Alert (ii), 1804
Type: Hired armed cutter ; Armament 6 x 12 pdr carronades
Hired : 9 Apr 1804 ; Hired terminated : 30 Dec 1804
Notes:

1 Dec 1804 the Hampshire Telegraph reports that the Romney was lost last Monday, the 19th, having got underweigh from North Yarmouth, with the Adamant, en route to relieve the Princess of Orange and the Raisonable, and join the North Sea Squadron. In the rough weather that they met after leaving Yarmouth, they separated, and initial reports suggest that the weather was also thick and blowing with rain, producing bad visibility, and the Romney confused some merchant vessels wrecked on the Haak Sands for a part of the North Sea Fleet, but also ended up on the Haak Sands where they would appear to have remained until the ship started breaking up and they departed the wreck on rafts and the 300 men were rescued and taken prisoner by the Dutch, who had sent out 5 launches in awful conditions to save them. It would appear that no one realised that the Romney had gone down until the Alert cutter joined the North Sea Fleet with Master's Mate, Mr W S Haydon, and 13 men that they had rescued from their raft on the 23rd Nov.