It was operated for passenger and cargo transportation in the Albemarle Sound region, running between Edenton, Hertford, Elizabeth City and Nag's Head.

In 1859 Edward Bruce, an artist and reporter, rode the ship on a trip to Nag's Head and afterwards wrote about it for Harper's New Monthly Magazine.

Between October 1861 and February 1862 the Curlew alternately patrolled Pamlico Sound and harassed Union shipping at Hatteras Inlet.

It was located in 1988 by a group of international divers working for the state of North Carolina's Underwater Archaeological Unit.

[7] When the Curlew was impressed into service for the Confederate Navy, its long-term pilot, a black Freedman named Eli Williamson, was also taken on.

Williamson – who named one of his daughters Curlew – had his right arm broken by the shattered wheel of the ship in the Battle of Roanoke Island.

On the basis of his service on the Curlew, Williamson applied for and received a Civil War pension from the state of North Carolina in 1905, becoming probably the first African American to successfully do so.

Williamson's daughter also stated that "although working for the Confederacy, he helped many Union soldiers..."[5] When Williamson left North Carolina to live in Washington, D.C., and therefore lost his state pension, an appeal was published in 1914 in the Albemarle Observer by a white ship captain, George Withy, asking for donations from white Southerners to help this "faithful old darkey".

Withy wrote that "[A]fter the Battle of Roanoke Island this old darkey could have gone over to the Federals in the capacity of a Pilot ... [but] preferr[ed] to stay loyal to his friends and the South."

The appeal did not mention that when he had recovered from his broken arm, Williamson avoided returning to service in the Confederate Navy.