Enterprise (1814)

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"Enterprise on her fast trip to Louisville, 1815"
"Enterprise on her fast trip to Louisville, 1815"

The Enterprise (aka Enterprize) was the fourth steamboat west of the Allegheny Mountains. With an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, the Enterprise was launched in 1814 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania for her owners: the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company.[1]

The Enterprise, under the command of Israel Gregg, was first used to transport passengers and cargo to ports between Brownsville and Louisville, Kentucky.[2] From June to December she completed two voyages from Louisville to Pittsburgh that were against strong river currents. With these voyages the Enterprise demonstrated for the first time that steamboat commerce was practical on the Ohio River.

Then, in response to General Andrew Jackson's fervent requests from New Orleans for firearms and ammunition, command was transferred to Henry Shreve. On December 21, 1814, the Enterprise departed Pittsburgh with a cargo of firearms and ammunition for American troops to use during the Battle of New Orleans.[3]

After the American victory, the Enterprise was seized at the request of the heirs of the steamboat monopoly granted to Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton. After her release, Shreve steered the Enterprise homeward. During this voyage she became the first steamboat to reach Louisville from New Orleans.[4] Then the Enterprise steamed to Pittsburgh and Brownsville.[5] This voyage, a distance of 2,000 miles from New Orleans, was performed against the powerful currents of the Mississippi, Ohio and Monongahela rivers.

Subsequently, the judge in the Enterprise trial at New Orleans established a legal precedent by ruling against the monopolists.

The seizure of the Enterprise produced a strong reaction by the public against the monopolists. In January of 1817, the Kentucky legislature passed the following resolution:[6]

Resolutions relative to the free navigation of the river Mississippi.

Be it resolved by the general assembly of the commonwealth of Kentucky, That they have viewed with the deepest concern, the violation of the right guaranteed by the federal constitution and the laws of congress, to navigate the river Mississippi, in the seizure of the Steam Boat Enterprize, under the pretended authority of a law enacted by the legislature of the late Territory of New Orleans.

Resolved, That they will maintain inviolate by all legitimate means the right of her citizens to navigate said river, and its tributary streams.

The Enterprise's epic voyage, which demonstrated for the first time that steamboat commerce on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers was practical, and the judge's landmark ruling against the monopolists did much to stimulate the growth of steamboat commerce on America's western rivers.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ American Telegraph (Brownsville, Pa.), 5 July 1815: "Last Saturday evening the Steam was first tried on the Despatch, another steam boat, lately built in Bridgeport, and owned as well as the Enterprize, by the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company. We are happy to learn that she is likely to answer the most sanguine expectations of the ingenious Mr. French, the engineer, on whose plan she is constructed."
  2. ^ Pittsburgh Gazette, 10 June 1814: "The Elegant Steam Boat, Enterprize, Captain Israel GREGG, arrived here on Wednesday last, from Bridgeport, on the Monongahela,... She is handsomely fitted up for passengers for Louisville, Falls of Ohio, for which place she will sail on Saturday or Sunday morning next."
  3. ^ Western Courier (Louisville, Ky.), 4 January 1815: "Passed the Falls [Louisville, Kentucky] on the 28th ult. the Steam Boat Enterprise, loaded with public property, consisting of 24 pounders, carriages, shells, small arms &c. for Gen. Jackson's army."
  4. ^ Western Courier, 1 June 1815: "Arrived in this port, in 25 days from New-Orleans, the Steam-Boat Enterprize, capt. SHRIEVE."
  5. ^ American Telegraph, 5 July 1815: "Arrived at this port on Monday last, the Steam Boat Enterprize, Shreve, of Bridgeport, from New Orleans, in ballast, having discharged her cargo at Pittsburg. She is the first steam boat that ever made the voyage to the Mouth of the Mississippi and back."
  6. ^ Slaughter, p. 280-281

[edit] References

  • Hunter, Louis C. (1949), Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
  • Maass, Alfred R. (1994), "Brownsville's steamboat Enterprize and Pittsburgh's supply of general Jackson's army", Pittsburgh History, 77: 22-29, ISSN: 1069-4706
  • Maass, Alfred R. (1996), "Daniel French and the western steamboat engine", The American Neptune, 56: 29-44
  • Shourds, Thomas (1876), History and genealogy of Fenwick's Colony, New Jersey, New Jersey: Bridgeton, p. 314-320, ISBN 0-8063-0714-5
  • Slaughter, Gabriel (1817), Acts passed at the first session of the twenty-fifth general assembly, for the commonwealth of Kentucky, Frankfort, Kentucky: Gerard and Kendall
  • Stecker, H. Dora (1913), "Constructing a navigation system in the West", Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, 22: 16-27