Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Adz, Caulk, and Rivets: A History of Ship Building along Ohio's Northern Shore, 1963, 2017, p. 53

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propeller - Detroit; one tug - E. M. Peck; and four barks - Colorado and City of Buffalo, City of Chicago, and City of Milwaukee. As grain prices soared, so soared the fortunes of Peck and Masters. The bark S. V. R. Watson (alone) was built at a cost of $40,000 in 1862. Among some of the better-known vessels launched by this firm (1862-1864) were the barks P.C. Sherman, Sunrise, and Golden Fleece, tugs I. U. Masters, W. B. Castle, and Metamora, and propellers Toledo, Idaho, Meteor, Pewabic, Arctic, and Pacific. The engine of the propeller Winslow (1863) is worth mentioning as it took six and a half tons of iron to cast the cylinder. It was the largest on the lakes and cast by the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company. As the price of materials and cost of labor rose and freight rates descended in 1864, contracts failed to materialize. It was during this void in business that I. U. Masters, who was at this time also the mayor of Cleveland, died. E. M. Peck continued on alone. He hired Stephen F. Langell as foreman. Langell had served his apprenticeship under George W. Jones, later working for several of the well-known builders in Cleveland. In 1857 he had built the schooner Calvin Snell at Fairport. Langell remained as Peck's foreman and chief draftsman through 1871. It became Peck's practice to "farm out" his work as his own vessel-owning interests consumed his time. In 1865 he was awarded a contract for two revenue cutters for the Treasury Department. Captain Gilbert Knapp acted as the government supervisor, and Stephen Kirby built them. The John Sherman was launched on June 21, 1865, and was powered by a Fletcher beam engine. She was built at a cost of $175,000. The William Pitt Fessenden followed three months later. Peck and Company built the schooners Oak Leaf and David Stewart, and the propeller Messenger in 1866. In 1867 they launched the propellers Nebraska and Manistee, and in 1870, the schooner Forest City. She was the barge-consort of the propeller R. J. Hackett, built by Peck in 1869. This practice of towing a barge behind a steamer in the iron ore trade was an innovation usually credited to Peck, and was followed until only a few years ago. The last vessel built by Peck and Company was the yacht Carrie, launched on August 9, 1871. In 1872 Peck went into business with a master ship carpenter named Quelos, and for two years they built a few vessels at Black River, but Peck's Northwestern Transportation Company was consuming more and more of his time and interest. As a result, he retired completely from the shipbuilding business. He died at Detroit on May 8, 1896, but was interred in the Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, his body being transferred from Detroit to Cleveland on one of his own steamers, the E. M. Peck.60 40

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