Hocotate Ship

Characteristics

The Hocotate ship is a pink and white beaten-up looking rocket with a seam down the sides, three legs, two exhaust pipes, a propeller on the tip, two cockpits and leaves behind a purple flame when flying. It is owned by the Hocotate Freight company. The ship seems capable of travelling at extremely fast speeds through space and like the S.S. Dolphin is able to use technology to shrink down and collect items in close proximity to it. The ship can detach the research pod which makes up it's nose and using it for underground exploration. The ship is also capable of deep space communication and can both send and receive emails from Hocotate while in orbit. 
 
The ship can verbally communicate via a speaker on the research pod and often provides helpful advice to Olimar and Louie, although Olimar mentions in his notes that he considers the ship pompous and a smart-alec. The ship can value any treasure or beast carcass brought to it and is also capable of making special sprays from the Burgeoning Spiderwort Berries Olimar and Louie bring it. The ship is never given an actual name in Pikmin 2 and is only ever referred to as 'the ship', however in Super Smash Bros. Brawl it is referred to as the Hocotate Ship.
 

History

The ship first appears at the beginning of Pikmin 2, alongside the President and Louie on Hocotate. When Olimar returns to Hocotate and is told about Hocotate Freight being forced to sell his beloved ship the Dolphin, in order to pay off their debts, Olimar drops a bottle cap he brought back from the planet of the Pikmin in shock. The ship detects the bottle cap and collects it, valuing it at being worth 100 pokos. Hypothesizing that the planet of the Pikmin must be littered with similar treasures the President of Hocotate Freight sends Olimar and Louie back to the planet in the ship. Upon reaching the planet the ship accidentally collides with a tree, Louie falls out of his cockpit and the ship makes a shaky landing. Olimar and Louie are soon reunited and the ship guides them through their early stages of exploration in the game and values all the treasures they collect throughout their time on the planet. Every night and after every cave exploration the ship also makes a report on the expedition and also displays any emails received at night. When the purple and the white Pikmin are discovered the ship uses its cargo bay to store them.
 
After enough treasure is collected by Olimar and Louie to pay off the debts of Hocotate Freight, the ship aims to return them to Hocotate, but at the last moment Olimar looks back to discover the rear cockpit is empty and Louie has been left on the planet. After the debts are paid off the ship gets gold plating which is seems to be very proud of and it returns Olimar and the President to the planet of the Pikmin to collect more treasures and find Louie. 
 

Other Appearances

The ship also appears as a trophy and a sticker in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the same game, when Captain Olimar uses his final smash attack he jumps into the Hocotate Ship and leaves the planet surface. In Super Mario Galaxy there is also a planetoid suspended in space which bears strong resemblance to the Hocotate Ship.