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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 57292:  USS Alarm at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1876

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Alarm (1874-1898)

USS Alarm, an 800-ton experimental steam torpedo vessel, was built at the New York Navy Yard. She was commissioned in 1874 and served as a test ship for the Bureau of Ordnance at the Washington Navy Yard during most of the rest of the 1870s, with a year away on torpedo duty at Newport, Rhode Island, in about 1877. Alarm was generally stationed at the New York Navy Yard during the first half of the 1880s and was laid up there in 1885. She reportedly was under conversion to a gunnery training ship during the early 1890s, but appears to have no active service in that role. Stricken from the Navy list in 1897, USS Alarm was sold in February 1898.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Alarm (1874-1898).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 19-N-25-3-34

USS Alarm
(1874-1898)

Halftone reproduction of a retouched photograph, showing the ship in drydock at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1874.
Note her very long ram bow.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 470 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 57293

USS Alarm
(1874-1898)

In drydock at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1874.
Note her "Fowler Wheel" propeller and hull plating pattern.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 57292

USS Alarm
(1874-1898)

Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken while she was alongside at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, circa 1876.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 86613

Washington Navy Yard, D.C.


View from off the Yard's waterfront, looking northward, circa 1874-76, with USS Alarm in the center and the receiving ship Relief at left.
The western shiphouse is in the left distance. Also note the sheer crane and boathouse in the right part of the view.
Photo mounted on a stereograph card. It was produced by J.F. Jarvis, 135 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.

Courtesy of Robert A. Truax, 1978, and James Dolph, 1990.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 122KB; 630 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 86613-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 57KB; 675 x 350 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 57295

USS Alarm
(1874-1898)

Laid up at the New York Navy Yard in 1896.
Note that she had received a "flying" upper deck by this time.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 515 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 57294

USS Alarm
(1874-1898)

Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken while she was laid up at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1896.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 75KB; 400 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95129

"Illustrations of Torpedo Warfare"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 14 July 1877, depicting (from top to bottom):
"1. American Torpedo Vessel Alarm", with her torpedo projecting equipment deployed;
"2. Outrigged Torpedo Pinnace attacking an Iron-clad";
"3. A Launch laying down Submarine Mines to protect Entrance to Harbor";
"4. Electrical Pinnace with Counter-Mines"; and
"5. Whitehead Torpedo".
This engraving accompanied an article entitled "Torpedo Warfare", which is reproduced in Photo # NH 95129 (extended caption).

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 141KB; 515 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95130

"The Yorktown Centennial--The Military and Naval Reviews"


Line engraving, after sketches by J.O. Davidson, published in "Harper's Weekly", 29 October 1881, showing ceremonies commemorating the 100th anniversary of the British army's surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. The military review, shown in the upper engraving, took place on 20 October, with the Naval review (lower scene) on the following day.
In the Naval review engraving, USS Alarm is apparently the vessel in the left center foreground. USS Tennessee is in the center, with her yards and boat booms manned, and her guns saluting the British flag. The small civilian steamer Lookout is in the right foreground.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 166KB; 740 x 550 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 74553

John Ericsson's "torpedo" boat Destroyer
- left -,
and
USS Alarm (1874-1898)

Drawing by Fred S. Cozzens, 1892, published in "Our Navy -- Its Growth and Achievements", 1897, depicting the ships at sea.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 450 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 74552-KN (color)

USS Philadelphia (Cruiser # 4), center

Playing her searchlights on USS Alarm, at left, and USS Vesuvius, at right.
Watercolor by Fred S. Cozzens, 1892, published as a chromolithograph in "Our Navy -- Its Growth and Achievements", 1897.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 490 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 2 May 2002