HMS Alert (1856)

Alert in pack ice during the Arctic Expedition of 1876
History
United Kingdom
Name	Alert
Ordered	2 April 1853
Builder	Royal Dockyard, Pembroke
Cost	£36,743[2]
Laid down	January 1855
Launched	20 May 1856[1]
Acquired	1855 by RN, 1884 by USN and 1885 by Canada
Commissioned	21 January 1858[2]
Decommissioned	1894
Out of service	1894
Fate	Loaned to US Navy on 20 February 1884–1885 and Canada 1885–1894; sold in 1894 and broken up
United States
Name	Alert
Acquired	1884
Fate	Loaned by the Admiralty to Canadian Government in May 1885
Canada
Name	CGS Alert
Operator	Marine Service of Canada of the Department of Marine and Fisheries
Fate	Sold in November 1894
General characteristics
Class and type	Cruizer-class sloop
Displacement	1,045 tons[2] (1,240 tons after conversion for Arctic exploration)
Tons burthen	747+51⁄94 bm[2]
Length	160 ft (49 m) (gundeck) 140 ft 1.75 in (42.7165 m) (keel)
Beam	31 ft 10 in (9.70 m)[2]
Depth of hold	17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)[2]
Installed power	Indicated 383 hp (286 kW)
Propulsion	Single screw As built: Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine[2] From 1874: R & W Hawthorn compound-expansion engine
Sail plan	Barque-rigged
Speed	8.8 knots (16.3 km/h; 10.1 mph) under power
Complement	As a Royal Navy sloop: 175[3] For Arctic exploration (1876): 62[4] In Canadian government service: 33 crew + 18 expedition staff[3]
Armament	As built: 1 × 32-pounder (56 cwt) pivot gun 16 × 32-pounder (32 cwt) carriage guns After 1874: 4 × Armstrong breech-loaders

HMS Alert was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1856 and 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 Canadian Marine Service as a lighthouse tender and buoy ship.