The Weasel was built at Baltimore and was initially intended to serve as a merchant vessel that would operate the area of Chesapeake Bay.

[1] However, the build of her keel favored the strategic approach of the West Indies Squadron, which became notorious for using smaller vessels to pursue escaping pirates into shallow waters, so it was acquired by the Navy in 1822 and outfitted for military use.

Porter to assigned it to the Mona Passage along the brigantine USS Spark following orders from United States Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard as the area had become the operation center of Roberto Cofresí and other pirates.

[1] Returning to the West Indies in 1824, captain Charles Boarman was commanded to monitor the western waters of Puerto Rico as part of an international force.

[3] There, the Weasel located a sloop commanded by Cofresí off Culebra, but it fled to Vieques and ran inland into dense vegetation;[3] Boarman could only recover the abandoned vessel.