I have been reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson,
and in the alternate world described in the book, there is the USS Enterprise.
This Enterprise is the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but in this version of
Earth, the carrier has been purchased by a rich tycoon as his personal yacht.
This did get me thinking about Enterprises of yore. There have been a lot of
them.
The first US Naval vessel called Enterprise that made a name
for itself was commissioned in 1799. There had been a couple of earlier ships by
that name but this was the first one built for the navy. This Enterprise fought in the first Barbary
War and the War of 1812, a contemporary of the USS Constitution (Old
Ironsides). Though the Constitution was a 44 gun frigate and the Enterprise was
a 12 gun brig. Enterprise’s most notable action was the capture of the HMS
Boxer in 1813.
In 1831 The 197-ton schooner Enterprise was commissioned and
decommissioned in 1844. In 1874 the 615-ton sloop Enterprise was commissioned. It
was decommissioned in 1909. There was not an Enterprise in service during the
Civil War. (I confess I have always been a little hazy about the difference between sloops, frigates,
barques, schooners etc.)
In 1936 the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (nicknamed “The Big
E”) entered service. This was a Yorktown-class carrier. Among other actions she
was involved in the battle of Midway. Her planes disabled three Japanese
carriers. Enterprise supported the landings in the Solomon Islands and
Guadalcanal. In 1943 Admiral Nimitz awarded the first Presidential Unit
Citation ever awarded to an aircraft carrier. As a kid growing up in the
1960’s, you heard lots of war stories and watched lots of WWII movies. Over a
decade and a half had passed since the end of the war, but that didn’t stop
America’s obsession with it (It would take another war to do that). But I had
heard stories about the aircraft carriers of the WWII: Wasp, Hornet, Yorktown,
Saratoga, Lexington, and Enterprise.
In 1958 The navy began building the world’s first nuclear
powered aircraft carrier, and they christened it the USS Enterprise. She
participated in the blockade during the Cuban missile Crisis, and was later
deployed to Viet Nam. This Enterprise remained on active duty until she was
deactivated in 2012.
In 1977 the space shuttle Enterprise was built. This was not
a ship, and technically not even a space shuttle. It was used for atmospheric
testing and training, and never flew in space.
The future: (No, we are not talking about Star Trek
yet. The next Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier scheduled to be built will
be named Enterprise. She is scheduled to be launched in 2025 (update: now scheduled for 2030).
Of course, the iconic name USS Enterprise will be recognized
by many people who know nothing of naval history because of the television show
Star Trek. Reportedly, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was
originally going to call the ship the Yorktown, named for the famous battle
from the Revolutionary War and the WWII aircraft carrier. But in the end, he
went with the more famous WWII carrier. Like the US navy, the Federation reused
the name Enterprise for at least 6 different ships (not including alternate
universes). The “USS” designation is a little more puzzling. In American naval
ships the USS stands for “United States Ship.” But the Star Trek ship
does not belong to the US navy. It is part of the United Federation of Planets.
One can only surmise that Roddenberry knew the iconic nature of the name “USS
Enterprise,” and didn’t want to mess with it by making it UFP or UFS or some
such. So I guess he said, just call it “United Space Ship,” and hope that
nobody scrutinizes it too hard. I think that worked out for him.
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