The third ALERT an iron-hulled,
screw steamerwas laid down in 1873 at Chester, Pennsylvania,
by John Roach & Son; launched on 18 September 1874; and commissioned
on 27 May 1875, Commander William T. Sampson in command.
The screw steamer spent the first year
of her Navy career attached to the North Atlantic Station. During
the summer, she wore the flag of Rear Admiral C. R. Perry Rodgers,
Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and hosted cadet-midshipmen
on board for practical training in the operation of steam propulsion
equipmentall as a part of the Academy's practice cruise
for 1875. ALERT operated out of ports on the Atlantic
coast during the fall and winter of 1875 and 1876 until departing
New York on 26 May 1876 on the first leg of a voyage to the Asiatic
Station. Proceeding by way of the Mediterranean Sea and the relatively
new Suez Canal, she stopped at Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden before
reaching Hong Kong on 11 September. For almost three years, the
ship cruised the waters around Japan and along the Chinese coast,
showing the flag at such places as Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe,
and Hakodate in Japan, and Hong Kong, Shanghai, Amoy, and Swatow
in China. Unlike modern goodwill visits, her port visits frequently
could be measured in terms of weeks and months rather than days.
When at sea, she charted hydrographic features, investigated
maritime disasters, and performed humanitarian services for the
victims of those disasters.
On 4 January 1879, ALERT departed
Yokohama on her way back to the United States. She arrived at
the Mare Island Navy Yard on 24 February and began a six-month
repair period. On 30 August 1879, the warship set sail from San
Francisco on her way back to the Asiatic Station. The steamer
arrived in Yokohama on 6 October and commenced 32 months of service
in the Far East. In addition to the normal port visits and wreck
investigations, she did survey work in the Bonin Islands during
the spring and summer of 1881. On 11 January 1882, Alert stood
out of Hong Kong and embarked upon a voyage that took her to
a number of places in the Orient that she had not previously
visited. Her itinerary during that cruise included Saigon, Bangkok,
and Singapore in southeast Asia; Batavia (now Djakarta) and Sarawak
in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia); and Labuan Iloilo
and Manila in the Philippines. She returned to Japan via Hong
Kong, and, on 15 April 1882, while steaming from Kobe to Yokohama,
suffered damage as a result of being rammed by the Japanese Emperor's
yacht. On 15 June, the ship left Yokohama again for the United
States. She arrived in San Francisco, Calif. on 18 July, and,
on the 31st, she was placed out of commission at the Mare Island
Navy Yard.
The warship remained inactive at Mare
Island until recommissioned on 8 October 1883 for another tour
of duty on the Asiatic Station. On 23 November, she put to sea
on the long voyage to the Orient. She arrived in Nagasaki, Japan,
on 18 February 1884 and spent the next 20 months operating almost
exclusively in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, calling
frequently at Nagasaki and at Chemulpo (now Inchon), Korea. ALERT
widened her horizons in the fall of 1885 with more frequent visits
to Chinese ports; and, during the early months of 1886, extended
her range still farther to include southeast Asian ports, notably
Bangkok and Singapore. In March, she stopped at Hong Kong and
Canton. On 19 April the warship returned to Japan at Yokohama.
That port and Hakodate served as the foci of her operations until
the first week in August. Alert put to sea from the latter on
5 August 1886, beginning a voyage back to the United States.
She entered San Francisco on 10 September and went out of commission
there on 23 September 1886.
Recommissioned at the Mare Island Navv
Yard on 15 January 1887, for service on the Pacific Station,
the warship departed San Francisco on 23 February and headed
down the coast of Mexico toward Central and South America. She
arrived off the coast of Panamathen still a province of
Colombiaon 7 May. For the next 15 months, ALERT
plied the waters along the west coast of Central and South America
between Panama and Peru keeping a watchful eye on the interests
of the United States in a region of perennial turmoil. On 11
August 1888, she set sail from Callao, Peru, bound for Hawaiithen
still an independent kingdom but heavily influenced by American
residents. ALERT arrived in Honolulu on 15 September and
remained in the islands until the spring of 1889.
The ship's departure from Hawaii came
in response to a maritime disaster at Samoa. Diplomatic relations
strained by efforts to achieve political dominence in Samoa had
brought together in Apia, Samoa, seven warships belonging to
three nations. The naval strength gathered there consisted of
the American ships USS NIPSIC, USS TRENTON, and
USS VANDALIA the Germans SMS ADLER, SMS EBER,
and SMS OLGA; and the lone British man-of-war HMS CALLIOPE.
On 15 March 1889, a hurricane struck Apia trapping the three
American and three German warships in the harbor. Only HMS CALLIOPE
succeeded in escaping to sea early on the 16th. By the morning
of the 16th, the storm increased in ferocity and battered the
six remaining vessels unmercifully. All three German ships sank,
as did TRENTON and VANDALIA. NIPSIC, though severely
damaged, managed to beach and survive the storm.
ALERT
left Honolulu on 18 April and set a course for Samoa to provide
assistance and to escort NIPSIC to a repair facility.
