HMS Alert, 1856-1896
Alert was a Royal Navy sloop propelled by both screw and sail.1 It is unclear as to who commanded Alert during its time in the Pacific. This private correspondence mentions a commander Priser, but Davis refers to a Commander William Alfred Rumbulow Pearse.2
Alert was converted into a survey ship for the British arctic exploration of 1875-76, and it was later used by both the United States and Canada in its capacity as an arctic vessel.3
It was 49 m long, 10 m wide and built at Pembroke Dock.
4
  • 1. Peter Davis, HMS Alert (1856), The Victorian Royal Navy (website). http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=139
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Ibid.
  • 4. J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy (Devon: David & Charles: Newton Abbot, 1969), 1:34.
Mentions of this vessel in the documents