Corwin, 1861
Named for Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1850-1853.
Builder: Vaughan and Lynn, Philadelphia
Cost: Unknown
Machinery: 1 steeple engine
Length: 125'
Beam: 24'
Draft: 10'
Displacement: Unknown
Keel Laid: Unknown
Launched: 1852
Commissioned: to Revenue Cutter Service on 31 May 1861
Disposition: Transferred to US Navy on 17 September 1861
Complement: 70
Armament: 1 x 20-pdr. Parrot rifle, 2 howitzers
Cutter History:
Corwin, a side-wheel gunboat, wooden steamer, was built for the Coast Survey in 1852 at Philadelphia. After a short tour with the Revenue Service in April, 1861, she was turned over to the Navy in 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.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.