Editing HMS Alert (1856) (section)

=== Survey (1876–1884) ===
''Alert'' recommissioned at Chatham on 20 August 1878<ref name=WL/> under the command of Captain Sir George Strong Nares for a survey of the [[Strait of Magellan]]. On 12 March 1879 [[John Maclear|Captain John Maclear]] took command,<ref name=WL/> and under him she went to [[Australia Station]] and the Pacific. She was employed in surveying, but the presence of Doctor [[Richard William Coppinger|Richard Coppinger]], her surgeon, ensured that she also made a huge contribution to the field of zoology. Coppinger, who had also served in the Arctic expedition, was an accomplished naturalist<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/c/CoppingerRW.htm|title=Biography of Dr Richard William Coppinger at the National Herbarium Nederland (English Language)|access-date=2008-11-26}}</ref> and his collections from the period 1878–1882, which included indigenous cultural artifacts purloined, as he admitted, from [[Mutumui]] sites on [[Clack Island]],<ref>[[Peter Sutton (anthropologist)|Peter Sutton]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=lAV1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 'The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history,'] Jean-Christophe Verstraete, DSisane Hafrner (eds.), ''Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country,'' = [[John Benjamins Publishing Company]] 2016 p.90</ref> added 1,300 species to the National Collection.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cruise of the "Alert"|author=Coppinger, Richard William|year=1899|edition=3rd|place=London|publisher=Swan Sonneschein & Co|url=https://archive.org/details/cruiseofalertfou00copprich}}</ref><ref>From the preface to the ''Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of HMS ''Alert, 1881-2, published by the British Museum, 1884</ref> ''Alert'' paid off at [[Sheerness]] on 20 September 1882.<ref name=WL/>

{{anchor|Loan to the US Navy}}