Fowler served in the pilot service for fifty years as a branch pilot and was the oldest pilot in active service in the United States. He joined the pilot service in 1833 on the pilot boat Favorite, under Captain Benjamin Swett, where he stayed for one year. He was captain of John Perkins Cushing's pilot-boat Sylph, where he received a full "branch" pilot commission on March 3, 1835. The license was signed by Governor Levi Lincoln of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts).
