Schooner USS Enterprise

Constructo is the only company that manufacturers a kit of the USS Enterprise schooner.  Up until the mid-1980's, they made one in approximately 1/85 scale; they replaced it with one in 1/51 scale.  It is a plank-on-bulkhead wood kit.

Bill Morrison

The big problem with modeling this ship is that nobody knows what she looked like with any certainty.  She's one of several, reasonably-well-known ships of the early U.S. Navy whose original plans have not survived.

The most recent reference work on the subject, Paul H. Silverstone's The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854, contains about all the extant reliable information about her:  a set of hull dimensions, her registered tonnage of 135, her armament (on a couple of dates), and a brief summary of her career.  Mr. Silverstone also includes a couple of nice, but quite small, contemporary engravings of her. 

She's one of the many early American naval subjects that serious scale ship modelers look at enviously, but generally give up on because there's just not enough information there for a reliable scale model.  The kit Bill mentioned was from one of the HECEPOB manufacturers (that's Hideously Expensive Continental European Plank-On-Bulkhead, for the uninitiated); those companies are utterly notorious for their lack of interest in historical accuracy.

I wish I could be more helpful, but I'm afraid this subject is pretty generally regarded as a non-starter in terms of scale modeling.

jtilley

The big problem with modeling this ship is that nobody knows what she looked like with any certainty.  She's one of several, reasonably-well-known ships of the early U.S. Navy whose original plans have not survived. She's one of the many early American naval subjects that serious scale ship modelers look at enviously, but generally give up on because there's just not enough information there for a reliable scale model. I wish I could be more helpful, but I'm afraid this subject is pretty generally regarded as a non-starter in terms of scale modeling.

With all that is available, and using "common practices of the day", You should still be able to build a "reasonable facsimile" of Enterprise." Paul H. Silverstone's The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854, contains about all the extant reliable information about her:  a set of hull dimensions, her registered tonnage of 135, her armament (on a couple of dates), and a brief summary of her career", may be of some help, it's a long process, but with hull dimensions, and tonnage ( displacement, and therefore volume of the hull ) you could come up with a very close guess to her actual hull shape.

With so little factual data available, who is to question the authenticity of what you have done.....and, it would be an uncommon model, of a good looking vessel.

I'm still in research mode on "Bethia". Once I have sufficient information I'll begin the backdating of the Revell "Bounty", to Bethia.

Thank you for the information, Magoo

Thank you for the information you have supplied, Magoo

Thank you for the additional informatrion, this is for my son who wants to build the set of Enterpises all the way up to the Star Trek star ships, Magoo

Andrew Magoo

Thank you for the additional informatrion, this is for my son who wants to build the set of Enterpises all the way up to the Star Trek star ships, Magoo

For that purpose, you probably could come up with a more than satisfactory looking model.  The pictures in Silverstone's book would be a good start.

For future reference, "tonnage," as listed in the characteristics of a nineteenth-century American warship, is not the equivalent of displacement.  In those days the naval architects did not have a means at their disposal to calculate the actual weight (displacement) of a ship.  "Tonnage" was based on one of several simple formulae involving the ship's length, beam, and depth of hold.  (I'd have to look up just which formula was in use in the USN at that particular time).  It had nothing to do with the actual weight of the ship.

What a great project your son is taking on! Especially starting with the hardest,the sailing ships. I have run the name Enterprise through ebay and been amazed at the wealth of plastic models..............of everything but the sailing ships. Six or seven starships, a few versions of the space shuttle, and several versions of both carriers. I would have thought a sail Enterprise would be a marketing natural for one of the model companies. Actually Lindberg used to produce the training ship Alliance which was the same class as the Enterprise of 1874. I don't know how accurate it is because Lindberg doesn't have the best reputation. I'm sure someone else here can speak to that. The way Lindberg has slapped pirate names on ships with no relation to pirate ships, I'm amazed they never reboxed the Alliance as Enterprise.

Best of luck to you and your son, and hope you post some pictures as his project progresses.

My son has decided to rethink what he wanted to do. Originally he wanted to do all of the ships in 1/1000 but I told hi the schooner would be about the size of 1 kernel of unpopped popcorn! He listened to me for a while that he would have to try doing some of the models (the smaller ones) in a bigger scale and then try dropping the scale as the ships got bigger. So he is rethinking the situation. Ideas are welcome, thanks for the input, Magoo