By 1850 he was a journeyman carpenter but he abandoned carpentry to become a merchant seaman, eventually working his way up the crew ranks to first mate.
[3] On August 10, 1868, Henriques set sail from Baltimore, Maryland as captain of the newly commissioned cutter Reliance bound for San Francisco, California.
[2] In 1874, Henriques was chosen to ferry the newly built cutter Richard Rush around Cape Horn to San Francisco arriving in 1875.
[5] While commanding Rush on an Alaska patrol he received orders to report to Washington, DC for special duty to form a new Revenue–Marine school of instruction for cadets entering the service as new officers.
[1][9] After his service at the School of Instruction ended in 1883, Henriques served on several examining boards for prospective cadets and superintended the construction of the cutter Commodore Perry.
He served as commanding officer of the cutters USRC Louis McLane, Commodore Perry, and Levi Woodbury.