William Ellery Maxson (1818-1895) was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, the son of Silas and Elizabeth Stillman Maxson. At the age of 16 he went to work for his cousins George, Clark, and Thomas Greenman, who had established a shipyard a few miles down the coast at Old Mystic, Connecticut. By 1850 he entered a partnership with Nathan G. Fish and seven others, establishing the Maxson, Fish & Company shipyard at a point in West Mystic known as Oldfield. In 1861 Maxson and Fish bought out the remaining partners and continued in business as Maxson and Fish. Maxson managed the yard, and Fish handled the finances. Notable among the many vessels built under Maxson's direction were the ship B.F. HOXIE, the armored gunboat GALENA, and the ship DAUNTLESS, which was launched in 1869. After Nathan Fish's death a year later, the yard soon went bankrupt and Maxson built his last vessel around 1875, at the Maxson & Irving shipyard. He also served a term in the state legislature. He married Elizabeth M. Smith (d. 1848) in 1839, and Sarah Maria Fenner (1825-1916) in 1849.