Finders Keepers...

[Ehecatl]

Just about every time Atlantis gets its hands on a Wraith or Ancient ships it either gets taken, destroyed or forgotten about.

1. Aurora- destroyed
2. Dart from Lost Boys/Hive- forgotten
3. Ancient Warship Orion - destroyed
4. Hive ship from No Man's Land- destroyed
5. Ancient Warship Tria- forgotten
6. Wraith Cruiser from Submersion- forgotten
7. Dart from Vengeance- forgotten
8. Ancient Warship from Travelers- taken
9. Asuran Warship stolen by nanite team- where abouts unknown, presumed destroyed
10. Hive ship from Spoils of War- destroyed

Why can't Atlantis keep their hands on a Wraith or Ancient ship? They stumble upon all these ships but all of their discoveries are too short lived they need to get some good use out of what they find.

They haven't really grasped the idea of finders keepers.

[2ndgenerationalteran]

its sad isnt it, this last one even more so considering that the jumper could have dialed the gate to escape and the hive could have jumped into hyperspace. Called one of the 304s to go and send a mark 9 and we save a ship but i think the writters like us knowing that in the end none of the ships we find will be ours.

[Avenger]

At least with the SoW, there was a time constraint that forced them to use the Hive the way the did. If they'd waited and

Spoiler:

allowed all those Wraith warriors to come out of their pods

we'd have been screwed.

[idlewild202]

It does seem like we loose 'em just as fast as we find 'em eh....

[PG15]

9. Asuran Warship stolen by nanite team- where abouts unknown, presumed destroyed

That was reclaimed by the Asurans, actually. JM confirmed it.

So yeah, destroyed.

[Anubis91]

5. Ancient Warship Tria- forgotten

The Tria has not been forgotten, because it doesn't exist anymore, the Asurans who had control of Atlantis in The Return used the Tria to rebuild Atlantis after Sheppard and his team had the main tower exploded
So there is surelly some rests of the ship in space but not a flyable ship !

[2ndgenerationalteran]

Talus said in Return part II that they had to dismantle their ship for raw material not the Tria.

[Merlin1701]

2ndgenerationalteran is correct the tria couldn't have made it back to Atlantis without its hyperdrive so it must be either fixed and returned to MW or docked at midway.

[Ehecatl]

The Tria has not been forgotten, because it doesn't exist anymore, the Asurans who had control of Atlantis in The Return used the Tria to rebuild Atlantis after Sheppard and his team had the main tower exploded
So there is surelly some rests of the ship in space but not a flyable ship !

The Tria was a damaged Ancient ship left out in the void of space. It was never the Asuran's. Yes, the replicators did use their ship to rebuild the city but it was not the Tria.

[Vala_M]

I'd rather have a ship be forgotten about than destroyed, at least it still exists then. And in "Vengeance", the dart was left on another planet so the Daedalus could pick it up, meaning it could be on Earth like the Go'auld death gliders.

Vala,

[Forgottensmoke]

it seems the hives know which darts are theres so why would you want a dart anyway puddle jumpers cloak. I wonder why they dont take a cloak frm a puddle jumper and put it on the daudelaus they did it with atlantis for god sake.

[HyperspaceDaemon]

Why can't Atlantis keep their hands on a Wraith or Ancient ship?

Because some people have arbitrarily decided that having fully functional ships (or devices) of alien origin would make things too easy for the SGA team.

Demonstrating the resourcefulness of the SGA team is more important than showing us new devices/technologies working for more than one time .

That's why it is possible to do extensive nanite programming in a record time , but it's impossible to prevent the destruction of the Lantean technological goodies. Except from the puddle jumpers and the Lantean life-sign-detectors which are frequently used.

[Opener]

The original team had the same problem, remember? They never could keep any of the motherships they laid hands on.

[Heaven]

I don't see the big deal here

the Aurora was severely damaged and depleted of drones, that's why the crew put themselves into stasis in the first place.

the Tria didn't have a hyperdrive, it was damaged beyond repair even by the ancients themselves - worthless.

both times we had hives they were also badly damaged, not battle worthy
and there's only one person who could fly them ineptly at best.

the only use I can see for any of these ships is getting their schematics and databases for study, maybe even training.
same goes for the darts, maybe figure out a way to jam their culling beam like they do with ours.

[HyperspaceDaemon]

I don't see the big deal here

the Aurora was severely damaged and depleted of drones, that's why the crew put themselves into stasis in the first place.

the Tria didn't have a hyperdrive, it was damaged beyond repair even by the ancients themselves - worthless.

both times we had hives they were also badly damaged, not battle worthy
and there's only one person who could fly them ineptly at best.

the only use I can see for any of these ships is getting their schematics and databases for study, maybe even training.
same goes for the darts, maybe figure out a way to jam their culling beam like they do with ours.

The big deal is the attitude towards the devices, ships and other things that the team happens to find during its expeditions.

The success of the humans against the enemies that are thousands of years more advanced has very little backup in the Stargate universe : luck and half-baked immediate solutions can't last forever as a long-term way of dealing with the problems.

For me it's getting harder and harder to accept that a young race (who discovered 10 years ago that space travel is possible) is able to oppose directly such enemies. That's why it's irritating to see most advanced ships/devices destroyed or forgotten : those can help making the situation more logical, more credible.