She ran between New York City and various Hudson River destinations during her career, including Newburgh, Piermont, Poughkeepsie, Rondout, Catskill, and finally as a nightboat to Troy.

[1] Thomas Powell, a wooden-hulled sidewheel steamer, was built by Lawrence & Sneden of Manhattan, New York,[3][2][4] under the supervision of her future captain, Samuel Johnson.

[5] Steam was supplied by two boilers, one on each guard in accordance with the prevailing fashion, at a working pressure of 50 psi (340 kPa), and fuel consumption was two tons of anthracite coal per hour.

[7] She thereafter maintained a regular schedule, departing from Warren Street, New York, for Newburgh at 4 pm Monday through Saturday, with intermediate stops at Van Courtland's Dock, Peekskill, West Point, Cold Spring and Cornwall.

[5] One boat considered a possible rival to Thomas Powell in terms of speed at this time was Mountaineer,[9] a steamer of about the same size and tonnage that had entered service the same year.

[9] On 13 August, Mountaineer departed Hammond Street, New York, some minutes earlier than usual, and thus came within sight of Thomas Powell as the two boats made their way to Peekskill.

[14] The following month, the steamboat Niagara was on her way from New York to Albany when a steam component gave way about 25 miles (40 km) north of the city, causing an explosion that reportedly killed two of the boat's engineers and scalded several passengers.

[15][16] The steamboats Roger Williams and Thomas Powell were quickly on the scene, the former taking most of the passengers aboard, including some with milder injuries, for completion of their journey to Albany.

[15][16] Thomas Powell in the meantime towed the stricken Niagara to shore, before taking two more seriously injured passengers aboard in order to return them to New York City for medical treatment.

Though the steamer would remain in Hudson River service for the rest of her commercial career, she only briefly continued on the Albany route before being purchased in the winter of 1855 by Captain Absalom L.

[22] Anderson originally used Thomas Powell to replace the aging steamer Robert L. Stevens, which he had been running on a route between New York City and his hometown of Saugerties.

[25] Although she was not quite completed, Anderson attempted to rush Mary Powell into service, and she made her first voyage to Rondout on 12 October,[26] but shortly after was replaced by her predecessor and would not run again until the following year.

[27] Mary Powell's initial speed reached only 21.6 miles per hour (34.8 km/h), seeming to prove the skeptics correct,[27] but the following year she was declared by her owner to be a faster boat on the Rondout run by an average of 30 minutes.

[1] On April 12, 1864, Thomas Powell was chartered at the rate of $300 (equivalent to $5,844 in 2023) per day by the United States Quartermaster Department for service in the American Civil War.

"[6] That she retained her original name to the end of her career was considered a tribute to her enduring high reputation;[36] it was also said of her that no steamboat "of her [cylinder] inches" ever matched her speed.