Enterprise (1814)

The steamboat Enterprise demonstrated for the first time by her epic 2,200-mile (3,500 km) voyage from New Orleans to Brownsville, Pennsylvania that steamboat commerce was practical on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.[1][2][3]

For ships with a similar name, see Enterprise.
Enterprise on her fast trip to Louisville, 1815
History
United States
Name: Enterprise, or Enterprize
Owner: Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Co., Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Builder: Daniel French designed and built the engine and powertrain.
Laid down: Fall, 1813
Launched: May, 1814
In service: June 7, 1814
Out of service: After August 5, 1816
Fate: Sank at Rock Harbor, Rock Island, Ohio River next to Shippingport, Kentucky.
Notes: The steamboat Enterprise demonstrated for the first time by her epic 2,200-mile voyage from New Orleans to Brownsville, Pennsylvania that steamboat commerce was practical on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
General characteristics
Length: 60–70 ft (18.3–21.3 m)
Beam: 15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft: 2.5 ft (0.8 m), light ship
Propulsion:
  • One steam engine
  • One sternwheel, 8 feet in diameter
  • Two masts equipped with sails
Armament: Gun located on the bow for saluting

Early days

The Enterprise, or Enterprize, with an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, was launched before June 1814 at Brownsville for her owners: the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company.[4][5] The Enterprise, under the command of Israel Gregg, was first used to transport passengers and cargo to ports between Brownsville and Louisville, Kentucky.[6][7] From June to December she completed two 600-mile (970 km) voyages from Louisville to Pittsburgh that were performed against strong river currents.[8] With these voyages the Enterprise demonstrated for the first time that steamboat commerce was practical on the Ohio River.

Voyage to New Orleans

On December 2, General Andrew Jackson had marched from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans with orders to oppose an imminent military invasion by an overwhelming British force.[9][10] Jackson had been making frequent requests for military supplies, especially small firearms and ammunition, that were in short supply.[11] To this end, the shareholders made the decision to send the Enterprise.[8][12][13] Command was transferred to Henry Miller Shreve, a Brownsville resident and experienced keelboat captain, who had firsthand knowledge of the hazards to navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.[14] On December 21, 1814, the Enterprise departed Pittsburgh bound for New Orleans with a cargo of "Cannon-balls, Gun-Carriages, Smith's Tools, Boxes of Harness, &c".[12][15][16] On December 28, the Enterprise passed the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, delivering the cargo of military supplies at the port of New Orleans on January 9, 1815.[13][17][18]

Battle of New Orleans
See also: Battle of New Orleans

Under normal circumstances, the voyage by the Enterprise into Louisiana's waters would have been a violation of the territorial steamboat monopoly granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton.[19][20] However, the Enterprise was protected from the monopolists and free to navigate the state's waters by the martial law imposed by General Andrew Jackson on December 16.[21]

Despite the military supplies delivered by the Enterprise, Jackson's forces were still in dire need, particularly for small firearms, gunpowder and shot.[22] Responding to reports that several boats laden with military supplies were near Natchez, Jackson sent the Enterprise.[23] The boats were located and the Enterprise took them in tow, delivering them to New Orleans.

Then the Enterprise made another voyage to Natchez and returned to the port of New Orleans by February 12, 1815 when she was entered for the first time in the New Orleans Wharf Register as "Steam Boat (le petit) Captne Shrive".[24]

Then the Enterprise steamed up the Red River to Alexandria with 250 troops in tow and returned to New Orleans.[25][26]

Voyage to Brownsville

On February 4, 1815, the British fleet, with all of the troops aboard, set sail for Mobile Bay.[27][28] On February 16, the United States Senate ratified the Treaty of Ghent, finally putting an end to the War of 1812. However, official dispatches announcing the peace would not reach New Orleans until late February.[29]

On March 1, Shreve advertised in a Natchez newspaper that the Enterprise would "ply between Natchez and New Orleans every nine days until the first week in May" when the Enterprise would depart New Orleans for Louisville.[30] On March 13, Andrew Jackson rescinded martial law. On April 21, payment of the wharfage fee for the Enterprise was recorded.[31]

On May 1, John Livingston[32][33] submitted a petition to the Federal Court accusing captain Henry Shreve and the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company of violating the territorial steamboat monopoly granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton. John Livingston's petition requested a payment of $5,000 and the forfeiture of the Enterprise.[34] Sheriff John H. Holland, acting on orders issued by the court, quickly arrested Henry Shreve and seized the Enterprise. On May 2, attorney Abner L. Duncan, representing the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, posted bail and made arrangements for Shreve and the Enterprise to be released.

