 Eight guns were installed, while her bows were heavily plated with iron.An ice-house and other fittings were also added to her at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.Between July 1861 and November 1862 "Rhode Island" made nine voyages, operating between either New York or Philadelphia and the Gulf of Mexico, carrying supplies of food, guns, powder and ammunition to ships on blockade, and transporting officers to their ships, and prisoners or sick or injured men to shore.