Southampton was laid down at Norfolk, Virginia as a side wheel steamer in October 1841, but her machinery proved to be unsatisfactory and was removed.

Apparently purchased by the United States Government in 1845, the ship was commissioned on 27 May 1845, Lieutenant Henry W. Morris in command.

[citation needed] On 29 November 1846, she rescued the crew of the British merchant ship Almira, which had capsized a week earlier in the Atlantic Ocean.

For the next two years, she supplied the ships which protected the newly won territory of the United States on the west coast.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.