On May 6, Shreve and the Enterprise finally departed New Orleans and, after a voyage of 1,500 miles, reached Louisville on May 31.[1] The Enterprise was the first steamboat to reach Louisville from New Orleans.[35] Then the Enterprise steamed to Pittsburgh and Brownsville.[2] This voyage, a distance of 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from New Orleans, was performed against the powerful currents of the Mississippi, Ohio and Monongahela rivers. The importance of this voyage was expressed in newspapers throughout the West.[36][37]

Second Voyage to New Orleans

In August and autumn of 1815, Captain Lowns, having replaced Captain Shreve, commanded the Enterprise during voyages to Ohio River ports between Pittsburgh and Louisville.[38]

In November 1815, the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Co. leased the Enterprise to shareholder James Tomlinson for $2,000.[39] Tomlinson's son-in-law, Daniel Wehrley (or Worley), became the captain of the Enterprise.[40][41][42] Bound for New Orleans the Enterprise arrived at Shippingport in grand style on January 21, 1816.[43] On January 25, the Enterprise "with a full cargo of flour, whiskey, apples, &c. and a number of passengers" departed Shippingport bound for New Orleans.[44] The Enterprise reached the port of New Orleans by February 27.[45] Then the Enterprise completed a roundtrip voyage when she returned to the port of New Orleans by April 5.[46]

Enterprise trial at New Orleans
See also: Gibbons v. Ogden

The Dispatch, owned as well as the Enterprise by the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company,[47][48] steamed from Brownsville to Louisville under the command of Israel Gregg.[49] At Louisville command was transferred to Henry Bruce[50] who navigated the Dispatch to the port of New Orleans by February 13, 1816.[51] While docked at the landing, an incident occurred aboard the Dispatch that Robert Rogers, the first engineer, would chronicle in his autobiography:

"We arrived early in the spring, and soon after we landed at the Levee. Edward Livingston, together with the Marshall of the district,[52] with some others came on board, and informed our captain that they (Fulton and Livingston) had the exclusive right to navigate the waters in Louisiana with steam-boats, granted to them by the Legislature of Louisiana and they did not allow their rights infringed; but as we plead ignorance of the law, they agreed if we would leave the State with our boat, and not return, they would not prosecute us. We then took in a little freight and a few passengers and started for Alexandria at the Rapids of the Red River, and after discharging our cargo, we returned to the mouth of the river; then took up the Mississippi for Pittsburg."[53]

1817 Enterprise Resolution by Kentucky legislature

Accounts of this incident were published in newspapers throughout the West.[54] Furthermore, during January of 1817 the Kentucky legislature responded to the seizures of the Enterprise and the Dispatch by passing a resolution.[55]

Documents for the impending Enterprise trial, having been transported aboard the Dispatch, were delivered to defense attorney Abner L. Duncan. On February 14, Duncan submitted his "Supplemental answer to the Judge of the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Louisiana".[56]

During May 1816, the Enterprise trial, judge Dominic A. Hall presiding, was held in the old Spanish courthouse, 919 Royal Street. The plaintiffs were represented by John R. Grymes, the defendants by Abner L. Duncan. Duncan submitted to the court Daniel French's 1809 federal patent for his improved steamboat engine, that powered the Enterprise.[57] Duncan argued that this federal patent protected all of the defendants – French, Shreve and the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Co. – from the charges by the monopolists.[58] On May 20, Judge Hall, stating that the Territorial Legislature had exceeded its authority in granting the steamboat monopoly, dismissed the petition of the plaintiffs. A letter announcing the news of Judge Hall's decision and proclaiming its significance to the growth of steamboat commerce and the economy of the West was published in a Louisville newspaper.[59]

Final voyage
c. 1796 map showing Rocky I. where Rock Harbor was located

Steaming from New Orleans under the command of Daniel Wehrley the Enterprise reached Shippingport by August 5, 1816.[60] Because the Ohio River above the Falls was too shallow for the voyage to continue, the Enterprise was anchored in Rock Harbor.[61][62]

Historian Thomas Shourds utilized firsthand information provided by Elisha Hunt, the principal founder and shareholder of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, to chronicle the final days of the Enterprise:

