From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1850-1853.

A side wheel gunboat, wooden steamer built at Philadelphia, Penn. in 1849 for the Coast Survey, transferred to the U.S. Revenue Service, April 1861. Transferred to the Navy Department for special service, September 1861, under command of Lieutenant Thomas S. Phelps. The 330-ton vessel was armed with two medium 32-pdrs and two 12-pdrs. She surveyed the Coast of North Carolina. On 1 April 1862 she joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for duty in Hampton Roads and adjacent waters. On 13 July 1862 she was detached and ordered to the Potomac River for survey work. Corwin repulsed CSS Curlew in Hatteras Inlet 14 November 1861; and rendered effective assistance to the steamer Quinnebaug aground off Beaufort, N.C., 22 July 1865. She was returned to the Coast Survey, Treasury Department after the war.