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USS Enterprise (1799-1823) 

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Enterprise (1799-1823) 

USS Enterprise (1799-1823), a schooner, was built by Henry Spencer at Baltimore, Md., in 1799, and placed under the command of Lieutenant John Shaw.

On 17 December 1799, USS Enterprise (1799-1823) departed the Delaware Capes for the Caribbean to protect United States merchantmen from the depredations of French privateers during the Quasi-War with France. USS Enterprise (1799-1823) next sailed to the Mediterranean, raising Gibraltar on 26 June 1801, where she was to join other U.S. warships in writing a bright and enduring page in American naval history. Enterprise's first action came on 1 August 1801 when, just west of Malta, she defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair Tripoli, after a fierce but one-sided battle.

USS Enterprise (1799-1823) continued to patrol the Barbary Coast until July 1804 when she joined the other ships of the squadron in general attacks on the city of Tripoli over a period of several weeks. Enterprise passed the winter in Venice, where she was practically rebuilt by May 1805. She rejoined her squadron in July and resumed patrol and convoy duty until August of 1807. After a brief tour in the Mediterranean, she sailed to New York where she was laid up for nearly a year.

Repaired at the Washington Navy Yard, USS Enterprise (1799-1823) was recommissioned there in April 1811, then sailed for operations out of Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C. She returned to Washington on 2 October and was hauled out of the water for extensive repairs and modifications ; when she sailed on 20 May 1812, she had been rerigged as a brig. 

USS Enterprise (1799-1823) served one more short tour in the Mediterranean (July-November 1815), then cruised the northeastern seaboard until November 1817. From that time on USS Enterprise (1799-1823) sailed the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, suppressing pirates, smugglers, and slaves; in this duty she took 13 prizes. Her long career ended on 9 July 1823, when, without injury to her crew, she stranded and broke up on Little Curacao Island in the West Indies.

For a complete history of USS Enterprise (1799-1823) please see its DANFS page.