Passenger ships cannot become permanent habitats without refit support

The original series' roughly 200 ships offer more redundancy and living space than the later fleet of about 50 to 70 vessels. Even so, liners and freighters were designed for point-to-point service, restocking, passenger turnover, and periodic refit. Keeping them continuously inhabited for years would expose failures in machinery, accommodation, stores, and maintenance capacity that a normal port would absorb. Even a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier supports its crew of more than 4,500 for deployments measured in months, not years, underlining how far the refugee ships exceed their design assumptions. Greater hull numbers help distribute people and functions, but they do not turn short-haul civilian ships into durable habitats.