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The Delaware was launched on a rainy May 30, 1878, and was ready for sailing when she hit the water. Her chief engineer, D. P. Stewart, wrote to the builders: We left Cleveland lighthouse at 7:30 p.m. and reached fully abreast of Fairport light at 10:30 p.m., running fully ten miles per hour and reaching abreast of Erie lighthouse at 5:30 a.m., making the run in ten hours. As to handling, as the saying is, she is as "easy as an old shoe," and obeys her helm like a thing of life. We had a good chance to try her in Erie harbor moving from one dock to another. She left with about 300 tons of freight, not enough to put her in trim for moving, but I have no doubt when loaded in Chicago she will give a good account of her carrying capacity, which I put at 1,900 tons.58 The Quayle firm had weathered the financial storm, and in 1879 the elder Thomas Quayle retired. As noted earlier, a new firm was created, with three of his sons composing it. Naturally it was called Thomas Quayle's Sons. The elder Quayle died in 1895. The activities of this new firm will be discussed in the next chapter. In 1855 another firm that was to have a marked effect upon the wooden shipbuilding industry in Cleveland was started, that of Peck and Masters. Elihu M. Peck was born in Otsego County, New York, in 1822. He came west in 1838 where he eventually learned the shipbuilding trade from Luther Moses. In 1848 he and Stephen C. DeGrote built the schooner Jenny Lind. Irvine U. Masters was born in New York state in 1820, and also came to Cleveland at an early age. He worked for Luther Moses, where he met Elihu Peck. In the first three years of operations, their yard turned out no less than sixteen schooners, three barks, and four propellers. In1856, the Leader said: We estimate the total value of vessels to be built here during the year at about $775,000. Our shipyards give employment to at least 1,000 persons of which a large number are single men. The labor of each is estimated to support two persons thus a population of 2000 people is supported by the shipbuilding industry. If our capitalists would turn their attention to manufacturing we might today have a population of 75,000 instead of 50,000, and there would be fewer idlers among us, notwithstanding the addition.59 Peck and Masters launched the bark Naomi, named after Master's wife, in 1858, then no new vessel until 1861. In that year they built one 39