"The Enterprise finally reached Shippins Port, below the Falls of the Ohio river, and the river being low above, and freights dull, the Captain anchored the boat in deep water, and hiring two men to take care of her, went by land to Pittsburg. One of the men went ashore and the other got drunk and neglected the pumps, the weather was hot, the seams of the boat opened, and the Enterprise filled and sank to the bottom, where, as Elisha Hunt, in a letter written in the year 1851, says 'she still is.' Elisha further states that while he was down in Kentucky, in 1818, a man offered him $1,000 for the wreck, as he thought he could get her engine out to run a saw mill."[63]

During August or early autumn of 1816, the Enterprise, while safely anchored in Rock Harbor, "filled and sank to the bottom" where, in the words of Elisha Hunt, "she still is."

Legacy

The Enterprise demonstrated for the first time that steamboat commerce was practical on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The Enterprise trial eliminated the ability of the monopolists to restrict competition. Furthermore, the Enterprise was relatively inexpensive to build, costing $9,000 compared to $38,000 for the New Orleans.[64][65] These facts opened the way for the subsequent rapid growth of steamboat commerce on America's western rivers.

  • 1803 map of western Pennsylvania

See also

Notes
  1. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 1 June 1815:
    "Arrived in this port, in 25 days from New-Orleans, the Steam-Boat Enterprize, capt. SHRIEVE. The celerity and safety with which this boat descends and ascends the currents of these mighty waters, the improvement of the navigation of which is so advantageous to the western world, must be equally interesting to the farmer and the merchant. The facility and convenience of the passage, in ascending the rivers, are such as to give a decided preference to this mode of navigation, while the size and construction of the boat entitles it to all the advantages which the Ætna and Vesuvius have in vain attempted to monopolize over the free waters of our common country."
  2. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], 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 Pittsburgh. She is the first steam boat that ever made the voyage to the Mouth of the Mississippi and back. She made the voyage from New Orleans to this port, in fifty four days, twenty days on which were employed in loading and unloading freight at different towns on the Mississippi and Ohio, so that she was only thirty four days in active service, in making her voyage, which our readers will remember must be performed against powerful currents, and is upwards of two thousand two hundred miles in length."
  3. Hunter (1993), p. 18:
    "The members of a committee of Congress reporting early in 1816 must have had the achievements of the Enterprise particularly in mind when they declared that the success of steamboat navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was no longer in doubt."
  4. Pittsburgh Gazette, 10 June 1814, p. 2:
    "THE PITTSBURGH GAZETTE.
    FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1814.
    Arrived here on Wednesday morning last from Brownsville, the Steam Boat ENTERPRIZE, Capt. Gregg. Her destination the Falls of Ohio."
  5. 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."
  6. Pittsburgh Gazette, 10 June 1814, p. 3:
    "THE ELEGANT STEAM BOAT,
    ENTERPRIZE,
    Captain ISRAEL GREGG,
    arrived here on Wednesday last, from Bridgeport, on the Monongahela, a distance of upwards of 65 miles, in 5 hours and 38 minutes. She is handsomely fitted up for passengers, and will take freight and passengers for Louisville, Falls of Ohio, for which place she will sail on Saturday or Sunday morning next. For particulars apply to the Capt. on board at Market Street Wharf.
    Pittsburgh, June 9th."
  7. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 27 June 1814:
    "Arrived here on Tuesday last from Pittsburgh, the Steam Boat ENTERPRISE, Capt. Gregg."
  8. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], Wednesday, 14 December 1814:
    "The Steam Boat Enterprise of this place, which has been trading since last June in the Ohio, arrived here last Sunday afternoon. We understand that she performed the voyage from Steubenville to Pittsburgh, with a full cargo, in about three days; she made the passage from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, a distance of 65 miles, in about 17 hours. When the strength of the current is taken into consideration, it will be seen that she is equal to any boat in use. She will return to Pittsburgh in a few days, whence she will take freight and passengers, for New Orleans."
  9. Latour, p. 52:
    "On the 2d December, general Jackson arrived at New Orleans, where he established his headquarters."
  10. Smith, pp. 1-2
    Smith described in detail the British expedition as "a fleet of sixty great ships", "Nearly one half of these vessels were formidable warships, the best of the English navy," that had transported "not fewer than eighteen thousand men [including 14,450 soldiers and sailors], veterans in the service of their country in the lines of their respective callings, to complete the equipment of this powerful armada.".
  11. Latour, p. 66:
    [Excerpt of a letter of December 16 from Andrew Jackson at New Orleans to James Monroe, Secretary of War.]
    "We have no arms here - will the government order a supply? If it will, let it be speedily. Without arms, a defense cannot be made."
  12. Major Abraham Edwards to James Monroe, Secretary of War, 11 February 1815:
