Enterprize

Enterprize, a 275-ton, 43-metre (141-ft) wooden paddle steamer, launched at Deptford in 1825. She was noteworthy for making the first long passage where steam propulsion was used to a significant extent. In 1823 the Indian government offered a prize of 20,000 rupees for whoever established a regular steamship route between England and Calcutta before the end of 1826, provided the voyage took no more than 70 days. Enterprize was built to challenge for this prize. Apart from the lugger sails on her three masts, she was powered by side lever engines of 120 nominal horsepower, and her owners had fitted her with a copper boiler, in the hope that it would stand the strain of the long voyage better than an iron one. She left Falmouth on 16 August 1825 with seventeen passengers aboard, but only managed to steam for 64 of the 113 days the voyage took via Cape Town. She was bought by the Indian government, and the owners were awarded half the prize, but she was never used for the mail service the Indian government required. She was broken up in 1838.