The seventh HMS Enterprise of the Royal Navy was an armoured sloop launched in 1864 at Deptford Dockyard.

Originally laid down as a wooden screw sloop of the Camelion class, she was redesigned by Edward Reed and completed as a central battery ironclad.

The ship spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before returning to England in 1871 where she was paid off.

[2] Enterprise's wooden hull was remodeled shortly after she was laid down; she was given a plough-shaped ram bow and a semi-circular stern.

[3] Enterprise had a Ravenhill, Salkeld & Co. direct-acting horizontal single-expansion 2-cylinder direct acting steam engine driving a single propeller.

Firing tests carried out in September 1861 against an armoured target, however, proved that the 110-pounder was inferior to the 68-pounder smoothbore gun in armour penetration, and repeated incidents of breech explosions during the Battles for Shimonoseki and the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863–64 caused the navy to withdraw the guns from service shortly afterwards.

[6] In an attempt to provide axial fire the sides of the hull at the upper deck level were cut away in front and behind the battery and covered by a 12-foot (3.7 m) bulwark.

While providing better coverage than the traditional broadside layout this still left a 120° arc forward and another aft on which no gun could bear.

Construction had barely begun before she was redesigned with an iron upper hull as well as armoured sides and battery.

[12] On 6 October 1889, Enterprise was being towed from Plymouth, Devon to Liverpool, Lancashire, when she was caught in a gale off the coast of Anglesey.