    "Report of the departure of boats, loaded with munitions of war, from this place [Pittsburgh] to Baton-Rouge and New Orleans and the names of persons in charge of the stores."
    National Archives DNA-RG 107, E-1815, microfilm 222, reel 15
  13. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 4 January 1815:
    "Passed the Falls [Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, Ky.] 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."
  14. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On February 11, 1814, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$3", for "1 barge" registered to "henry Shrive" was recorded.
  15. Edwards letter of February 11, 1815 to James Monroe, Secretary of War, lists the date – ranging from November 11, 1814 to January 15, 1815 – when each of nine boats departed Fort Fayette at Pittsburgh with military supplies for the American forces at New Orleans. It also lists the name of each boat's owner and the person "in charge of the stores", the type of military supply, and remarks regarding the progress made by three of the boats.
  16. Pittsburgh Mercury, 23 October 1822:
    "In consequence of the most unremitted exertions, the steam boat Enterprize, laden with munitions of war, and other supplies purchased with the private funds of Mr. Foster, was despatched from this place [Pittsburgh, Pa.] on the 20th of December 1814..."
  17. Niles' Weekly Register [Baltimore, Md.], 4 February 1815, vol. 7, p. 361:
    "It appears that the steam-boat Enterprize, and a keel boat, passed Louisville, Ky. about the 28th of December, with arms and various stores for New Orleans, and we fear it is so that gen. Adair's men are without arms. However Jackson's fertile genius make them useful, or, perhaps, partially supply them."
  18. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], 29 March 1815:
    "The Enterprize has been employed in the public service for some time. She arrived at New Orleans on the 9th of January, one day after the battle, laden with amunitions [sic] of war, and it appears from the following extract of a letter from one of the officers on board, that she has given entire satisfaction, she exceeds in speed any other vessel that has yet floated in those rivers, she is a vessel of 50 tons burthen."
  19. Stecker, pp. 16–27
  20. Hardin, p. 32:
    "At an early day after his patent had been obtained, Fulton associated himself with Robert R. Livingston, of New York with the view of monopolizing the trade of the Western States and Territories. Failing to procure a charter from several Legislatures to which they applied, they finally obtained, in 1811, a legislative franchise from Orleans Territory, granting to them the exclusive right 'to navigate all vessels propelled by fire and steam on the rivers in said Territory.' This was granted by Chapter XXVI of the Acts of Second Session, Third Legislature of the Territory of Orleans, April 19, 1811, p. 112."
  21. Mississippi Republican [Natchez, Mississippi], 21 December 1814
  22. Smith, pp. 64-5:
    "On the fourth of January the entire body of Kentucky militia reached New Orleans, twenty-two hundred in number,…
    There were, at this time, nearly two thousand brave and willing men within Jackson's lines, whose services were lost to the army and the country for the want of arms.
    Though he [the quartermaster at Pittsburgh] was offered a contract to ship these supplies by a steamboat, and to deliver them at New Orleans in ample time for use, for some reason he declined the offer. He then had them floated on a flatboat and slowly floated to their destination, when there was little or no hope of their arrival in time for use."
  23. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], 22 February 1815:
    "On January 20, 1815 an officer on board the Enterprise at Natchez wrote, 'When we arrived at New Orleans we were immediately pressed by General Jackson and are now in search of some boats loaded with U. States Arms.'"
  24. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On February 12, 1815, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$6", for the "Steam Boat (le petit) Captne Shrive" was recorded.
    a. le petit is French for both "the little" and "the little one".
    b. Captne is a contraction of "Capitaine" that is French for "Captain".
    c. On February 12, 1815, there were two steamboats at the port of New Orleans: Enterprise and Vesuvius. Apparently, the name of the Enterprise was not known to the officials at the port of New Orleans so she was distinguished from the much larger Vesuvius by the entry "Steam Boat (le petit)", meaning either "Steam Boat (the little)" or "Steam Boat (the little one)".
  25. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], 29 March 1815. From a letter written by an officer on board the Enterprise.:
    "NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 30, 1815. We will leave this place in the morning for Natchez with about 50 passengers, and for our next trip passengers have been engaged; we are doing a very good business and every body is pleased with the performance of the Enterprize; every person we meet is our friend on account of the service we rendered the public when this city was in danger. We have performed the trip from this place to Natchez in twenty four hours less time than any other boat ever did. Our next voyage it is probable will be to the Rapids of Red River, with 250 men. Gen. Jackson permits us to go where we please in the morning, as we have been very useful to him."
  26. Niles' Weekly Register [Baltimore, Md.], 1 July 1815, vol. 8, p. 320:
