Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

After some searching, I've found only one real reference to this topic mentioned, and no real consensus was reached. Of course, my search-fu is not very strong, either.

My question is this: What are some examples of Hangar Bays, Cargo Holds, & Steerage Cargo in RL, TV, or movie examples?

My inclinations are thus, but I have some players disputing them:

Hangar Bay: Serenity's cargo hold, what a C-130 offers.
Cargo Hold: Where the baggage goes in a 747, the hold of a fishing boat, etc.
Steerage Cargo: Where everyone hid in the Millennium Falcon in Episode IV.

If these assumptions are incorrect, please explain why so I can better judge which systems to use in the future. Thank you in advance.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

I would disagree with the hanger bay for a C130, cant say on Serinity.
Hanger Bays not only have a door that opens to let them fly out but maintences equipment and possibly communication equipment for flight control tasks.
Hanger Bay is the Enterprise shuttle deck and the wings on a Battlestar.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

Or, the hangar bay is where the jets are lowered to on an aircraft carrier. The cargo hold is where they store the bulk goods. The steerage cargo is where they store the items that need frequent access to.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

A Hangar Bay would be space within a vehicle specifically for storing other, smaller, vehicles. It tends to have facilities, either within it or associated, for launching and recovering said smaller vehicles. So the hangar deck of a present-day aircraft carrier would be a hangar bay, and has lifts for moving aircraft to the flight deck, where the aircraft can be launched and recovered. I have no idea about Serenity, but a C-130 has cargo, rather than hangar, space.

A cargo space is anywhere intended for carrying stuff you are transporting, a "hold" is specifically part of a ship.

"Steerage cargo" is not a well-defined term, unless you're referring to some specific game system, in which case, mentioning it would help. "Steerage" was historically a type of passenger accommodation, described in detail here.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

No, yes, and no, respectively.

A Hangar Bay is designed to launch, recover, and service vehicles, for one, but for another it is equipped to deploy vehicles in space or other hostile environments without compromising the ship. Holds come standard with a big cargo door, but opening it in space is usually not recommended. The same could be said for Serenity, though a C-130 in space has pretty much had it anyway.

Where everyone hid in Episode IV is clearly a shielded cargo compartment, a special option on cargo holds.

What Steerage Cargo actually is is mystifying, though. It's 'pressurized and climate controlled', on the one hand. But Cargo Holds are also pressurized, though there are no details on their air conditioning. Steerage cargo has about 50% overhead. On the other hand, Steerage Cargo doesn't provide life support, that's a property of the rooms in the habitat. On the first hand again, Steerage Cargo is suitable for livestock.
The context is clearly Spaceships, in which all of these terms are significant and specific.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

I'm thinking you might have got the idea that a C130 has a hanger becasue they have used them to air drop from so the bay is opened during flight. However it makes a significant issue in handling and has to be done at lower altitudes and is definitively not a proper hanger bay or deck. It is just opening your big door and throwing stuff out while trying not to get blown away or crash the plane.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

Given that Serenity's cargo hold was effectively capable of holding live cargo (cattle) and that they had full life support going on there all the time it would have to be steerage cargo.

Cargo hold would be much more akin to NASA's former space shuttle's cargo holds - accessible via air lock.



EDIT: One kinda fitting example of how cargo holds work could be taken from some what older game, Frontier - Elite 2. Where taking off with slaves or live animals without 'cargo bay life support' (ie. without turning the cargo hold into steerage cargo) resulted in near instant change in cargo hold content from slaves/live animals into fertilizers (well... at least you could sell them off as fertilizers).

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

What trips me up is this quote from Spaceships:

If it weren't for that quote, I'd really only puzzle over exactly what the heck steerage cargo really is in comparison to regular cargo (aside from a big, empty room to stick cattle in).

This implies that Cargo Hold is not pressurized and lacks climate control. The fact that you have to pay extra for refrigerated cargo hold space seems to support the latter. Still, it seems like it is up for debate on the forums, so I remain somewhat unsure here.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

Yeah this could have had some better descriptions in the wording of the book
I think of steerage as climate controlled meaning you can be comfortable atmosphere and temp wise but pressurized cargo holds are like warehouses. You get what you get and it may be very uncomfortable.
Also it helps if you think about support and addons not just all are empty rooms.
Hanger decks have stuff for taking care of and launching/recovering ships.
Steerage has accessories and you can reasonably expect people to sleep there.
Cargo is just a big empty room.

Re: Hangar Bay, Cargo Hold & Steerage Cargo
 

I think every other thing in any SS book indicates Holds as being pressurized, like every other system.