USS Corwin (1849)

USS Corwin (1849) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

U.S. Coast Survey vessel transferred to the Union Navy
Corwin was a side wheel gunboat, wooden steamer built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1849 for the U.S. Coast Survey, transferred to the U.S. Revenue Service in April 1861. Transferred to the Navy Department for special service in September 1861, under command of Lieutenant Thomas S. Phelps.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockade
The 330 LT vessel was armed with two medium 32-pounders and two 12-pounder guns. She surveyed the coast of North Carolina. For example, On 14 November 1861, the Corwin, a side-wheel gunboat, wooden steamer revenue cutter, repulsed the CSS Curlew in Hatteras Inlet, an estuary in North Carolina. On 1 April 1862, she joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for duty in Hampton Roads and adjacent waters. On 13 July, she was detached and ordered to the Potomac River for survey work.

Corwin repulsed CSS Curlew in Hatteras Inlet on 14 November; and rendered effective assistance to the steamer Quinnebaug aground off Beaufort, North Carolina on 22 July 1865.

Post-war return of the vessel to the Coast Survey
She was returned to the U.S. Coast Survey, Treasury Department, after the war.