Apart from the name USS Ranger, which has been used 10 times by the United States Navy, USS Enterprise (along with USS Washington) has been the most widely used name in the history of the sea service. Nine vessels, including eight warships, have been named “Enterprise”—yet today, not a single one survives. (In fairness, none of the former ships named “Ranger” survived, either.)

In some cases, this isn’t surprising.

The very first USS Enterprise began life as a British supply sloop on Lake Champlain, but was subsequently burned to prevent her recapture during the American Revolution. The next Enterprise was a privateer purchased by the Continental Navy and is believed to have been returned to the Maryland Council of Safety after the war. Meanwhile, the first USS Ranger, which John Paul Jones commanded during the Revolution, was captured by the British and renamed HMS Halifax; that ship was later decommissioned and used as a merchant vessel, though her final fate is unknown. Had the first USS Enterprise survived the war, it would likely still be lost to the ages as well.

Following the American Revolution, the Continental Navy was also disbanded, and none of its warships were maintained. The surviving fleet was either sold off or scrapped.

That fact explains why the oldest commissioned US Navy warship is the USS Constitution, one of the six original frigates authorized by Congress following the passage of the Naval Act of 1794. The first United States Navy warship to bear the name USS Enterprise was a schooner built in 1799. Rebuilt on several occasions, she was lost after striking a reef in the West Indies in July 1823.

There was no tradition of saving retired warships throughout the 18th or early 19th centuries. That changed due to a movement not in the United States, but in the United Kingdom.

By the early 1830s, Lord Nelson’s flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, was seen as too old for continued service. The warship that led the Royal Navy to victory and ushered........

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