A small Federation survey vessel commanded by Captain R. M. Merik, lost for six years before the Enterprise found its wreckage near planet 892-IV, a world resembling a 20th-century Rome.
The Beagle carried a crew of forty-seven. In the episode Bread and Circuses the Enterprise comes across its drifting debris and traces it to planet 892-IV, where an industrial society has grown up from a Roman empire that never fell, with televised gladiator games.
Kirk, who knew Merik at the Academy, learns that the captain came down after his ship was damaged and was persuaded by Proconsul Claudius Marcus to protect the planet from outside contact. Merik had his crew beamed down; those who could not adapt died in the arena, while he became First Citizen Merikus. Ashamed in front of Kirk, Merik finally throws a communicator to the landing party so they can be beamed away, and Claudius kills him for it.