USS Enterprise (CV-6) (Alternity)

USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the second of the Yorktown class of aircraft carriers. Built prior to World War II, Enterprise, also known as the "Big E", was the seventh ship of the US Navy to bear the name, and was one of only four pre-war US carriers (out of eight) to survive the conflict (the others were Lexington, Saratoga, and Lake Erie). She participated in and survived more battles than any other American carrier (the only runner-up was Lexington), earning Enterprise the distinction of being the most decorated warship in US Navy history and of World War II. The carrier was decommissioned in October 1946 after being deemed unfit for the post-war navy. She hung in limbo for nearly two years at the New York Navy Yard while the state government worked a deal for preservation of the carrier as a museum on the Hudson River. In the summer of 1948, the "Big E" was moved to Pier 86 on the West Side of Manhattan, and one year later, in July 1949, she opened to the public. There Enterprise remains to this day, attracting nearly a half-million visitors a year.

In Popular Culture

 * The Tom Clancy novel Code: Enterprise is set aboard the carrier in the early summer of 1994 as militia terrorists seize the museum and hostages, threatening a biological attack on the city. A junior FBI agent and his two unwitting allies are the only thing that stand between the people of the state of Manhattan and certain death.