visits and wreck investigations, she did survey work in the Bonin Islands during the spring and summer of 1881. On 11 January 1882, Alert stood out of Hong Kong and embarked upon a voyage that took her to a number of places in the Orient that she had not previously visited. Her itinerary during that cruise included Saigon, Bangkok, and Singapore in southeast Asia; Batavia (now Djakarta) and Sarawak in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia); and Labuan, Iloilo and Manila in the Philippines. Collision with Japanese Emperor's yacht She returned to Japan via Hong Kong, and, on 15 April 1882, while steaming from Kobe to Yokohama, suffered damage as a result of being rammed by the , a side-paddle steamer which served as the Imperial yacht for Emperor Meiji. Although the night was clear and both vessels had their running lights in sight of each other for an hour, Jingei inexplicably turned hard to starboard just as the vessels passed each other, gashing a large hole in the side of the Alert. Jingei suffered only minor damage, but Alert took two months to complete repairs. On 15 June, the ship left Yokohama again for the United States. She arrived in San Francisco on 18 July, and on the 31st she was placed out of commission at Mare Island. Asiatic station, 1883-86 The warship remained inactive at Mare Island until recommissioned on 8 October 1883 for another tour of duty on the Asiatic Station. On 23 November, she put to sea on the long voyage to the Orient. She arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, on 18 February 1884 and spent the next 20 months operating almost exclusively in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, calling frequently at Nagasaki and at Chemulpo (now Inchon), Korea. Alert widened her horizons in the fall of 1885 with more frequent visits to Chinese ports; and, during the early months of 1886, extended her range still farther to include southeast Asian ports, notably Bangkok and Singapore. In March 1886, she stopped at Hong Kong and Canton. On 19 April, the warship returned to Japan at Yokohama. That port and Hakodate served as the foci of her operations until the first week in August. Alert put to sea from the latter on 5 August, beginning a voyage back to the United States. She entered San Francisco on 10 September and went out of commission there