Following duty in European waters on board USS Pensacola from 1885 to 1889, Alger returned to the Bureau of Ordnance.

On November 10, 1890, he resigned his commission as a line officer ensign to accept an appointment as a professor of mathematics with an equivalent rank of lieutenant.

Alger's extensive writing on ordnance included two books, Exterior Ballistics (1904) and The Elastic Strength of Guns (1906), which came to be regarded as standards in their fields.

His work entitled Hydromechanics (1902) was used as a textbook at the Naval Academy and other institutions of higher learning.

[4] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.