USS Enterprise (1799) - Guide 492

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:34]While the continuing predations of the Barbrey Corsair provided a longerterm driving force for Congress reversing its stance on the whole we don't need a navy issue. A more urgent requirement that also happened to require a navy arose at the end of the 1790s when the quasi war with France began. While the exact reasons for these hostilities are somewhat long and complex, suffice to say, the French Navy began seizing American merchant ships and there was nothing the USA could actually do about it. While enhanced cooperation with the British helped to a degree, and the Royal Navy was, after all only too happy to chase down French traders, as a matter of principle, more needed to be done. The big frigots ordered earlier in the decade were just about beginning to become available, but there were a lot more than six French ships harassing US shipping, and so a crash program of additional construction and purchase was ordered. Part of this involved the authorization of a pair of schooners in April 1798.

[00:01:32]The Secretary of the Navy sought fast ships both for easier pursuit of French merchant ships and privateeers and also to allow the ships to slip the clutches of larger French frigots if they turn the tables on them. And so requests were sent to Baltimore, famous at the time for its fast Baltimore Clippers to design such vessels. One ship, the experiment was built in Baltimore, but with that yard busy buil also building other ships, the other vessel of the class, Enterprise, was built elsewhere in Maryland, but various important parts were shipped out from Baltimore to allow her to be constructed. She would be the second vessel to bear the name Enterprise, following a sloop that had been in commission during the American War for Independence.

[00:02:17]As with many ships ordered in a hurry for the quasi war, no plans of the ship survive and precious few images with only one maybe showing her in her original configuration.

[00:02:30]In any case, she originally carried a dozen six poundong guns, six per side, and was built, launched, and commissioned in around about a year, entering US Navy service in late 1799.

[00:02:43]She would spend the first year of her life recapturing various American merchantmen as well as taking a number of small French privateeers along with a brief skirmish with a Spanish vessel that ended pretty quickly when Enterprise realized that she was in fact Spanish and therefore neutral. But with the quasi war ending in late 1800, she was soon listed for sale as the naval budget was heavily cut. But there was no buyer found for her by the time the first Barbrey War got underway and there were need for reinforcements. So she was quickly refitted and sent out to join the rest of the fleet. Here she scored her first victory against a similarsiz opponent, a 14 gun Tropolitan Corsair, which attempted to use fake surrenders to get close enough to board in the face of Enterprise's superior gunnery at range. But this ruse failed and the Corsair was eventually forced into an actual surrender. Although thanks to orders not allowing the taking of prizes, the enemy ship then had to be released. Although its subsequent limping back into the port of Tripoli caused a significant morale collapse in that area.

[00:03:48]After returning to the US for another refit in late 1801, Enterprise headed back to the Mediterranean to continue supporting the fleet, initially escorting merchant ships and then prosecuting the war against the Corsaires again when hostilities recommenced.

[00:04:02]In 1803, she swapped out her six pounders for 12 pounders and helped to capture a small vessel that was then used to burn the stranded frigot USS Philadelphia along with bombarding various Corsair shore positions.

[00:04:16]In late 1804 and early 1805, she was rebuilt in Venice and pretty much all depictions of her postdate this visit.

[00:04:25]This saw her get considerably longer both for and after amongst other things.

[00:04:30]In 1806, she was rerigged, now as a brigandine, while undergoing repairs to damage she suffered in a gale. She would remain in the Mediterranean until late 1807 when she returned to the United States and operated in home waters until mid809 after a brief return to warmer waters.

[00:04:48]She was decommissioned once again, but once more saved from long-term idleness by a rise in piracy off the Carolina coast in 1811 and shortly thereafter by the outbreak of war with the UK in 1812.

[00:05:02]Between the antipiriracy patrols and the start of war, she'd been refitted again.

[00:05:07]She was now briggged and armed with two 9p pounder long guns and 14 18 pounder carinades.

[00:05:16]In this configuration, she fought the slightly more lightly armed HMS Boxer in a very closely fought action that resulted in an American victory.

[00:05:24]Although pretty much the entire battle was fought under the command of the two ship's first officers since the initial salvos killed the British captain and mortally wounded the American one. After repairs, Enterprise set out to the Caribbean along with the rattlesnake.

[00:05:40]But after capturing the privateeer Mars, which again had similar firepower to her own, she was pursued by a British frigot and had to jettison much of her armament in order to escape. With 1814 seeing more and more full-sized British frigots showing up, she made for the Carolinas and saw out the rest of the war as a guard ship. Once the war was over, she was sent back to the Mediterranean in 1815 as part of general efforts to enforce the terms re-imposed in the second Barbar War, after which she was back on anti-pirate duties now in the Caribbean.

[00:06:14]In 1821, she was rearmed with just a single 9 pounder long gun, half a dozen 18 pounder carinades, and a 13-in mortar, presumably for going after pirate strongholds.

[00:06:26]During this period of duty, she captured six pirate vessels and seven smaller pirate craft, plus recapturing some merchant ships that the pirates had already seized. However, she ran ground on a reef in the summer of 1823 and could not be recovered. So, the crew were evacuated by another ship and the vessel was left to break up. That's it for this video. Thanks for watching. If you have a comment or suggestion for a ship to review, let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to comment on the pinned post for dry do questions.