The ENTERPRIZE was a paddle-steamer, built of wood, by Messrs. Gordon & Co., Deptford, at a cost of £43,000. Her length of keel was 122 feet, beam 27 feet, and she registered 479 tons. She had a copper boiler in one piece, which weighed 32 tons, and cost £7,000. Her engines were 120 horse power, capable of propelling her in calm weather at the rate of 8 knots per hour. She sailed with 17 passengers from London for Calcutta on the 16th August, 1825, and arrived at the latter port on the 7th December following. She occupied 113 days on the passage, partly under steam and partly under sail, and inclusive of ten days stoppages for the purpose of obtaining fresh supplies of fuel. She did not return to England, but was purchased by the Indian Government for £40,000, the East India Company being at that time engaged in the first Burmese War. She was employed carrying despatches between Calcutta and Rangoon, and on the occasion of the Treaty of Malwa, she saved the Government six lacs of rupees by reaching Calcutta in time to prevent the march of troops from the upper provinces. When the ENTERPRIZE arrived at Calcutta from England she was piloted by a young man, a mate in the Bengal Pilot Service, named Thomas Waghorn. Mr. Waghorn was born at Chatham in 1800, and was, consequently, in his twenty-sixth year when he acted as pilot for the ENTERPRIZE. He had served four years in the Royal Navy, and was afterwards for twelve years in the service of the East India Company as pilot, subsequently rejoining the Royal Navy, in which he remained until he obtained his commission as Lieutenant. He was selected in 1827, by the Indian Government (Calcutta Steam Committee), for the purpose of establishing steam navigation between England and India. He visited London, Liverpool, and Manchester, but could not obtain sufficient financial support for a regular service of steamers _via_ the Cape of Good Hope. Hearing that it was the intention of the East India Company to despatch the ENTERPRIZE to Suez, he offered his services as Courier to the East to Mr. Lock (Chairman of the East India Company), and to Lord Ellenborough (President of the Board of Control). His offer of service was accepted, and he left London on the 28th October, 1829, taking the overland route, _via_ Trieste, to Alexandria, where he arrived on the 27th November. His instructions were to proceed with his despatches for the Governor of Bombay (Sir John Malcolm), by the steampacket ENTERPRIZE from Suez, but owing to a breakdown of her machinery, the steampacket was not at Suez to meet him. There being no steamer to take him on to his destination, Mr. Waghorn embarked on an open native boat, and sailed down the Red Sea, being subsequently picked up by the East India Company’s sloop THETIS, which had been sent to meet him, and which brought him to Bombay. The day previous to the arrival of Mr. Waghorn at Bombay, the East India Company had despatched the steamer HUGH LINDSAY to Suez