Talk:USS Enterprise (1775)

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Military history: Maritime / North America / United States / Early Modern / American Revolution

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Previously HMS George III?[edit]

This article says

Enterprise was originally a British supply ship named HMS George III

J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, lists no ship named George III or King George III (and none of the ships named George or King George fit the dates) so perhaps this article is mistaken about the supply ship being in commission? Gdr 13:32, 2005 Mar 16 (UTC)

According to [1], the book "Early American Ships" by John Fitzhugh Millar, Thirteen Colonies Press, Williamsburg, VA: 1986 states, in part:

"The British ... began a program of building some small warships to protect their interests on the lake. Their base and shipyards were at St. John on the Richelieu River at the northern end of the lake. Benedict Arnold arrived there with the armed ketch Liberty on 18 May 1775 and the base surrendered without a shot. Already build and ready for launching was the schooner Royal Savage, and already launched was the sloop George, capable of mounting ten guns. Arnold renamed her Enterprise and took her into his growing naval force on the lake."

So reading between the lines ("capable of mounting ten guns") it seems that George was not yet in commission when captured. Gdr 23:54, 2005 Mar 27 (UTC)

Betsey?[edit]

Today at a used book store I was thumbing through a book about ships of the Great Lakes that dealt with this time period. It mentioned Arnold sailing the Liberty to St Jean (St Johns) and capturing a British ship which they renamed Enterprise, but it claimed that the ship's original name was Betsey (I hope I remembered the name right, I didn't buy the book). The book also had a list of British ships that showed a Betsey launched in 1771; the only thing like a "George" in that book is a ship called Royal George launched in 1777. However, using Google I have been unable to find anything corroborating this. I'd like to find other authoritative books on the matter, and maybe find out where this book's author got his information. I should go back and write down the name and author of the book. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that. -Eisnel 04:05, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Colledge says only, "ROYAL GEORGE. Sloop 20 (Canadian lakes). Listed 1776." Gdr 18:57:17, 2005-08-13 (UTC)

I note the HMS enterprise page refers to a HMS enterprize, a 10 gun sloop captured by the americans in 1775. Is this just coincidence, or perhaps a mistake on the other page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.202.83.30 (talk) 19:21, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Royal Navy says it was an HMS Enterprise[edit]

The Royal Navy itself mentions an HMS Enterprise (1775) “Enterprise number five was captured by the Americans on the Richelieu River.”^{HMS Enterprise history} which is obviously the ship later known as the USS Enterprise (1755).

So does the Royal Navy itself have the original HMS name wrong, or did Early American Ships by John Fitzhugh Millar get it wrong?

I'm also pointing this out on Talk:HMS Enterprise to seek more input. ―MJBurrage^(T•C) 00:33, 14 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Was this a "USS" Enterprise?[edit]

According to the Naval Historical Center, the USS/U.S.S. prefix was seen as early as the 1790s, but not mandated until 1907. This ship would seem to predate that usage. Is there any evidence that this ship was known as U.S.S. Enterprise, rather than simply Enterprise, or by some other prefix? If not, we should change the title to something appropriate, and update the disambiguation page. TheFeds 23:23, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Photo[edit]

I can't understand if this article picture is a photo or a painting. If a photo, then it is probably unrelated to the 1775 USS Enterprise... photography was not invented yet in 1775 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Traumathegod (talk • contribs) 09:37, 17 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Sloop" vs "sloop-of-war"[edit]

When referring to a military ship, "sloop" usually to a classification of ship called a "sloop-of-war". Most of these "sloops" are not, in fact sloops at all, but more often schooners or barks or brigs, etc. A sloop-of-war is a small, fast ship with a few small guns, used for carrying dispatches, etc. As can be seen here (http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/enterprise/Documents/Enterprise/the_legend.html), the first USS Enterprise had a 2-masted topsail schooner rig, which is basically a schooner (i.e. multi-mast, fore-and-and aft sails, usually gaff rigged) with a small square-sail foretopsail instead of a full fore-and-aft rig like most schooners. A schooner can be basically viewed as a sloop with more than one mast, but a real sloop has only one mast, and the Enterprise has two. Thus I have changed the links from "sloop" to "sloop-of-war" and added a link to "topsail schooner"..45Colt 08:37, 4 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]