A TL 11 Terran merchant scout with 40 tons internal cargo from my Interstellar Wars era game. The caravan serves nearly the same role as a military scoutship, but sacrifices stealth and some military grade redundancy and communications systems in exchange for a healthy cargo loadout for its size. Additionally, more sensors were put onto the Caravan than usual for its tech-level and mission to aid in locating potential future mining sites.

On the frontier, corporations commissioned these craft to scout out unvisited worlds and survey whole virgin starsystems for exploitation, while in areas slightly more settled they could run long strings of jumps between new markets, living off the land as long as gas giants or liquid water were present in the stepping stone systems.

Map Key
1 Bridge. One of the few relatively spacious rooms aboard ship.
2 Central Living Space - access to all four small staterooms. Room for a card table, or a game twister, in the center.
3 Upper Nexus - This room grants access to the Powerplant to starboard, the turret above, the elevator down, and main life support to the port. More life support systems are accessible via a hatch at the back of the power plant room. Windows in this room overlook the main cargo bay, and racks on the wall and webbing on the ceiling contain emergency gear, vacc suits, and function as the ship's locker.
4 Lower Nexus - This room grants access to the 2 ton grav car fore (Quest class Hunter A/R for sake of convenience, as its TL10), the jump drive port elevator up, access hatch up, cargo bay, and port fuel purification plant. Another hatch in the fore of the Jump Drive room gives access to the starboard fuel refingery. Like 3 above, emergency stores and gear can be found stashed about this room. One of the shortcomings of the ship's design is that this room becomes the default airlock if EVA is required, if one doesn't want to vac the cargo bay or vehicle hanger.
5 Vehicle Bay - a hanger for 2 ton craft and forward doors (no ramp). Can be converted into a 3 ton cargo hold.

Though designed to be a cheap, compact, mass production model with a simple layout, the Caravan has a few benefits over similar small traders. The cargo bay is two deck levels high, allowing for bulkier, non-standard cargos - including small satellites and small craft, machinery and large works of art, to be loaded where other ships would have to have it condensed or be unable to carry it at all. The large aft doors hinge up and down, forming a convenient ramp into the cargo bay.

Caravan Longrunner Configurations
Where there's a will, there's a way.

In commercial parallel developments to Void Skippers, several corporations looking to hook into distant clusters before the competition via shortcuts across the J3-4 gaps utilized drop tanks that would not only provide a 'free' jump 2 without tapping into the regular tanks, but also install Dismountable Fuel tanks of 17 tons (adding a second Jump 2 and another 8 days to the power plant) in the cargo bay.

While this effectively halved the Caravan's cargo, the goal wasn't so much bulk as deal signing, claim jumping, and market cornering via contracts carried. Plus, with Caravans in general, who's mission was scouting without the pressure to make a profit every jump, the dismountable tanks gave the ship a J-4 range without refueling or worrying as much about the margin of error on fuel reserves for standard operations along the way.

For the truly cabin-fever immune, eventually a drop tank that fit -inside- the Caravan's own cargo bay -behind- the dismountable tanks, was developed, effectively nullifying the cargo at the outset, but allowing 3 consecutive Jump 2's.

The Longrunner Configuration would mount the dismountables, use a drop tank at the first system, deploy and attach the internal drop tank when needed, use the fuel in the dismountable tanks, and finally jump on the regular internal stores of fuel - giving a TL 11 100 ton scout an effective 8 parsec range, one way, or Jump 4 with assured return even from empty space - over the course of a month and change, sometimes running on fumes at the end of the journey.

Design Quirks and Shortcomings
Many, the least of which is its -tiny-. Anyone living in one of these during a Longrunner Configuration run gets a few thousand year's preview of what its like to be an X-boat scout pilot. Despite the crew requirement of 2 and the two extra rooms, privately owned ships often have two small staterooms removed entirely, and the other two converted into a large stateroom, with either solitaire captains or married couple crews that can stand each other in confined quarters for long periods of time.

Lack of a dedicated airlock. #4 and #5 are the two most common methods of egress if EVA is required.

Maneuver Drives - Access to the tiny maneuver drives is through a LOT of hard work and removal of panels from the cargo bay, or the outside of the ship - neither one is recommended, and likely possible while the ship is under way with cargo or Longrunner Configurations in its first stages. Additionally, the 'two displacement tons' of maneuver drive are stacked two decks high, on either side of the cargo bay. Even in optimal servicing scenarios, a ladder, grav platform or lift may be needed to overhaul the systems.

Iris Vales - none. All hatches are manual. Nice manual, but manual. In addition to internal cameras at strategic locations, each hatch has two small 6 inch thick windows, one flat, the other with a convex surface to give a slightly fish-eye view of the space beyond.

Tiny Profile/Silhouette - The Caravan is often mistaken for SDB's and smaller, non-jump capable craft. This is not without its advantages on occasion.