View source for HMS Alert (1856)

{{short description|19th-century British Royal Navy sloop}}
{{other ships|HMS Alert}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=HMS Alert.jpg
|Ship caption=''Alert'' in pack ice during the Arctic Expedition of 1876
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship name=''Alert''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship ordered=2 April 1853
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=[[Royal Navy Dockyard|Royal Dockyard]], [[Pembroke Dock|Pembroke]]
|Ship original cost=£36,743<ref name=RW/>
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=January 1855
|Ship launched=20 May 1856<ref name=PB>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/A/00175.html|title=HMS ''Alert'' at Naval Database website|access-date=2008-11-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525132313/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/A/00175.html|archive-date=25 May 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=1855 by RN, 1884 by USN and 1885 by Canada
|Ship commissioned=21 January 1858<ref name=RW/>
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=1894
|Ship maiden voyage=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=1894
|Ship renamed=
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|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=
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|Ship honors=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=Loaned to [[US Navy]] on 20 February 1884–1885 and Canada 1885–1894; sold in 1894 and broken up
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1877}}
|Ship name=''Alert''
|Ship acquired=1884
|Ship fate=Loaned by the Admiralty to Canadian Government in May 1885
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country=Canada
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|1868}}
|Ship name=CGS ''Alert''
|Ship operator= [[Fisheries and Oceans Canada#Marine Service of Canada|Marine Service of Canada]] of the [[Fisheries and Oceans Canada|Department of Marine and Fisheries]]
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship fate=Sold in November 1894
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass|Cruizer|sloop|0}} [[Sloop-of-war|sloop]]
|Ship displacement=1,045 tons<ref name=RW/> (1,240 tons after conversion for Arctic exploration)
|Ship tons burthen={{frac|747|51|94}} [[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]]<ref name=RW/>
|Ship length=*{{convert|160|ft|m|abbr=on}} (gundeck)
*{{convert|140|ft|1.75|in|m|abbr=on}} (keel)
|Ship beam={{convert|31|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}}<ref name=RW/>
|Ship hold depth={{convert|17|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}<ref name=RW>Winfield (2004) pp.213–215</ref>
|Ship power=Indicated {{convert|383|hp|kW|abbr=on}}
|Ship propulsion=*Single screw
*''As built:''
*Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine<ref name=RW/>
*''From 1874:''
*[[R and W Hawthorn|R & W Hawthorn]] [[Compound steam engine|compound-expansion engine]]
|Ship sail plan=[[Barque]]-rigged
|Ship speed={{convert|8.8|kn|lk=in}} under power
|Ship range=
|Ship complement=*''As a Royal Navy sloop:''
*175<ref name=CCG/>
*''For Arctic exploration (1876):''
*62<ref>''Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia'', by William James Mills, ABC-CLIO, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1-57607-422-0}}</ref>
*''In Canadian government service:''
*33 crew + 18 expedition staff<ref name=CCG/>
|Ship sensors=
|Ship armament=
*''As built:''
*1 × 32-pounder (56 cwt) pivot gun
*16 × 32-pounder (32 cwt) carriage guns
*''After 1874:''
*4 × Armstrong breech-loaders
|Ship armor=
|Ship aircraft=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''HMS ''Alert''''' was a 17-gun wooden [[screw sloop]] of the {{sclass|Cruizer|sloop|4}} of the [[Royal Navy]], [[Ceremonial ship launching|launched]] in 1856 and [[Ship breaking|broken up]] in 1894. She was the eleventh ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name (or a variant of it), and was noted for her Arctic exploration work; in 1876 she reached a record latitude of 82° North. ''Alert'' briefly served with the [[US Navy]], and ended her career with the [[Fisheries and Oceans Canada#Marine Service of Canada|Canadian Marine Service]] as a lighthouse tender and buoy ship.

==Construction==
The wooden sloops of the ''Cruizer'' class were designed under the direction of [[Lord John Hay (Royal Navy rear-admiral)|Lord John Hay]], and after his "Committee of Reference" was disbanded, their construction was supervised by the new [[Surveyor of the Navy]], [[Baldwin Walker|Sir Baldwin Walker]]. Ordered together with her co-ship {{HMS|Falcon|1854|2}} on 2 April 1853,<ref name=RW/> ''Alert'' was [[Keel laying|laid down]] at the Royal Dockyard, [[Pembroke Dock|Pembroke]] in January 1855. It was fitted at Chatham<ref name=CCG/> with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion [[Marine steam engine|steam engine]], which was supplied by Ravenhill & Salkeld at a cost of £6,052 and generated an [[indicated horsepower]] of {{convert|383|hp|kW|abbr=on}}; driving a single [[Propeller|screw]], this gave a maximum speed of {{convert|8.8|kn|km/h|lk=in}}. The class was given a [[barque]]-rig sail plan.

