Name Enterprise Class and type Arctic Discovery Ship Length 38 m | Cost £24,545 Launched 5 April 1848 Tonnage 427,300 kg | |
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Builder Money Wigram and Sons, Blackwall Acquired Purchased February 1848 on stocks Fate Coal depot 1860
Lent to the Board of Trade
Sold 15 September 1903 | ||
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.
Contents
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. 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.