Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

Alert (I)

Sloop of War:

Laid down in 1803 as the collier Oxford, by Champion & Co, England

Purchased for £6805 by the Royal Navy in May 1804, and for £3730 converted to a 20-gun sloop of war, renamed HMS Alert

Captured on August 13, 1812 after a brief battle by USS Essex, CAPT. David Porter USN, in mid-Atlantic west of the Azores being the first British ship to surrender to a fighting ship United States during the War of 1812.

Porter loaded a large number of prisoners taken from merchantmen and the British sailors from Alert and ordered her to carry them to Canada for prisoner exchange, including 200 homesick American sailors who were delivered safely to New York in the early autumn Alert was condemned by the New York Admiralty Court and sold to the United States Navy

Alert was found to be unfit for cruising and was converted to a storeship by the New York Navy Yard were she served untill 1818

In 1818 she was fitted out for duty as a receiving ship, serving in that capacity ended 1829

Final Disposition, broken up in 1829 at the Norfolk Navy Yard

Specifications:
Displacement 393 t.
Length 105 ft
Beam 29 ft
Depth of Hold unknown
Draft 11 ft
Speed unknown
Complement 100

Armament

two 12pdr guns

eighteen 32-pdr carronades

Propulsion sail

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
	286k	USS Essex, CAPT. Porter, engages HMS Alert, CAPT. T.L.P. Laungharne, in a brief engagement in the Atlantic, 13 August 1812. US Naval History and Heritage Command NH 55432	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	235k	USS Essex, captures HMS Alert after a brief engagement in the Atlantic, 13 August 1812. US Naval History and Heritage Command NH 55433	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	277k	USS Essex capturing HMS Alert, 13 August 1812. From "Our Country in War" by Murat Halstead (1898).	Robert Hurst
	28k	<USS *ESSEX* [commanded by David Porter] capturing the British ship *ALERT" Illus. in: Memoir of ... David Porter*, 1875, opp. p. 94	Tommy Trampp
098682701	732k	*Alert* being captured by <USS *ESSEX*. Painting by Jon Bentham-Dinsdale	John Spivey

Alert (I)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

Back To The Navsource Photo Archives Main Page

Back To The Old Navy" Steam and Sail Index

Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster.

This page is created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Michael Junge

Last Updated 5 November 2024