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

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.

Construction [ edit ]

She was laid down as a merchant vessel at the Blackwall yard on the River Thames 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 [ edit ]

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 [ edit ]

• 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 [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Media related to HMS Enterprise (1848) at Wikimedia Commons
• John Charters/seaman H.M.S. Enterprise Diary at Dartmouth College Library