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Imagine this: It is 1906. At 8:30pm, you board a steamboat at East Ferry and pay $1.00 or, if you want a roomette, $2 or $2.50. Through the evening you dance to the ship’s orchestra or get a head start on the next day’s work, perhaps using the onboard wireless telegraph. Early the next morning you disembark at Pier 10 in New York City. Your return is equally easy with the steamer leaving New York at the end of the business day and arriving in Jamestown in the early morning.
On January 20, 1906, the Enterprise Transportation Company signed an agreement with the Jamestown & Newport Ferry Company. The ferry company agreed to “erect a suitable landing” for the Enterprise ships in exchange for convenient service between Jamestown and New York.
By May, the promised pier was in place.
The Newport Journal reported that on May 1, 1906, the largest non-summer crowd for any Island event assembled on the new dock to greet the Frank Jones when she landed at Jamestown at 8pm.
The next morning the Kennebec landed on her way to Fall River.
The Enterprise Transportation Company ran in competition with the Fall River Line, which had provided transport between New York, Newport, and Fall River since 1847. For Jamestowners, the Fall River steamer was very inconvenient. The steamers arrived in Newport about 3am, long after the Jamestown Ferry had ceased operation for the night. The next ferry was the 6:30am and travelers traditionally went on to Fall River, took a train back to Newport, and caught a morning ferry to Jamestown.
With the new service, passengers came from Newport to board the Enterprise steamships at Jamestown. There could be too many passengers. William Young of Fall River sued the Enterprise company for $500 for breach of contract. He had a ticket to go from Fall River to Jamestown but the crowd boarding in Jamestown prevented him from getting off so he had to go to New York and back!
Unfortunately, service ended after only 18 months in November 1907. The Fall River line lasted for 90 years, until 1937.
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