USS Jolliet

Shipgirl AI of USS Jolliet, one of the fifth generation Port Weller girls created in 2350 to serve as the synthetic "soul" of a Shi'Kahr-class light cruiser, in whose hull she served on until 2379, weathering through the Dominion War quite well. She would then switch to a Parliament-class engineer support ship, commissioning that in 2381 from the Sol VI yards over Titan and serving on such to this day; yes, she was there at Frontier Day in 2401, coming through that without issue. Now...the story behind her name. Ultimately, her namesake is XVII Century New French explorer Louis Jolliet, who was born in Beaupré near Québec City and originally tried to become a priest before the desire to get out and travel overtook him. He would help explore the Mississippi River with countryman Father Jacques Marquette down to the estuary of the Arkansas River, helping establish the French claim on the territory which lasted until 1763. After returning home, he got married, became a seigneur, then explored the Labrador coast before disappearing in 1700 near Anticosti Island. He would eventually be memorialized with the creation of NCSM Jolliet, a Royal Canadian Navy "stone frigate" at Sept-Îles in Québec's Côte-Nord region across from Anticosti Island itself; said unit was commissioned in 1989 and remains active to this day. Naturally, Jolliet had started a family before his final vanishing act. Over the years, the spelling of the name would shift slightly by the time a descendant named Barthélemy Joliette was born in 1789. He would become a successful businessman in the early years of Lower Canada and later Canada East (pre-Confederation Québec). He would help found a town on la Rivière l'Assomption, one of the left (north) tributaries of the Saint Lawrence to the north-northeast of Montréal, in 1823; said town would named l'Industrie and keep said name until after his death in 1860. Three years later, the town was incorporated as Joliette (single "L", double "Ts" and a final silent "E"). It was THIS name that was bestowed on a River-class frigate in World War Two, one that would later be sold to Chile post-war where she would sail on for another two decades. Confronted with this, when it came time to name a starship, the original family name spelling "Jolliet" was used. Along the way, a "union of the honours" was ordered by the King of Canada, granting both USS Jolliet and NCSM Jolliet the right to bear the honour ATLANTIC, 1944 won by NCSM Joliette. This gives the shipgirl two effective homes in la Belle Province, Joliette and Sept-Îles; along the way, she has two supporting tender ships, Navires CSM Radisson (out of Trois-Rivières) and Jolliet (from Sept-Îles). Clear as mud?