Curlew was built in 1856 as a wooden-hulled propeller freight boat for the run between Providence, Rhode Island and New York.

The 150-foot (46 m) wooden propeller steamer Curlew, was built in 1856 by Samuel Sneden of Greenpoint, New York for the Commercial Steamboat Company of Providence, Rhode Island.

[1][2] Curlew sank off of Point Judith, Rhode Island in May 1859 when a steam pipe burst and she began to fill with water.

When her machinery proved to be inadequate she was towed to New York by the transport Baltic arriving on 21 November 1861 to be returned to her owners before the sixty-day trial period expired.

[6] In the panic over the commerce raider CSS Tacony, Curlew was again chartered in June 1863 for use as a gunboat, this time by the Navy Department.