Winston's trading vessel was a small one-man civilian starship registered to Carter Winston, a Federation space trader.
In 2264, Carter embarked on his final trip; his ship became disabled and he crashed on Vendor, where he later died.
In 2269, a distress call from the ship was received by USS Enterprise after having apparently fallen victim to a meteor swarm. Aboard it was a Romulan spy, a Vendorian posing as Winston.
The ship was stowed in the Enterprise's shuttlebay, where James T. Kirk explained to "Winston" that he was "afraid it's pretty badly damaged...hardly worth salvaging right now." Kirk even had Montgomery Scott examine it, and Scott agreed, stating in his report that "he doesn't think there's anything left in your ship except scrap value." (TAS: "The Survivor")