Military Service
He was appointed as a Midshipman USN (With seniority dated 01/04/1828).
He was appointed as a Lieutenant USN (With seniority dated 25/02/1841).
He served in the USS Vincennes under Commander Charles Wilkes USN, in the survey of Puget Sound and vicinity in 1841.
He was appointed as a Lieutenant-Commander USN. Later in command of the US Survey and Revenue steamer Active. (2 guns, 750 tons) (He was a frequent visitor to Nanaimo BC where he purchased coal for his vessel from the Hudson's Bay Co. 1855-57. USS San Jacinto (In command) 1861.
He forcibly took the Confederate Commissioners Mason and Slidell from the British mail steamer Trent homeward bound frm the West Indies. After a protest to the United States from the British Government they were surrendered back to England.)
Named Features
Alden Bank (BC) (Strait of Georgia) (by Lieutenant-Commander Ringold 1841); Alden Point (WA)
Anecdotes
Alden Bank (Located in the Strait of Georgia. It was named for Lieutenant James Alden USN by LCDR Ringold USN in 1841.)
References
Walbran, Captain John T. (1909)
