She measured 778 GRT and 457 NRT and was powered by a 2-cylinder oscillating side-lever steam engine of 350 nhp, also made by Caird, driving two side paddle wheels.

[1][3] On completion she conducted sea trials on 18 September 1862 and sailed from Greenock five days later for Kingstown, Dublin to commence her regular service with Glasgow.

[3][4] During the American Civil War, a growing shortage of supplies for the manufacture of uniforms for North Carolina troops in 1862 prompted incoming governor Zebulon B. Vance to propose that the state purchase its own blockade runner.

[5] With the assistance of British businessman Alexander Collie, Lord Clyde was purchased by the state of North Carolina and on 28 June 1863 she successfully ran the Union blockade into Wilmington.

[6][note 1] Three months later, a half share in Advance was sold to the firm of Power, Low & Co. in order to raise funds towards purchasing additional ships.

[5] She successfully passed through the blockade between the Cape Fear River and Nassau or Bermuda some seventeen times between June 1863 and September 1864, under the command of Lt. John J. Guthrie, CSN.

Tom Crossan when captured by USS Santiago de Cuba on 10 September 1864 when she attempted to put to sea from Wilmington, North Carolina.

Vance attributed her capture to use of low grade North Carolina bituminous coal and denounced Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory for giving the stockpile of smokeless anthracite to CSS Tallahassee (a raiding cruiser) so that none was left for Advance to run out of Wilmington safely.

In addition to her reversed role—catching blockade runners as opposed to being one—she participated in the two expeditions against Fort Fisher, located on Confederate (Federal) Point at the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

The first – abortive—attempt was carried out between 24 and 26 December 1864 after a bizarre attempt to flatten some of the defenses by running what amounted to a fire-ship stocked with some 30 tons of gunpowder aground at a point some 250 to 300 yards north of the fort.

Advance, in one of the reserve divisions, helped support the landing of the Army guns and supplies while the bulk of the fleet continued to batter the Fort Fisher defenses.

On 22 April, almost a fortnight after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, Advance was renamed USS Frolic, the second U.S. Navy ship of that name.

On 24 June 1865, Frolic departed the east coast to join the newly formed European Squadron and arrived at Flushing in the Netherlands on 17 July.

While at Montevideo on 20 April 1877, Second Class Fireman James M. Trout attempted to rescue a shipmate from drowning, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.