlock.



The earth garrison forces descending upon planet Heavy Meldar.




The Everest

The mightiest of earth's warships, the Everest was stationed on the prison world known only as the Bad Planet, a mining colony where insurrectionists were sent to toil away their lives. The Everest was ultimately brought down by sabotage when Tochiro Oyama planted a bomb aboard.



The mighty battleship Everest, with about one minute left to live.




The Braves

An earth battleship commanded by Captain Yamanaka, the Braves was also the ship aboard which Engineer Maji served prior to his tenure with Harlock. Though they had been rivals, Harlock and Yamanaka put aside their differences after both had become aware of the coming Mazone invasion. The Braves is eventually found drifting derelict in deep space with all hands lost, an apparent victim of a Mazone attack.



The battleship Braves in combat with the Arcadia.




Earth battleships

The average earth combat vessels, nowhere in the league of the Braves or the Everest. Mostly they just blow up as the Mazone battleships pump them full of lasers.



Standard earth battleships waiting for the Mazone to waste them.




Solar Federation battleship

The one glimpse of a Solar Federation battleship we get, as the fleet falls to the Illumidas invasion.



(Probably) Captain Leotard's battleship getting shot all full o' holes.




Mr. Zone's prototype battleship

A ship design conceived by Mr. Zone whilst working as an engineer for the Solar Federation. When Harlock declared the ship unsafe, Zone lost his job as an engineer and has yet to forgive Harlock for this slight.



Mr. Zone's ship design, which Harlock refused to command.




The Fata Morgana

A research vessel that had journeyed to the Hourglass Nebula carrying a scientific expedition and returned as a ghost ship. After contacting the Gate of Yedar, the scientists were possessed by the primordial evil known as Noo, leaving only Professor Daiba alive. The inhabited corpses of the other four scientists reclaim the Fata Morgana, and using the information Dr. Daiba decoded from a stone tablet he took from the gate, develop the Density Serial Cannon, which they utilize in order to shift the spin of earth's elementary particles towards the imaginary axis and into the dimension inhabited by Noo, which needs to reclaim a former part of its body (in this case, the earth) in order to revive in our universe. The ship also has the ability, like its undead crew, to renew its molecular structure, making it impervious to damage.



Ghosts in the machine; the haunted vessel Fata Morgana.




Panopticon

An enormous space citadel and observatory where earth's elite, including the sloven Prime Minister reside after abandoning their homeworld. Harlock makes a daring raid on Panopticon (which sounds like the name of some fancy new camera) in order to rescue his imprisoned crew members after they are arrested and sentenced to death. A last-minute diversionary tactic by the captured First Mate Yattaran gives Harlock the chance he needs to break into the citadel's prison satellite (the large sphere at the lower right) and free his crew.

Panopticon is actually the name of a prison design (which they mostly got right) conceived by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, and means "total observation." As the hub of the earth's surveillance capability as well as a prison satellite, the fortress fills both definitions.



First observatory planet Panopticon and the old ball-and-chain.




The Musashi

The sister ship to the famous Japanese battleship Yamato, the Musashi was sunk in the battle of the Sibuyan Sea by a massive Allied air assault on October 24th, 1944, after taking nineteen torpedo hits. In Space Pirate Captain Harlock, the wreck of the Musashi reappears in the Sargasso Sea, manipulated by the Mazone in order to lure the Arcadia into Aman's undersea menagerie.

Sure, the Musashi isn't really an earth spaceship, but as you can see, it does get a chance to fly before the Arcadia sends it back to the bottom of the ocean.



The WWII battleship Musashi, waiting to be sunk a second time.


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