The wreck has a slight list to starboard but otherwise is upright on the seabed. The vessel has wooden deck and a large hole in its port side. The shell's large fog bell was recovered in 1995. A porthole and a bowl have also been recovered and reported to the Receiver of Wreck

Event and Historical Information:
The ALARM was a iron-hull lightship built for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board by W H Potter & Sons, Liverpool in 1885. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 224gt, 182nt; 119ft length x 21ft breadth x 11ft depth; equipment powered by steam and clockwork. The ALARM was built as a watch light vessel, intended to mark wrecks in the River Mersey or Liverpool Bay as a temporary hazard warning. It later saw service as a tender for dredging operations and, in 1899, was converted to a static lightship, her engine and boiler being removed. It was fitted a clockwork operated light system, a steam foghorn and submarine signalling apparatus, this being an underwater sound system introduced in 1906, when lightships hung a large bronze bell over the side in 40 feet of water, which was struck by a compressed air hammer. The lightship ALARM was lost when it was run down at around noon on 22 August 1911 by the Elder & Fyffes 3891gt steamship PACUARE. The lifeboat of the ALARM was already hanging over the side, and all her crew were able escape into it before the lightship finally sank.

Sources include:
Larn and Larn Shipwreck database 2002
Receiver of Wreck Droits Database 2007, RCIM6/2/5
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk)

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, January 2009.