[1] He attended school at Jamaica Academy on Long Island and received tutelage in the classics in New York City.

[4] In 1839, he served on a naval board responsible for the construction of the steam frigates Missouri and Mississippi, for which he was relieved of his duties to the Fulton.

[2] After work on the Michigan, he became chief engineer on the Missouri,[2] but a dispute over a plan to replace its one smokestack with two earned him a two-year suspension, during which time he was involved in the construction of the boilers for the Allegheny and several revenue cutters.

[6] However, by 1850, his health declined and he was declared unfit for duty, yet word failed to reach the Navy and he was ordered to sea with San Jacinto.

[7] Following his separation from the Navy in the early 1850s, Haswell returned to New York, where he started work in the private sector, designing numerous commercial ships.

[10] He served as chairman of a politically stacked grand jury impaneled to investigate voter fraud in the election of 1868.

Like most of the members of this body, he was deeply associated with the Tammany Hall political machine,[13] of which he served as leader or Grand Sachem from 1876 to 1882.

"[16] Other professional works included: Mechanic's Tables (1856), Mensuration and Practical Geometry (1858), Book-keeping (1871), and an unpublished History of the Steam Boiler and its Appendanges (1887).

From the age of 9, he kept a private journal which would serve as the primary source for his Reminiscences of the City of New York by an Octogenarian (1816–1860), published in 1896.

[18] This somewhat eclectic work proves a unique source for the everyday details of life in New York City for the first half of the century.