Throughout its 225 years of existence the Federation has produced many aesthetically beautiful vessels, from the unrivalled elegance of the Excelsior class to the strange but endearing beauty of the Californias. From this one would expect that the Federation had Aesthetics figured out from day 1, but the first truly Federation starship, the Bonaventure, proposes an interesting question. What if they hadn't? The result must undoubtedly be seen to be believed.
It's important to first clarify what is meant by the notion of the Bonaventure being the "first Federation starship" as opposed to more famous cruisers like the Rockwell or ships launched immediately after the founding like the NX Class vessel Frederick. The Bonaventure represents the first vessel ever designed and constructed entirely by the United Federation Of Planets as a whole, rather than any individual member world. Consequently Bonaventure both had high expectations and a shorter design timespan than the 5 years usually allocated to new starship classes, something that undoubtedly had an impact on her design.
The end result was a starship containing "everything and the Kitchen Sink" as her designer put it. Sitting at approximately 212 metres long the ship was powered by the Warp 7 engine, a horizontal warp core developed based on the MCLN-IV reactor developed by the Cochrane Institute on Earth. This powered a Vulcan SK-61 Shielding Emitter and Subspace antenna, the dual deflector-antenna arrangement giving the emitter a distinct Radar Dish-like appearance, similar to the navigational deflector on the NX class. Backing up her FTL communication system was a radio transmitter and warp message torpedoes, both of Earth design. The warp nacelles were based primarily on Mars designs, with a pair of Lastes-6 nacelles capable of propelling the ship to a somewhat underwhelming warp 6.5 at a maximum, though this was still undoubtedly excellent at the time. The ship's weapons saw no expense spared, with 4 dual FD-2 Phaser banks of Andorian origin dotted around the vessel. Additionally a dual torpedo launcher could be found in the lower half of the saucer, firing a mix of Earthen atomic missiles and Tellarite torpedo launchers. The impulse engine, a J50 Dual-Nozzle design, was also of Tellarite design.
Unfortunately the compromises of cramming technology from 5 different planets and 4 different nations into a single design, yet alone one that simultaneously needed not only huge scientific spaces but fairly large storage spaces, resulted in a ship visually defined by its bulges, with one fitted to the bottom of the secondary hull and another atop the saucer. The result was a rather embarrassing launch where, when the crowd first saw the design, they consequently burst out laughing at how awkward the design was. The ship had proven to be both extremely well armed and capable in scientific fields but simultaneously one of the most visually ridiculous vessels ever constructed, though combat trials proved no enemy vessel would be likely to laugh at her.
However once the laughter subsided numerous crew volunteered to join the vessel, and she consequently set out on her first deep space expedition in July 2164 under the command of captain Megan Huntley, and the ship set out to the galactic south of Earth. The ship made first contact with 3 species' and charted 75 habitable worlds at long range, many of which would become Federation Members and colonies. The ship, in her short career, was nonetheless successful as a scientific vessel, charting 13 spatial anomalies including the one believed responsible at the time for the loss of the SS Columbia. The ship also engaged in an anti-Piracy raid in January 2165, which saw it wiping the floor with 3 Orion vessels seen raiding a commercial convoy. The battle only lasted 30 seconds before the Orion pirates surrendered, with the vessel rendezvousing with the Daedalus class USS Nimrod for a prisoner transfer on February 4th, 2165. This was the last direct contact Bonaventure would have with a Starfleet vessel.
The vessel never reported home and didn't fire back any messages via radio, subspace or torpedo after a final confirmation of her position by the transport USS Pheasant on March 21st, 2165. Due to this, plans for her sister ship were cancelled, with focus going towards the Wasp and Rockwell development programmes instead. The vessel wasn't seen again until 2269, when the USS Enterprise briefly went missing under identical circumstances. It was found that the Bonaventure, as well as the transport USS San Jacinto and the scientific vessel USS Surak, had fallen through a rift into a pocket universe known as Elysium, where time and decay functioned in strange ways. The result was that Bonaventure's crew, including captain Huntley, was still alive. They saw a brief intervention in politics as the Enterprise had been involved in a skirmish at the time, and saw to it the skirmish ended without bloodshed. When the Enterprise escaped Elysium she sent her findings back to Starfleet, with Bonaventure remaining in the pocket dimension.
In 2319, 50 years after the Enterprise left, the Bonaventure did too, attempting to warp back to Starfleet. The vessel's warp drive unfortunately failed and the vessel was left on impulse power, with the crew either returning to Elysium or going into stasis aboard the ship. The vessel was found coasting at impulse by the USS Cerritos in 2382, which proceeded to leave Bonaventure to her voyage. A recovery effort was however made by the Mediterranean Class vessel USS Raging Queen, with the ship arriving at Starbase 4 in 2384. There her crew were awakened and briefed on the events since their disappearance, with many leaving the fleet to go into civilian life, though captain Huntley did return to Starfleet. The vessel was consequently moved to the Fleet Museum's Europa Site, where she can be found to this day. Whilst we did inquire Huntley for an interview, which she rejected, though she admitted about her time in Elysium that "immortality largely consists of boredom." Funnily enough she's not the only pioneer of exploration to share the sentiment.