==Armament==
All the ships of the class were provided with one [[32-pounder gun|32-pounder]] (56 cwt) long heavy gun on a pivot mount and sixteen 32-pounder (32 cwt) carriage guns in a broadside arrangement.<ref name=RW/> When she was converted for Arctic exploration in 1874, her armament was reduced to a token outfit of four [[Armstrong gun|Armstrong breech-loaders]].<ref name=WL/>

==History==
{{anchor|Pacific Station}}

===Pacific Station (1857–1868)===
''Alert'' spent the first 11 years of her life on the [[Pacific Station]], based at [[Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard|Esquimalt]] at the southern tip of [[Vancouver Island]], Canada. [[Alert Bay, British Columbia]] is named after the ship, and nearby [[Pearse Island]], at the north entrance to [[Johnstone Strait]], is named after Commander William Alfred Rumbulow Pearse, her commanding officer.<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Walbran|year=1909|title=British Columbia Coast Names, 1592–1906: their origin and history|location=Ottawa}}</ref> During this period it returned to [[Plymouth]] between October 1861 and May 1863 for a refit. Her service on the Pacific station was the type of work for which her class had been designed—the policing of Britain's far-flung maritime empire.

A photograph exists of ''Alert'' at [[Esquimalt]], [[British Columbia]] from 1867, and it is further attested to by the following extract from ''The Colonist'' newspaper:

{{blockquote|"The 'Alert' Taken! – On Wednesday, H.M.S. Alert was taken without resistance on the part of her officers and crew, who are believed to have lent themselves to the plot. The ship was lying at anchor in Esquimalt harbour when the affair occurred, and the time chosen by the enemy was noon-day. The captor was Mr. Robinson the Photographer, and the only weapons he used in effecting his object were a Camera, and a bit of glass."|''The Colonist'', 5 July 1866<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crunchers.bc.ca/robinson/qc_coal_1.html|title=George Robinson, Vancouver Island Pioneer|access-date=2008-11-20}}</ref>}}

''Alert'' [[paid off]] at Plymouth on 30 May 1868 and was placed in the Steam Reserve.

{{anchor|Arctic exploration}}

=== Arctic exploration (1874–1876) ===
[[File:HMS Alert (1856) pushed aground by ice.jpg|thumb|left|HMS ''Alert'' pushed aground by ice, Radmore Harbour, 1875–1876 (''[[Illustrated London News]]'', 1876)]] [[File:Orthographic projection centred over Alert Nunavut.png|thumb|left|An orthographic projection showing the location of [[Alert, Nunavut]]]]
In 1874, ''Alert'' was taken in hand for conversion to the role of Arctic exploration. Her single-expansion engine was replaced with an [[R and W Hawthorn|R & W Hawthorn]] [[Compound steam engine|compound-expansion engine]], it was re-boilered to {{convert|60|psi}}, her armament was reduced to four guns and her hull was strengthened with felt-covered iron. Above the waterline it was sheathed with teak, and below it, Canadian elm and pitch-pine. The modifications caused her displacement to increase to 1,240 tons.<ref name=WL/>

The [[British Arctic Expedition]] was commanded by Captain [[George Strong Nares]], and comprised ''Alert'' (Captain Nares) and {{HMS|Discovery|1874|2}} (Captain [[Henry Frederick Stephenson]]). The expedition aimed to reach the [[North Pole]] via [[Smith Sound]], the sea passage between [[Greenland]] and Canada's northernmost island, [[Ellesmere Island]]. Contemporary geographers proposed that there could be an [[Open Polar Sea]], and that if the thick layer of ice surrounding it were overcome, access to the North Pole by sea might be possible. Ever since [[Edward Augustus Inglefield]] had penetrated Smith Sound in 1852, it had been a likely route to the North.

