[1] Alert was 135 ft (41.1 m) long, exclusive of the extension of the main deck over the stern, called the "fantail" on which the stern-wheel was mounted.

[1] The initial officers of Alert were James Strang, master; Edward Fellows, engineer; H. H. Johnson, purser; Jerry Driscoll, mate.

[1] As of March 1866, Alert was operating on a daily run (Sundays excepted) from Portland to Oregon City, departing from Vaughn's wharf at 7:00 a.m. under Capt.

[5] At Oregon City, the route connected with the steamer Active, which, under John T. Apperson, master, departed Mondays and Thursdays for Salem, Albany, Corvallis and downriver waypoints.

[5] At that time, Alert and Active were both owned by the Willamette Steam Navigation Company, of which D. W. Burnside was president.

[1] Another, contemporaneous, source, states that Captain Kellogg was in charge of Alert on the Portland to Oregon City run as of December 1, 1866.

[6] In late September 1869, Alert used a bell to sound its arrival, in a dense fog, at the dock in Oregon City.

[9] On the Saturday morning before December 4, 1869, a steward on Alert, a young man named Foote, committed suicide by jumping overboard and drowning.

[10] Foote entered the ladies cabin, and as he went out, spoke to some women, telling them goodbye, and then immediately went to the stern of the boat and jumped over.

[16] The new Alert was reported to be in operation on Tuesday, August 22, 1871, carrying as cargo a large boiler from a repair shop in Portland to the woolen mills in Oregon City.