The Cruise of the Alerte is an 1890 book by E. F. Knight about an expedition to the uninhabited island of Trinidade in the South Atlantic to find treasure reputed to be buried there by pirates in 1821, and said to include gold candlesticks from the Lima Cathedral removed during the War of Independence. The book was republished by Rupert Hart-Davis as No. 21 in The Mariners Library with an introduction by Arthur Ransome in 1952.
In 1889 E F Knight sailed to Trindade in a 64 foot 56 ton yawl named the Alerte, with a crew of four paid hands and nine gentleman adventurers who risked £100 a head. They quarreled, but found no treasure.
He took a monkey called Jacko, who objected to the land-crabs. Jacko enjoyed turning on the water tap and wasting their hard-won water. On Christmas Day he found some rum in a pannikin and became disgracefully intoxicated. He had a dreadful headache the next day.
Knight had previously visited the island in December 1880 on the Falcon, a 28 ton yawl. There is a graphic description of the island and his adventures while exploring it in his 1884 book The Cruise of the Falcon.
The book has detailed descriptions of Trindade, The island is referred to as Trinidad or Trinidad Island in the book, but is now called Trinidade to avoid confusion with the Carribean island called Trinidad.