She helped transport maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the New York Harbor.

One of the first reports of the Mary Ann appears on 1837, when pilots James M. West and Edward Maull, of the pilot boat Mary Ann passed the pirate ship Susquehennah near Cape Henlopen Light, Delaware.

[1] Thomas Rowland, one of the pilots on board the Mary Ann said that they passed the Susquehennah and could see a cross in her fore topsail.

[2] John Taylor did his apprentice on the 45-ton pilot boat Mary Ann in the early 1830s.

[3][4] In 1830, Richard Westley, in the pilot boat Mary Ann, came across a shipwrecked schooner at Bareford Bar.

The men were blown out to sea during a storm, while they were returning to the Sandy Hook Lightship after picking up Charles C. Freeman from the Merchants' Express Line Clipper ship Richard S.