HMS Enterprise (1848)

HMS Enterprise was an Arctic discovery ship laid down as a merchant vessel and purchased in 1848 before launch to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She made two Arctic voyages before becoming a coal depot, and was finally sold in 1903. She was the tenth Enterprise (or Enterprize) to serve in the Royal Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Enterprise.

HMS Enterprise (left) and HMS Investigator (right)
History
United Kingdom
Name: Enterprise
Builder: Money Wigram and Sons, Blackwall[1]
Cost: £24,545[1]
Launched: 5 April 1848
Acquired: Purchased February 1848 on stocks[1]
Fate:
  • Coal depot 1860
  • Lent to the Board of Trade
  • Sold 15 September 1903[1]
General characteristics
Class and type: Arctic Discovery Ship
Tonnage: 471 tons (Builder's Measure)
Length: 125.6 ft (38.3 m)[1]
Beam: 28.8 ft (8.8 m)[1]
Depth of hold: 20 ft (6.1 m)[1]
Sail plan: Barque-rigged

Construction

She was laid down as a merchant vessel at the Blackwall yard of Money Wigram and Sons, but purchased by the Admiralty in February 1848 and fitted for Arctic exploration. She was launched on 5 April 1848.

Career

Enterprise made two voyages to the Arctic, the first via the Atlantic in 1848-1849 under James Clark Ross, then in 1850-1854 via the Pacific and the Bering Strait in an expedition led by Richard Collinson.[2] From 1860 she was lent to the Commissioners of Northern Lights for use as a coal hulk at Oban, and from 1889 she was lent to the Board of Trade. She was sold in 1903.

Bibliography
  • Arctic Hell-Ship : the voyage of HMS Enterprise, 1850-1855 by William Barr, University of Alberta Press, USA, 2007, ISBN 0-88864-482-5

References
  1. Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6.
  2. "HMS Enterprise at William Loney website". Retrieved 29 November 2008.
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