Alert, 1901
Vigilantly attentive; watchful.
Length: 62' 6" oa
Beam: 12'
Draft: 4' 6"
Powerplant: Triple-expansion engine
Displacement: 19 tons
Cutter History:
The wooden-hulled steam launch originally named Lucy T., was built in 1896 at Middletown, Connecticut--was acquired by the United States Revenue Cutter Service in November 1900. After refitting at the James Reilly Repair and Supply Co., the craft, renamed Alert by 7 January 1901, arrived at New Orleans on 14 June 1901. Three days later, she headed for Mobile, Alabama, where she arrived on the 20th. The launch operated out of Mobile during the next four years before spending three months on quarantine duties out of Gulfport, Mississippi (12 August to 23 October 1905). Soon thereafter, she resumed her regular duties out of Mobile. She was taken out of service in 1907 and listed as "repaired." She was, in fact, replaced by a newly constructed vessel that was given the same name.
Sources:
Cutter History File, USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. I, Part A, p. 167.
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).