Alburkah

The Alburkah was built in 1832 by the Liverpool firm of Laird for a British expedition up the Niger River, led by Macgregor Laird and Richard Lander. It was an iron-hulled paddle steamer 70 feet long with a 13-foot beam and shallow draft (~2.0 m). Powered by a 16-horsepower steam engine, Alburkah (55 tons displacement) was one of the earliest iron sea-going steamers (and the first to cross an ocean). She was also schooner-rigged to carry sails in addition to steam.

Alburkah and her larger wooden sister ship Quorra left England in 1832 under the African Inland Commercial Company to trade on the Niger. In that year the expedition successfully navigated the lower Niger; Alburkah ascended to Lokoja (about 880 km from the sea), demonstrating steam navigation was possible. Quorra (112 ft) grounded in shallow water, but Alburkah’s lighter draft kept her afloat. The campaign was tragic: of ~48 Europeans aboard both vessels, only nine survived the fever and hostile encounters. Laird and the surgeon R.A.K. Oldfield returned home (Oldfield co-authored the expedition account).

After these voyages, Alburkah remained on the Niger for several years (reportedly about six years). Her exact fate is unknown; she appears to have been decommissioned on the river by the late 1830s. Alburkah’s voyage is historically significant as an early example of inland steam navigation and the first overseas voyage by an iron steamship.