Despite finding heavier-than-expected ice, the expedition pressed on.<ref name="cc">{{cite web|url=http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/discovery.htm|title=1875–76 Arctic Expedition at Richard Cavill's website|access-date=2008-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722135433/http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/discovery.htm|archive-date=22 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Leaving ''Discovery'' to winter at [[Lady Franklin Bay]], ''Alert'' pressed on a further {{convert|50|nmi}} through the [[Robeson Channel]], establishing her winter quarters at Floeberg Beach.<ref name=cc/> Spring 1876 saw considerable activity by sledge, charting the coasts of Ellesmere Island and Greenland, but [[scurvy]] had begun to take hold, with ''Alert'' suffering the greatest burden.<ref name=cc/> On 3 April the second-in-command of ''Alert'', [[Albert Hastings Markham]], took a party north to attempt the Pole. By 11 May, having made slow progress, they reached their greatest latitude at 83° 20' 26"N.<ref name=NMM>{{cite web|url=http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/archive/catalogue/record.cfm?ID=MRK|title=Biography of Albert Markham at the National Maritime Museum|access-date=2008-11-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609001603/http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/archive/catalogue/record.cfm?ID=MRK|archive-date=9 June 2011|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Suffering from snow blindness, scurvy and exhaustion, they turned back.

The expedition was rewarded on its return; Nares was knighted, Markham was promoted to captain.<ref name=CCG>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/USQUE_Alert|title=HMS ''Alert'' at the Canadian Coastguard website|access-date=2008-11-16}}</ref> The geography of northern Canada and [[Greenland]] is dotted with the names of those connected with the expedition: [[Nares Strait]], [[Nares Lake]], [[Markham Ice Shelf]], [[Ayles Ice Shelf]], and [[Mount Ayles]]. The northernmost permanently inhabited place on earth, the settlement of [[Alert, Nunavut|Alert]] at the northern point of Ellesmere Island, was named for the ship.

{{anchor|Survey}}

=== Survey (1876–1884) ===
''Alert'' recommissioned at Chatham on 20 August 1878<ref name=WL/> under the command of Captain Sir George Strong Nares for a survey of the [[Strait of Magellan]]. On 12 March 1879 [[John Maclear|Captain John Maclear]] took command,<ref name=WL/> and under him she went to [[Australia Station]] and the Pacific. She was employed in surveying, but the presence of Doctor [[Richard William Coppinger|Richard Coppinger]], her surgeon, ensured that she also made a huge contribution to the field of zoology. Coppinger, who had also served in the Arctic expedition, was an accomplished naturalist<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/c/CoppingerRW.htm|title=Biography of Dr Richard William Coppinger at the National Herbarium Nederland (English Language)|access-date=2008-11-26}}</ref> and his collections from the period 1878–1882, which included indigenous cultural artifacts purloined, as he admitted, from [[Mutumui]] sites on [[Clack Island]],<ref>[[Peter Sutton (anthropologist)|Peter Sutton]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=lAV1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 'The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history,'] Jean-Christophe Verstraete, DSisane Hafrner (eds.), ''Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country,'' = [[John Benjamins Publishing Company]] 2016 p.90</ref> added 1,300 species to the National Collection.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cruise of the "Alert"|author=Coppinger, Richard William|year=1899|edition=3rd|place=London|publisher=Swan Sonneschein & Co|url=https://archive.org/details/cruiseofalertfou00copprich}}</ref><ref>From the preface to the ''Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of HMS ''Alert, 1881-2, published by the British Museum, 1884</ref> ''Alert'' paid off at [[Sheerness]] on 20 September 1882.<ref name=WL/>

{{anchor|Loan to the US Navy}}

=== Loan to the US Navy (1884) ===
[[Adolphus Greely]] led the [[Lady Franklin Bay Expedition]] to the Arctic in 1881. Two supply ships failed to reach his party, and a relief expedition in 1883 also failed to extract the team. The [[US Navy]] put together a further relief expedition in 1884 under Captain W. S. Schley, and ''Alert'' was offered. She was loaned to the US Navy under the command of Captain George W Coffin on 20 February 1884, and was used to set up supply dumps to support {{USS|Bear|1874|6}} in the extrication of Greely and his men.<ref name=CCG/>

Two members of Greely's expedition, Lieutenant [[James B. Lockwood]] and Sergeant [[David Legge Brainard]] had achieved a new record of 83° 30'N,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.palhbooks.com/arctic.html|title=The Arctic Saga of David Legg Brainard at Pahlbooks.com|access-date=2008-11-26|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119080303/http://www.palhbooks.com/arctic.html|archive-date=19 November 2008|df=dmy-all}}</ref> just {{convert|4|mi|km}} closer to the Pole than Markham had achieved in 1876. Lockwood and 19 other members of the expedition died; Greely, Brainard and four others survived.

