Henry Miller Shreve - The Enterprise

The Enterprise

A group of Brownsville investors had formed a stock company, the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, to conduct steamboat commerce on the Western rivers. To this end, the company commissioned a new steamboat to be constructed at Brownsville. During the winter and spring of 1814, while Shreve was on the voyage to New Orleans, the Enterprise, with an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, was constructed. Between June and December 1814, the Enterprise, under the command of Israel Gregg, made two successful voyages transporting passengers and cargo to ports between Brownsville and Louisville, Kentucky. By December, the company had decided to send the Enterprise to New Orleans with a cargo of munitions for General Andrew Jackson's troops to defend the city against an invasion by British forces. Command of the Enterprise was transferred to Henry Shreve because of his firsthand knowledge of the hazards to navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The Enterprise departed Pittsburgh on December 21, 1814 with the munitions. The Enterprise passed the Falls at Louisville on December 28, 1814. The Enterprise arrived at New Orleans on January 9, 1815.

After the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, a lawsuit was brought by the heirs of Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston against Shreve and the owners of the Enterprise for violating the formers' monopoly against any unauthorized navigation of Louisiana waters by steamboat. Soon after being released from jail, Shreve commanded the Enterprise from New Orleans to Louisville, the first time a northbound steamboat was able to reach that city. Then he navigated the Enterprise to Pittsburgh and finally to her homeport of Brownsville. This long and difficult voyage by the Enterprise, more than 2,200 miles against the currents of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, demonstrated the ability of steamboats to navigate the western rivers.