Enterprise, once a Lake Simcoe tourist ship, began life as the schooner Couchiching

The steamship, a long-serving but deteriorating vessel, sank at the Barrie wharf in 1903 The steamship Enterprise was never considered among the better steamships plying Lake Simcoe, and by the last years of her 40-year career she was almost un-seaworthy. And yet, people in Lake Simcoe's lakeshore communities had a warm place in their hearts for her. The Enterprise had a less than glorious origin. Built in 1868 by James McPherson, she was originally a schooner called Couchiching that was employed carrying lime from Rama to ports all around lakes Simcoe and Couchiching. She served in this capacity for more than a decade but then railways encircled the lakes and made the Couchiching obsolete; lime could be transported faster and more efficiently by train than by ship. With the vessel no longer needed in its original role, McPherson refitted the vessel as a passenger boat in 1883. He cut down the mast, built several additional decks, installed a steam engine, and rechristened her Enterprise. The Enterprise was not among the more attractive steamers to sail the waters of Simcoe and Couchiching. She had 'an ugly round nose' that betrayed her past as a stone schooner and looked ungainly and slow as she ploughed through the water. Nonetheless, she did steady but unspectacular business for many years. In 1896, Donald W. McDonald, a partner in the Lake Simcoe Transportation and Dry Dock Company, purchased the ship for $500. The Enterprise underwent refit with an eye toward capturing a share of the tourist excursion market, but while in dry dock it became apparent that her hull was rotting and was likely not up to many more years of plying the lakes. Construction halted, and in 1897 the ship was sold at public auction to Captain Marsh of Barrie. Under Marsh, she sailed to various ports around Lake Simcoe, taking passengers on day cruises and hosting water-borne parties. Fred Jackson reminisced about those days in the 1951 Innisfil Historical Review. He remembered how the Enterprise sailed Lake Simcoe 'with whistles shrieking and the boat crowded to its capacity, and nearly every mother on board half-frantic when she discovered her boy climbing up the side of the boat from deck to deck and risking a broken neck or a watery grave.' Desperate for business, the ship would often pull into a port with brass band playing and offering bargain excursions to 'exotic' points around the lake. What passengers didn't know was that she was barely seaworthy, kept afloat only by constant repairs and overworked pumps. It was during one of these day trips in 1903 that the Enterprise sprung a serious leak and began to take on water. Her captain ordered the crew to remain silent to not alarm the passengers. But there was no doubt he was gravely concerned. He ordered the crew to work the pumps as fast as possible while he used every ounce of his seamanship to nurse the stricken ship back to port. When the Enterprise limped into Barrie, she was settling dangerously low in the water. The gangplanks were lowered and the passengers ushered off. No sooner had the last one reached the dock than the ship sank. Over the next few days, hundreds of people flocked to the wharf to witness the floundered ship. A week or so later, the Enterprise was re-floated and pumped out, temporarily patched up, and made ready to sail once again. This, however, was to be her last voyage. She made her way across Lake Simcoe to Jackson's Point without incident, where machinery was removed and she was unceremoniously scuttled in the depths of the lake.