=== Loan to the Canadian Government ===
In September 1880, the United Kingdom transferred its rights of Arctic sovereignty to Canada. From 1884 to 1886 the Canadian Marine Service of the [[Department of Marine and Fisheries (Canada)|Department of Marine and Fisheries]] sent an expedition to [[Hudson Bay]] to establish observation posts and to estimate the length of season for ice-free navigation. A former lieutenant of the Royal Navy, Andrew Robertson Gordon, was placed in command, and a suitable ship was sought. Having finished her work with the US Navy, ''Alert'' seemed the ideal vessel for the task. She was sailed to the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax]] and transferred by the senior naval officer to the marine agent of the Department of Marine and Fisheries.<ref name=CCG/>

{{blockquote|"The ''Alert'' was a screw steamship, barque rigged, of about 700 tons gross . . . constructed as to be capable of resisting great ice pressure, and her engines being only 50 nominal horsepower, the screw is small . . . so that in every way she was well adapted for the work of the expedition."|Andrew Robertson Gordon<ref name=CCG/>}}
[[File:CGS Alert.jpg|thumb|right|''Alert'' as a lighthouse supply ship in 1893]]

In 1886 she carried Captain Markham, who had been second-in-command of ''Alert'' during the 1876 Arctic Exploration, and now represented the interests of a railway company interested in building a line from [[Winnipeg]] to [[Hudson Bay]]. Captain Markham left the ship at [[York Factory, Manitoba]] and returned by the [[Hayes River]] canoe route.<ref name=CCG2>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/USQUE_Hudson_Bay|title=The Arctic and Hudson Bay at the Canadian Coastguard website|access-date=2008-11-18}}</ref>

After the last Hudson Bay expedition in 1886, ''Alert'' was reconfigured as a light-house supply vessel and buoy tender. Her [[Mast (sailing)|topmasts]] and [[Yard (sailing)|yards]] were removed, and a [[Bridge (nautical)|wheelhouse]] was built abaft the remains of the main mast. She worked at first in [[Nova Scotia]], but as her wooden hull showed signs of deterioration, she was moved to the [[Gulf of Saint Lawrence]], sailing out of [[Quebec]].<ref name=CCG/> Thirty years after her launch little was left of her original appearance; in essence she was now a small, old, low-powered steamer showing the scars of hard labour and many an ungainly conversion. Nevertheless, she continued to give useful service until the last decade of the nineteenth century.

== Disposal and remains ==
[[File:Roue de barre et Figure de proue du navire l'Alert.jpg|thumb|''Alert'''s figurehead and wheel exhibited at [[Musée de la civilisation]], [[Quebec City]]]]
CGS ''Alert'' was laid up in November 1894 and sold, the bill of exchange being forwarded to the Admiralty, since she was still officially on loan,<ref name=WL>{{cite web|url=http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=139|title=HMS ''Alert'' at William Loney website|access-date=2008-11-16}}</ref> the total sum being 814 pounds, 2 shillings and 7 pence.<ref name=CCG/> The ship was probably broken up at an undisclosed location.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/USQUE_Alert |title=USQUE AD MARE – The Alert – Canadian Coast Guard |publisher=Ccg-gcc.gc.ca |date=2011-10-05 |access-date=2012-09-26}}</ref>

The [[Figurehead (object)|figurehead]], [[Ship's wheel|wheel]] and other remains are part of the [[Musée de la civilisation]]'s collections in [[Quebec City]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=civilisation |first1=Musée de la |title=L'Alert |url=https://collections.mcq.org/carnets/lalert |website=Collections - Musée de la civilisation |access-date=1 July 2020 |language=fr}}.</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[CFS Alert]], a Canadian military [[listening post]], [[Alert, Nunavut]] the world's northernmost continuously inhabited settlement, and [[Alert Bay, British Columbia]], are named after the ship.{{sfn|Winfield|Lyon|2004|p=434}}

== See also ==
* [[European and American voyages of scientific exploration]]

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{winfield}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|2=HMS Alert}}
* {{OL subject|alert_(sloop_:_1856-1895)|HMS ''Alert'' (1856)}}

{{Polar exploration}}
{{Royal Navy Arctic exploration}}
{{Cruizer class sloop}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alert (1856)}}
[[Category:1856 ships]]
[[Category:Arctic exploration vessels]]
[[Category:Cruizer-class sloops]]
[[Category:Ships built in Pembroke Dock]]
[[Category:Survey vessels of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom]]