Alert, 1829
Vigilantly attentive; watchful.
Rig: Schooner
Displacement: 120 tons
Length: 74' 3"
Beam: 20' 6"
Draft: 7' 9"
Complement: 18
Armament: 2 x 12-pounders (1834); 2 x 12-pounders, 2 x 4-pounders; 2 x 3-pounders (1845)
Cutter History:
No record has been found concerning the origin of Alert. Her dimensions are close to those of the Doughty 1815 plans for a 79-ton vessel. She was first stationed at New York and then removed to Eastport, ME in early 1839. (She had been one of the cutters sent to Charleston, SC during the Nullification Controversy in 1832-1833). In 1852 an extravagant repair estimate (over $9,000) led to her sale in Boston, MA around April 1853.
Sources:
Cutter History File, USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ.
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).