BRAD'S COMMENTS:  I never liked this design too much, at least not as much as I liked the Lotus Flower freighter.  The Monarch is supposed to be a largish vessel of mass IX, but how can that be when footage from Star Trek III clearly shows us that the thing is puny compared to even a Klingon 'Bird of Prey' scout vessel?  Obviously there is a terrible discrepancy here.  Is it big or is it small?  Even the crew stats seem to support the Star Trek III assertion that the Monarch is a miniscule ship, perhaps no larger than a warp shuttle.  Yet somehow this little ship has almost twice as much power as the Lotus Flower?  Bad FASA writers, BAD!
        P.S: Bernard Guignard furnished me with extra scans and stats for this vessel.  Thankyou!

From STARDATE MAGAZINE, courtesy of contributor Bernard Guignard
Monarch Class IX Freighter
NOTES:  The Monarch class deep space freighter is one of the oldest ship designs in existence.  Originally a Klingon design, this freighter class has found its way into every region of known space.
        The Monarch is a P-type (Pusher) freighter capable of mounting adaptors to transport most types of cargo container pods.  This has made the ship a favorite for crews, as it is able to drop its cargo in emergency situations and gain higher rates of speed and maneuverability.
        The design of the Monarch has three major drawbacks.  The first is its lack of sufficient shielding in the areas around the warp engines.  Most of the shielding problems have been overcome by adding extra shielding and/or higher pay for crewmembers to endure the potential dangers of radiation.  Second, the inability to seperate the warp engines from the main hull has always been a problem and is not correctable in this design.  The third drawback for this ship is the lack of hardpoints for weapons.  The original manufacture of this ship was for civil use and as a military transport.  As a transport, the Klingons did not intend the Monarch to ever be operated without armed escort.  In its civil role, the Klingon Empire was not overly concerned with its welfare.  This deficiency has been overcome with the addition of weapons mounting points by those owners who have wished to arm their vessels.
        It must be remembered that this is a commercial vessel and is no longer under production by government contracts and therefore any modifications are made by the owners, past or present.  This makes for a wide variety of Monarchs in use.  The statistics listed are the standard Monarch production models.  These may vary slightly with each model.

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