The first Enterprise was a 70-ton sloop. The ship was captured from the British Navy in May of 1775, during the Revolutionary War by the US Navy. Little over two years service later in July of 1777 she was destroyed to avoid the British forces from retaking her. The second Enterprise was a 25-ton schooner. It was a privateer vessel that was purchased by the Continental Navy in December of 1776. Serving in Chesapeake Bay for a short while, she was later given back to the Maryland Council of Safety in February of 1777.
The next ship named Enterprise was a 125-ton schooner that was built in 1799. This Enterprise served during the war with France, the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. She and her crew captured, defeated and then recaptured over thirty-five sailing vessels, she was lost after running aground in the Summer of 1823.
Then came the 194-ton schooner commissioned in 1831. After over fifty years of service, including six years spent patrolling the waters off South America, then sailing the world, she was decommissioned in the Summer of 1884.
The last Enterprise of the 18th century, was also the last before the second World War. She was the 1,375-ton steam-powered Sloop of War, commissioned in the early spring of 1877. From that time until 1890, she was a survey ship and spent time in reserve service. For the next year she was a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. She was also used as a training ship by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1892. In 1909 she was returned to the Navy, which sold her in October of the same year.
The next ship to bear the name Enterprise was the US Navy's CV-6. This ship was commissioned in May of 1938. Returning from Wake Island in the early part of December 1941, she missed being at Pearl Harbour on the day that will be long remembered in infamy. In March of 1942, the Enterprise and crew sailed across the Pacific, leaving a trail of damaged or destroyed Japanese ships, planes and installations, including Wake and Marcus Islands. She joined up with the USS Hornet in April of 1942, for the bombing of Tokyo, then returned to Pearl Harbour on April 25th.
