HMS Enterprize (1774)

Type

Frigate

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: HMS Enterprize (also spelled Enterprise) was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy and the name ship of the 27-strong Enterprise class, the final class of small 28-gun sailing frigates built for the Navy. She was constructed at Deptford Royal Dockyard to a design by Surveyor of the Navy John Williams, part of a building program prompted by the 1770 Falklands Crisis with Spain. Specifications: The ship measured about 594 tons burthen, with a gundeck length of 120 ft 6 in and a keel length of 99 ft 6 in, a beam of 33 ft 6 in, and 11 ft depth of hold. She was rigged as a full-rigged ship, carried 24 nine-pounder guns on the gundeck plus 4 three-pounders on the quarterdeck, and had a complement of 200 officers and men — dimensions and armament well documented for scratch-builders via surviving Admiralty draughts. Service History: Enterprise was commissioned in April 1775 under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Rich and served throughout the American Revolutionary War as a cruiser and convoy escort. On 7 June 1780, under Captain Patrick Leslie, she was at anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar when Spanish fireships were set adrift toward the British fleet during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, their crews escaping in small boats as the flaming hulks drifted toward the anchored warships. She was hulked as a receiving ship at the Tower of London from 1791 and broken up in 1807. Notable Facts: During her construction she was the subject of a pair of oil paintings by Joseph Marshall, simulating her ship model but actually drawn from her design draughts, completed in 1777 as part of a series commissioned by George III. In April 1806 her sister ship HMS Resource joined her at the Tower as another receiving ship and was renamed Enterprise after the original was broken up, before herself being broken up in 1816. Royal Museums Greenwich holds multiple original Admiralty draughts and a contemporary ship-model painting of the Enterprise class, all useful reference material for scratch-builders and kit modelers working in 1:48 or 1:96 scale.