    "Brownsville, May 3.- By a letter from an officer of the steam boat Enterprize, of this place, we are informed that she was at Natchez on the 24th of March, having subsequent to the 14th of January, made from New Orleans, five trips to the Belize [ La Balize was a fort and settlement near the mouth of the Mississippi River.], and one to the rapids of Red River. Her last trip from New Orleans to Natchez, was made in four days, a distance of three hundred and thirteen miles, against the strong current of the Mississippi, without the aid of sails, her rigging having been previously laid aside. She will make two more voyages between the last mentioned places, and then take her departure homewards."
  27. Gleig, Chapter XXIV:
    "The Lake-Mobile. In this state we remained windbound till the 4th of February, when, at length getting under weigh, the fleet ran down as far as Cat Island."
  28. Smith, p. 132:
    "On the 4th of February, the fleet weighed anchor and set sail, though detained by adverse winds near the shore of Cat island until the 7th, when it put to sea."
  29. Remini, pp. 193-194:
    "Then in mid-February dispatches arrived from Europe announcing that the commissioners in Ghent had signed a treaty of peace with their British counterparts and that the War of 1812 had ended. …the Senate of the United States unanimously (35-0) ratified the Treaty of Ghent on February 16, 1815. Now the war was officially over."
  30. Mississippi Republican [Natchez, Mississippi], 1 March 1815
  31. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On April 21, 1815, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$3", for the "Steam Boat Entreprise Shreve" was recorded.
    Entreprise is French for "Enterprise".
  32. Maass (1999), p. 51. John Livingston is identified as the brother of Robert Fulton's wife Harriet.
  33. Cox, p. 64. John Livingston is identified as an uncle of Robert Fulton's wife Harriet, Chancellor Livingston's second cousin, and an agent for the Ohio Steam Boat Navigation Company.
  34. Petition of John Livingston filed May 1, 1815 in the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Louisiana. LeBoeuf Collection, Calendar of the Mississippi Set, The New-York Historical Society
  35. Hunter (1993) p. 17:
    "The Washington, however, was not the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Louisville. As most writers point out, she was preceded in this feat by the Enterprise, the Brownsville boat with machinery designed and built by Daniel French."
  36. Niles' Weekly Register [Baltimore, Md.], 1 July 1815, vol. 8, p. 320:
    "The steam boat Enterprize worked up from New Orleans to Bardstown [Kentucky], nearly 1500 miles, in 26 days. It is calculated that the voyage by steam boats from New Orleans to Pittsburg, about twenty-three hundred miles, will be made in 36 days. How do the rivers and canals of the old world dwindle to insignificance compared with this- and what a prospect of commerce is held out to the immense regions of the west, by the use of these boats! It is thought that the freight from New-Orleans to Louisville, (at the falls of the Ohio) will soon be reduced to $3 50 per hundred weight [$3.50 per 100 pounds]."
  37. Gos, Charles Frederick (1912). Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788–1912. Chicago and Cincinnati: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., p. 104:
    "Published in a Cincinnati newspaper. The Steam Boat Enterprise-- This is the first steam boat that has ascended the Ohio. She arrived at Louisville on the first inst., sailed thence on the 10th, and came to this port on the evening of the 13th, having made her passage from New Orleans, a distance of one thousand, eight hundred miles, in twenty-eight running days (by the aid of her machinery alone, which acts on a single wheel placed in the stern), against the rapid currents of the Mississippi and Ohio. This is one of the most important facts in the history of this country, and will serve as data of its future commercial greatness. Two steamboats, considerably larger than the Enterprise, and yet not too large for the purpose, are already built at Pittsburgh, and will no doubt commence running in the fall. Others will follow. The success of the Enterprise must give a spring to this business that will in a very few years carry it into complete and successful operation."
  38. Kentucky Gazette, 4 September 1815, Advertisement: "Steam Boat Enterprise. Arrived at Limestone [Kentucky], the 28th August, the Steam-Boat ENTERPRISE, Lowns, of Brownsville, with a full cargo of Freight and Passengers, bound for Louisville, (Falls of Ohio) & will return to Limestone against the sixth of September. Any person or persons, wishing a passage up the river, will be in readiness against the morning of the seventh.$6-1 September 4th."
  39. Western Herald [Steubenville, Ohio], 24 November 1815
  40. Rogers:
    "The Company [Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Co.] then chartered her [the Enterprise] to James Tomlinson, and he put his son-in-law, D. [Daniel] Wehrley, on her as captain,..."
  41. McMurtrie, p. 201:
    "From [Shippingport] thence she [Enterprise] proceeded on to Pittsburgh, and the command was given to capt. D. Worley,.."
  42. Ellis, p. 474
  43. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 24 January 1816:
    "On Sunday last, the elegant Steam Boat AETNA, Captain De Hart took her departure from Shippingport for New-Orleans, in a very handsome style, highly approbated by the numerous spectators, who were the more impressed with the advantages of this mode of navigating our waters, by the arrival of the Steam-Boat ENTERPRIZE, which gave her signal of arrival the moment after the AEtna had fired her departing gun."
