USS Alert (1861)
Image caption (Link to large image) | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 3 October 1861 |
| Fate: | Abandoned, 1886 |
| Decommissioned: | 26 May 1865 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 90 tons |
| Length: | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Beam: | 17 ft (5 m) |
| Draft: | 6.5 ft (2 m) |
| Speed: | 7 knots (13 km/h) |
| Complement: | 15 |
| Armament: | 1 24-pounder howitzer |
The second USS Alert was a screw tug purchased by the United States Navy under the name USS A. C. Powell on 3 October 1861 to fight in the American Civil War.
North Atlantic blockade
On 30 June 1862, Powell was attached to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, maintaining Union naval control of the James River in Virginia. While serving on the James, Powell was renamed Alert. Because Alert was under repair at Newport News, Virginia in September of 1862, the ship was not able to return to the Potomac River in time to support Union troops in the Battle of Antietam and Alert remained on the James for most of the war.
Alert also ran messenges to North Carolina and often served as a tender to USS Philadelphia, the flagship of Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee.
In April of 1863, Alert moved onto the Nansemond River, a tributary of the James, to provide support to the United States Army in fighting off Confederate troops foraging in the area. Alert was damaged by shore batteries on 13 April and the ship was forced to return to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for repairs, returning to action on 16 April. Confederate troops eventually withdrew from the region.
A fire sunk Alert at Norfolk on 31 August 1863, though the ship was raised and returned to duty within two months.
Experimental work
Early in 1864, experimental work was begun attempting to fit Alert with naval mines, then called "torpedoes", attempting to turn Alert into a minelayer. This experiment was not successful, and the tug was soon refitted with its original armament.
USS Watch
On 2 February 1865, Alert was again renamed, this time as USS Watch. As Watch, the tug was a member of the escort which brought Abraham Lincoln to Richmond, Virginia. Watch also assisted in cutting off escape over the Potomac for John Wilkes Booth after he shot Lincoln.
Watch was decommissioned on 26 May 1865. Following this, the tug returned to civilian service, purchased at auction to serve as a merchant tug. She was abandoned in 1886.
See USS Alert for other Navy ships of the same name.
See also list of screw tugs of the United States Navy.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.