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The Civil Fleets are one of the three components of the [[Imperial Fleet]].^{{Fn|1}}

The civil fleets contain privately-owned interstellar craft operating along routes liscensed licensed by the fleet authorities.^{{Fn|1 }} Although the vast majority of interstellar spacecraft are part of the [[Merchant Fleet]]s, there are several thousand ships registered to individuals, families or trading cartels. All privately-owned interstellar craft operate along routes licensed to them by the fleet authorities responsible for shipping within that [[Segmentum]]. The route licences must be bought and must be renewed after a fixed time, usually a hundred years. This means a few privately owned ships like to risk the effects of time dilation on long journeys. A license may run out before the ship has completed its journey.^{{Fn|1}}

Civil fleets usually bid for route licences as they come up, the route going to the fleet prepared to pay the most for it. This system enables the [[Imperium]] to maintain routes which, for whatever reason, it finds inconvenient to service from its own craft. As well as route voyages, the fleet administation also issues one-off licences for single trips. Many of the smaller fleets manage to survive entirely in a hand-to-mouth fashion reliant on one-off licences.^{{Fn|2}}

Exactly who captains a civil ship is entirely up to the owners. In many cases the owner is the captain. With the larger fleets, the owners appoint a captain who is effectively an employee.^{{Fn|2}}

*^{{Endn|1 }}: [[White Dwarf 139 (UK)]] p , pg. 17*^{{Endn|2 }}: [[White Dwarf 140 (UK)]] p , pg. 50

[[Category:ImperiumImperial Fleet]]