  44. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 31 January 1816:
    "Left this port on Thursday, the 25th inst. the Steam Boat ENTERPRIZE, Wehrley, (of Brownsville) bound for New-Orleans, with a full cargo of flour, whiskey, apples, &c. and a number of passengers. Captain Wehrley expects to return to this place, on his way to Pittsburgh, about the first of April next."
  45. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On February 27, 1816, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$6", for the "Steam Boat Enterprise" was recorded.
  46. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On April 5, 1816, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$6", for the "Steam Boat Enterprise, Wherley" was recorded.
  47. American Telegraph [Brownsville, Pa.], 5 April 1815:
    "WAS LAUNCHED,
    In Bridgeport, adjoining Brownsville, last Thursday, the Steam Boat DESPATCH. This boat is owned by the "Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company." We understand she is intended as a regular packet between Bridgeport and Pittsburgh."
  48. 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."
  49. Rogers:
    "...till late fall of 1815, when I [Robert Rogers] was employed on the second boat the Company built, called the Dispatch, as second engineer, Captain Israel Gregg."
  50. Rogers:
    "At Louisville, Captain Gregg left the boat and appointed our first engineer [Henry Bruce] to the command, I [Robert Rogers] then became first [engineer]..."
  51. New Orleans Wharf Register:
    On February 13, 1816, payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$6", for the "Steam Boat Dispatch" was recorded.
  52. Michael Reynolds
  53. Rogers
  54. Commonwealth [Pittsburgh, Pa.], 15 May 1816:
    "From a Kentucky paper we have copied an account of the detention of the steamboat Dispatch, and the interruption she met with in New Orleans. We have endeavored to see Captain Bruce since his arrival, in order to obtain more correct information on the subject, but have not had the good fortune to meet with him. We conceive the act of the legislature under which Mr. Livingston has proceeded in this business, as an infamous violation of the constitutional privileges of the citizens of all states lying on the great Western waters. We know not what construction the above act will receive from the courts at Orleans. But it is much better to trust to our own power of retaliation than to the justice of courts two thousand miles from us. If the system of oppression under which Captain Bruce has suffered, is to be continued, it is to be hoped that the powerful State of Pennsylvania will not submit to a legalized system of plunder and robbery, maintained by the State of Louisiana. It is to be presumed that she will rise in the majesty of her strength, pass retaliatory acts, and subject to attachments and seizure, not the vessels merely which may belong to its citizens. This would be an act of vengeance worthy of her; and if this should not be able to put a stop to the impudent pretensions of the new State to an exclusive jurisdiction over the navigation of the waters within her boundaries, force must!"
  55. 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, pp. 280-1:
    "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."
  56. Duncan, Abner L. "Supplemental answer to the Judge of the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Louisiana, filed February 14, 1816". LeBoeuf Collection, Calendar of the Mississippi Set, The New-York Historical Society.
  57. Daniel French granted US Patent (October 9, 1809), Propulsion of Vessels, 1791–1810, US Patent Office Scientific
  58. Duncan, Abner L. "Supplemental answer to the Judge of the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Louisiana, filed January 22, 1816". LeBoeuf Collection, Calendar of the Mississippi Set, The New-York Historical Society.
  59. Western Courier [Louisville, Ky.], 13 June 1816:
    "Copy of a letter from a gentleman in New-Orleans, to his friend in this place, dated
    New-Orleans, May 26, 1816.
    'Having understood you are interested in the Steam Boat building at Louisville, I have the pleasure to inform you that the suit depending between Livingston and the proprietors of the steam boat Enterprize, has been decided in the district court of this state against Livingston & Co. on the plea that the legislature of this (then) territory, exceeded their power in granting an exclusive privilege. Mr. Livingston has appealed to the superior court of this state, where it is generally supposed he will meet with a similar fate. I hope this information will be of service to your company, and cause them to progress more rapidly in an undertaking which is calculated to be of such importance to the Western country.'"
  60. Louisville Correspondent, 5 August 1816
  61. McMurtrie, p. 159:
    ",,,, where all ascending boats must, during three-fourths of the year, of necessity, be compelled to stop, which they can do with perfect safety, immediately in front of it [Shippingport] is a basin called Rock Harbor, that presents a good mooring ground, capable of containing any number of vessels, of any burthen, and completely sheltered from any wind."
  62. Cramer, p. 108:
    "THE RAPIDS OF OHIO" "Near the bottom on the left side of No. 63 [Rock Island] is a mooring place for boats, called Rock Harbor. It is opposite the upper end of Shippingport, and has water enough at all seasons for vessels of any burthen."
  63. Shourds, p. 318
  64. The Reporter [Lexington, Ky.], 6 September 1815:
    "The Steam Boat Enterprise cost only 9,000 dollars."
  65. Morrison, p. 109:
    "This vessel [the New Orleans] cost about $38,000."

