USS Dolphin (1884)
Dolphin in 1891
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Name: | Dolphin |
| Builder: | John Roach & Sons |
| Launched: | 12 April 1884 |
| Commissioned: | 8 December 1885 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 December 1921 |
| Fate: | Sold to Mexico, 25 February 1922, scrapped circa 1927 |
| History | |
 Mexico
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| Name: | Plan de Guadalupe |
| Namesake: | The Plan of Guadalupe |
| Acquired: | 25 February 1922 |
| Struck: | 1924 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap circa 1927 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | gunboat/dispatch vessel |
| Displacement: | 1,485 long tons (1,509 t) |
| Length: | 256 ft 6 in (78.18 m) |
| Beam: | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 3 in (4.34 m) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 16 kn (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 152 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: | One of the U.S. Navy's first four steel ships |
USS Dolphin (PG-24) was a gunboat/dispatch vessel; the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the dolphin. Dolphin's keel was laid down by John Roach & Sons of Chester, Pennsylvania. She was launched on 12 April 1884, with Captain George Dewey in command, and commissioned on 8 December 1885 with Captain R. W. Meade in command.Dolphin was the first Navy ship to fly the Flag of the President of the United States during President Chester A. Arthur's administration, and the second Navy ship to serve as a presidential yacht.
Dolphin was originally built as a dispatch vessel, intended to courier messages as radio had not yet been invented. She was the only US naval vessel ever specifically designated as such. She was also called an "unarmored" or "unprotected" cruiser, and was eventually designated as a patrol gunboat (PG-24) on 1 July 1921, a few months before she was sold to Mexico. She was ordered as part of the "ABCD" ships, the others being the cruisers Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago. These were the first ships of what came to be called the "New Navy", representing the transition from wooden-hulled to steel-hulled warships. Like the other three, Dolphin was built with a sail rig (later removed) to increase the ship's cruising range due to the inefficient steam engines of the day. All were ordered from the same shipyard, John Roach & Sons of Chester, Pennsylvania. However, when Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney initially refused to accept Dolphin, claiming her design was defective, the Roach yard went bankrupt and the remaining three ships were completed in navy yards that had little experience with steel-hulled ships. Built for speed at the expense of protection, Dolphin was unarmored and her engine was unprotected as it extended above the waterline.
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