Entreprenante

Wood Location - Darlington, Teeside

Ship Information
Ship Commander - Lieut Robert Benjamin Young
Guns - 8

Wood Information
Size - 10 acres
Owner - Forestry Commission
To be planted - November 2005

The site is part of the 80ha South Burdon Community Woodland which is close to Darlington. Entreprenate Wood is a part of this overall project with some of the planting being carried out by school children organised by the Tees Forest. Unfortunately we won't be holding a community Tree planting day this season.

Events in Entreprenante Wood

A schools planting programme took place during the winter 05/06 for local schools to take part in.

HMS Entreprenante
The Entreprenante was a cutter of the type used for communications and carrying dispatches, being lightly built and armed only with eight 4 pounder guns. Her role at Trafalgar was to lie to windward of the British fleet and render assistance if needed, since she was incapable of taking part in the fighting. Entreprenante therefore assisted in tasks such as rescuing survivors, and closed the battle to assist in the rescue of the crew of the burning French Achille (74 guns), when she picked up 150 men from the sea. Her commander, Lieutenant Young, came from the Isle of Man, and died at Exeter in 1846 where he had retired from the Royal Navy.

Under a different commander, Lieutenant Peter Young, Entreprenante fought a distinguished action later in the war, when in 1810 she was attacked by four French privateers carrying a total of 18 guns and 150 crew. At the time, Entreprenante was becalmed off the castle of Faro between Malaga and Almeria, when the four French privateers were observed at anchor under the protection of the fort. At 9 a.m. they were observed to weigh anchor and at 10.30 attacked the Entreprenante, lying off her bow and stern out of range of her guns. Action closed to pistol shot range at 11 a.m. but the small crew fought off three attempts to board by the larger crews of the privateers, despite having her topmast shot away and two of her starboard guns disabled. Although running short of ammunition Entreprenante drove off the boarding parties and inflicted severe losses to the crews and damage to the ships in an action lasting for over four hours.

Entreprenante was broken up in 1812.

Many thanks to Alan Aberg at the Society for Nautical Research for providing us with information on the ships and their commanders.