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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Alert (SP 511)


Motor Boat: Built in 1913 by George Lawley and Sons, Neponset, MA; Acquired by the Navy 12 May 1917; Commissioned Alert (SP 511), 31 May 1917; Renamed SP-511 in April 1918; Decommissioned 25 November 1918; Returned to her owner, DeWitt T. Cuyler, Phiadelphia, PA, 30 November 1918. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 39 t.; Length 75'; Beam 12'; Draft 3' 9"; Speed 15.6 kts.; Complement 11; Armament one 1-pounder.


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SizeImage Description Source
Alert 121k Photographed prior to World War I by Edwin Levick, New York City.
US Navy Photo NH 100105
Naval Historical Center
Alert 74k Lockwood's Basin, Boston, Massachusetts. View of the basin with a seaplane from Chatham flying overhead, circa 1918.
Taken by Alton M. Blackinton, Boston.
USS Moosehead (ID 2047) is at the right, with several patrol vessels nearby. USS Elsie III (SP-708) is in the left foreground, with USS SP-511 (ex-Alert) beyond her.
US Navy Photo NH 42146
Naval Historical Center

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: The motorboat Alert built in Neponset, Mass., by George Lawley and Sons, in 1913—was acquired by the Navy under free-lease on 12 May 1917 from DeWitt T. Cuyler, of Philadelphia Pa., for use as a section patrol boat. Designated SP-511, Alert was commissioned on 31 May 1917.

Assigned to the 1st Naval District, Alert performed local patrol duty at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard and in the Boston area for the remainder of World War I. Decommissioned at Lawley's shipyard on 25 November 1918, two weeks after the signing of the armistice, the boat was returned to her owner on 30
November 1918.


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