Algerine-class gunboat

HMS Alert in pack ice during the Arctic Expedition of 1876
History
UK
Name	HMS Alert
Ordered	2 April 1853
Builder	Royal Dockyard, Pembroke
Cost	£36,743
Laid down	January 1855
Launched	20 May 1856
Commissioned	21 January 1858
General characteristics
Class and type	Cruizer-class screw sloop
Displacement	1,045 tons (1,240 tons after conversion for Arctic exploration)
Length	160 ft (49 m)
Beam	17.5 ft (5.3 m)
Installed power	Indicated 383 hp (286 kW)
Propulsion	Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw (later replaced with R & W Hawthorn compound-expansion engine)
Sail plan	Barque-rigged
Speed	8.8 kn (16.3 km/h) under power
Complement	175
Armament	As built: One 32-pdr (56cwt) pivot gun Sixteen 32-pdr (32cwt) carriage guns After 1874: Four Armstrong breech-loaders

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Alert.

HMS Alert was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1856 and broken up in 1884. 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°N.

Construction

The wooden sloops of the Cruizer class were designed under the direction of Lord John Hay, and after his "Committee of Reference" was disbanded, their construction was supervised by the new Surveyor of the Navy, Sir Baldwin Walker. Ordered together with her sister-ship Falcon on 2 April 1853, she was laid down at the Royal Dockyard, Pembroke in January 1855. She was fitted at Chatham with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine, which was supplied by Ravenhill & Salkeld at a cost of £6,052, generated an indicated horsepower of 383 hp (286 kW); driving a single screw, this gave a maximum speed of 8.8 knots (16.3 km/h). The class was given a Barque-rig sail plan.

Armament

All the ships of the class were provided with one 32-pounder (56cwt) long gun on a pivot mount and sixteen 32-pounder (32cwt) carriage guns in a broadside arrangement. When converted for Arctic exploration in 1874, her armament was reduced to a token outfit of four Armstrong breech-loaders.

History

From 1857 to 1868 Alert served on the Pacific Station, with a refit in Plymouth in 1862. In 1874 she was converted for Arctic exploration; her engines were replaced with R & W Hawthorn compound-expansion engines, she was reboilered to 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa), she was reduced to four guns and her hull was strengthened with felt-covered iron and teak sheathing. The modifications caused her displacement to increase to 1,240 tons. During the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 Alert reached a latitude of 82°N, and her second-in-command, Commander A H Markham, took a sledge party as far as 83° 20' 26"N, a record at the time. She was used to survey the Strait of Magellan, as well as Canadian and Australian waters, and on 20 February 1884 was loaned to the US Navy to assist in the rescue of the expedition under Adolphus Greely. In 1885 she was transferred again to the Canadian Government for survey in the Hudson Bay area, on completion of which she was employed as a lighthouse supply vessel and buoy tender. Alert, Nunavut, the northernmost permanently inhabited place on earth, is named after her.

Arctic Exploration (1874 - 1876)

George Strong Nares, Albert Hastings Markham, Adam Ayles,

Discovery - wood screw storeship, formerly the civilian Bloodhound, purchased in 1874.

British Arctic Expedition

Nares Strait, Nares Lake, Markham Ice Shelf, Ayles Ice Shelf, Mount Ayles, Alert, Nunavut

"On their return Nares was knighted and Markham was promoted to captain."

Loan to the US Navy (1884)

Adolphus Greely Lady Franklin Bay Expedition

Loan to the Canadian Government

in September of 1880, Great Britain transferred her rights of Arctic sovereignty to Canada

In 1884-5-6, the Marine Department sent a party each year to explore the situation and, by establishing year-round observation posts, to estimate the length of season which ice conditions would permit. These expeditions were placed under the command of Andrew Robertson Gordon, lieutenant of the Royal Navy who had become an officer of the Department and who became Commander of the Fishery Protection Fleet from 1891 until his death in 1893.

Canadian Marine Service of the Department of Marine and Fisheries

"On completion of this service, it was decided that the Alert was just the vessel for the Canadian Government survey of Hudson Bay, and she was therefore sailed to the Dockyard at Halifax from whence, in May 1885, she was transferred from the senior naval officer to the marine agent of the Department."

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

In 1886 he carried Captain Markham, who had commanded Alert during the 1876 Arctic Exploration, and now represented the interests of a a railway company interested in building a line from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay. Captain Markham left the the ship at York Factory, Manitoba and returned by the Hayes River canoe route.

Disposal

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, the total sum being 814 pounds, 2 shillings and 7 pence.

Commanding Officers

From	To	Captain