USS Alert (1861)

History
United States
Name	USS Alert
Ordered	as A. C. Powell
Laid down	Unknown
Launched	in 1861 at Syracuse, New York
Acquired	3 October 1861 at the New York Navy Yard
Commissioned	circa 3 October 1861
Decommissioned	26 May 1865 at the Washington Navy Yard
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Fate	Sold, 5 July 1865 abandoned in 1886
General characteristics
Type	Tugboat / Dispatch boat / Ship's tender / Gunboat
Displacement	90 long tons (91 t)
Length	62 ft (19 m)
Beam	17 ft (5.2 m)
Draft	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Depth of hold	7 ft (2.1 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine screw-propelled
Speed	7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h)
Complement	15
Armament	1 × 24-pounder rifled howitzer

USS Alert was a 90 long tons (91 t) steamship named A. C. Powell purchased by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War.

A. C. Powell – later renamed Alert, and still later renamed Watch – served primarily as a tugboat, but at times she performed duty as a dispatch boat, ship's tender, and even as a gunboat despite the fact that she had on board only a howitzer instead of a cannon or rifle.