She reached Apia on 3 May and remained there six days. On 9 May,
she stood out of Apia with NIPSIC bound for Auckland,
N.Z., but heavy seas forced the two warships back to Apia. From
there, they moved to Pago Pago, whence they departed on the 31st.
ALERT left NIPSIC at Fanning Island on 14 June
and continued on alone to Honolulu. She returned a month later,
and the two warships put to sea for the last leg of the voyage
to Honolulu where they arrived on 2 August.
The steamer remained in the Hawaiian Islands
until she set sail for the United States on 21 November. She
arrived in San Francisco on 9 December and was decommissioned
at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 6 February 1890.
ALERT
remained there, inactive, until recommissioned on 9 October 1890,
Commander R. D. Hitchcock in command. She served initially on
the Pacific Station, but departed Mare Island on 18 June 1891
for a summer of duty in the Bering Sea discouraging seal poachers
before continuing on to permanent duty on the Asiatic Station.
The warship left Unalaska on 22 August and arrived in Yokohama
on 10 September. She spent the next two years crusing the waters
along the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese coasts and visiting most
of the major ports in the area. As in the past, her primary missions
consisted of keeping an eye American interests and showing the
flag.
In the summer of 1893, orders arrived
sending the ship back to the United States. She departed Yokohama
on 15 August; arrived in San Francisco on 21 September; and,
two days later placed out of commission at the Mare Island Navy
Yard.
On 2 April 1894, Alert was recommissioned,
Commander W. A. Morgan in command. Assigned to the Pacific Station
once again, she returned to the Bering Sea late in May for a
summer of duty suppressing seal poachers. The warship finished
that assignment in mid-September and arrived back at San Francisco
on the 27th. The following day, she moved to the Mare Island
Navy Yard and remained there through the end of the year. On
24 January 1895, ALERT departed Mare Island to take up
duty off the Pacific coasts of Central and South America. Proceeding
via San Diego and Acapulco, she reached San Jose, Guatemala,
on 15 February. The vessel cruised along the Latin American littoral
between Guatemala and Peru for over 16 months keeping watch over
American interests in the region. On 2 June 1896 she departed
La Libertad, Salvador (now El Salvador), to return home. After
stops at several Mexican ports and at San Diego, she reached
San Francisco on 17 July.
The steamer remained in the San Francisco
Bay area almost two months, spending about half that time at
the Mare Island Navy Yard. Between 10 September and 10 October,
she made a round-trip cruise to Port Angeles, Washington. On
18 November, she stood out of San Francisco Bay on her way to
conduct drills and gunnery exercises in the Hawaiian Islands.
The warship arrived in Honolulu on 9 December and remained in
the islands through most of the first three months of 1897. On
22 March of that year, she left Honolulu, set a course for California,
and reentered San Francisco harbor on 4 April. After almost two
months at San Franciscofive weeks of which were spent at
the Mare Island Navy Yardshe embarked upon a voyage to
Sitka, Alaska, and back.
The ship returned to San Francisco on
13 July and commenced a two-month sojourn there. On 18 September,
she headed back down the west coast to Central American waters
and operated off the coast of Guatemala from 4 October to 6 November
before heading back to San Francisco. ALERT arrived there
on 29 November and did not put to sea again until sailing for
Nicaraguan waters on 8 January 1898. She patrolled the Pacific
coast of Nicaragua for almost four months before heading north
once more on 29April. ALERT reached San Francisco on 21
May, moved to the Mare Island Navy Yard on the 23rd, and was
decommissioned there on 4 June 1898.
Following nearly three years of inactivity,
the veteran steamer was recommissioned on 11 May 1901, Commander
Gottfried Blockinger in command and was assigned to the Pacific
Station as a training vessel for apprentice sailors. In that
capacity, she made short cruises along the California coast until
decommissioned again on 10 December 1903. She was berthed in
the Mare Island Navy Yard until transferred on loan to the California Naval Militia sometime early in
1907.
Although returned to the Navy on 27 February
1910, ALERT was not reactivated until amost two years
later. On 25 January 1912, she was placed in commission, in reserve,
Lieutenant Charles E. Smith in command, in connection with her
fitting out for service as a submarine tender. She was placed
in full commission on 1 July 1912, with Lieutenant Smith still
in commnad.
ALERT
tended submarines for the Torpedo Flotilla, Pacific Fleet, until
late in 1917. In executing her new duties, she made short voyages
along the California coast in much the same manner as she had
done while serving as an apprentice training vessel.
The entry of the United States into World
War I necessitated an increase of American naval strength in
the Atlantic. Thus, in December 1917, the ship steamed south
from San Diego, transited the Panama Canal, and proceeded to
Bermuda where she took up duty as base and repair ship.
In April 1918, ALERT returned to
the west coast and resumed duties as a Pacific Fleet Torpedo
Flotilla submarine tender based at San Pedro, California. That
assignment occupied her for the remaining four years of her naval
career. When the Navy odpted the alphanumeric system of hull
designations on 17 July 1920, she was classified AS-4. On 9 March
1922, ALERT was placed out of commission at the Mare Island
Navy Yard. She was sold to A. Bercovich Co., Oakland, California,
on 29 July 1922.