References
  • Cox, Thomas H. (2009). Gibbons v. Ogden, law, and society in the early republic. Ohio, Athens: Ohio University Press, 264 pages.
  • Cramer, Zadok (1817). The navigator containing directions for navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers..., 9th edition, Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum
  • Davis, William C. (2006). The pirates Laffite: the treacherous world of the corsairs of the Gulf. New York: Harcourt Publishing Co., First Harvest edition, 706 pages.
  • Ellis, Franklin (1882). History of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co.
  • Gleig, George Robert (1827). The campaigns of the British army at Washington and New Orleans, 1814–1815. London: J. Murray.
  • Hardin, J. Fair (ed.), (1927). "The first great western river captain; Henry Miller Shreve". Louisiana Historical Quarterly 10 (1): 25-67.
  • Head, David (2015). Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American privateering from the United States in the early republic. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 224 pages.
  • Henshaw, Marc Nicholas (2014). "Hog chains and Mark Twains: a study of labor history, archaeology, and industrial ethnography of the steamboat era of the Monongahela Valley 1811-1950." Dissertation, Michigan Technological University
  • Hunter, Louis C. (1949). Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1949; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
  • Latour, Arsene Lacarriere (1816). Historical memoir of the war in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814–1815. Philadelphia: John Conrad.
  • Louisiana Historical Society (1915). Publications of the Louisiana historical society. New Orleans: American Printing Co., 7 (1).
  • 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
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  • McMurtrie, Henry M. (1819). Sketches of Louisville and its environs;.... Louisville: S. Penn, 270 pages
  • Morrison, John H. (1903). History of American steam navigation. New York: W. F. Sanetz & Co.
  • New Orleans Wharf Register
    A handwritten document (mostly in French) recording the date of arrival, name, type and fee for each boat in the port of New Orleans. Registration was suspended from December 16, 1814 until January 28, 1815.
    New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112-2044
    Call number: QN420 1806-1823, New Orleans (La.) Collector of Levee Dues. Registers of flatboats, barges, rafts, and steamboats in the port of New Orleans, 1806-1823.
  • Remini, Robert V. (1999). The battle of New Orleans. New York: Penguin Books.
  • Rogers, James S. (editor) (1901). "Memoranda made by Robert Rogers", Philadelphia. Transcription of the original autobiographical manuscript written by Robert Rogers.
  • Shourds, Thomas (1876). History and genealogy of Fenwick's Colony, New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey: 314-320. ISBN 0-8063-0714-5
  • Smith, Zachary F. (1904). The battle of New Orleans. Louisville, Kentucky: John P. Morton & Co.
  • Stecker, H. Dora (1913). "Constructing a navigation system in the West". Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 22: 16–27.
  • Thurston, George H. (1857). Pittsburgh as it is. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: W. S. Haven.
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