These ships should be strong, probably the strongest kind(for their size) but they would also take a while to develop. They start out as a few tiles and a core which functions like a blob core. You grow your ship using food... idk how you get the food yet I hadn't thought about how it would be done, maybe getting other people to do it? Either way you can grow weapons and thrusters like a regular ship... its just blob without the minions as a space ship...
I like the idea of a ship that runs itself up but needs crew to fuel it. Imagine an ai core that could also build the ship to be larger. The goal of it would to help more in-shift designed larger ships pop up and add an ai with more control over its ship.