[ConorMacNessa]

Done - there has almost always been an Enterprise in the Naval Service. The current Enterprise is the eighth ship to bear the name.

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[mad_as_he$$]

As it should be.

USS Enterprise (1775)
USS Enterprise (1799)
USS Enterprise (1831)
USS Enterprise (1874)
USS Enterprise (CV-6)
USS Enterprise (CVN-65)

[Jeff Head]

Eighth in the official US Navy...but two served in the continental Navy during the revolutionary war and so there have actually been ten serving the United States.

[K-Stater]

Done - there has almost always been an Enterprise in the Naval Service. The current Enterprise is the eighth ship to bear the name.

Hardly. There was no USS Enterprise between 1947 and 1961, 1909 and 1938, 1844 and 1847, and so on. While the name Enterprise does carry with it a great tradition as a combat ship in the Navy, so does Saratoga, Lexington, Ranger, Yorktown, and so forth.

I don't particularly care if the next one is named Enterprise or not. I just would like to see them get out of naming them for politicians.

[Jeff Head]

Check my last. You are absolutely correct. It is eight WITH the two from the Continental Navy:

Continental Navy

USS Enterprise (1775) armed sloop (18 May 1775 – 7 July 1777), the first American ship to bear the name served on Lake Champlain

Enterprise (1776) schooner (20 December 1776 – February 1777), the second American ship to bear this name served on Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War.

United States Navy

USS Enterprise (1799) 12-gun schooner / 14-gun brig (17 December 1799 – 9 July 1823), the third ship to bear this name, was built as schooner, and later rerigged as a brig. She fired the first shots in the First Barbary War against the Tripolitanian ship Tripoli

USS Enterprise (1831) 10-gun schooner (15 December 1831 – 24 June 1844), the fourth ship to bear this name

USS Enterprise (1874) barque-rigged screw sloop (16 March 1877 – 1 October 1909), the fifth ship to bear this name

USS Enterprise (SP-790) motor yacht (1917–1919), the sixth ship to bear this name, was non-commissioned, serving in the Second Naval District during World War I

USS Enterprise (CV-6) Yorktown-class aircraft carrier (12 May 1938 – 17 February 1947), the seventh ship to bear this name, was the most-decorated U.S. Navy vessel of World War II and of all U.S. history.

USS Enterprise (CVN-65) Enterprise-class aircraft carrier (25 November 1961 – Present), the eighth ship to bear this name, is a unique design, and the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world. Currently scheduled to be decommissioned in 2013.