Numerous Royal Navy vessels have been named HMS Dolphin after the dolphin.
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.
Dolphin is a common name of aquatic mammals within the order Cetacea, arbitrarily excluding whales and porpoises. The term dolphin usually refers to the extant families Delphinidae, Platanistidae, Iniidae, and Pontoporiidae, and the extinct Lipotidae. There are 40 extant species named as dolphins.
- The first seven Dolphins were small ketches and fireships.
- HMS Dolphin (1731), launched in 1731, was a 20-gun post ship, renamed Firebrand in 1755 and Penguin in 1757.
- HMS Dolphin (1751), launched in 1751, was a 24-gun post ship. She was used as a survey ship from 1764 and made two circumnavigations under the command of John Byron and Samuel Wallis. She was broken up in 1777.
- HMS Dolphin (1781) was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1781 and broken up in 1817.
- HMS Dolphin (1799) was originally the Dutch 24-gun Dolflin, launched in 1780 at the Amsterdam naval yard, which HMS Wolverine and HMS Arrow captured at Vlie Island in 1799. She became a transport in 1800, a storeship in 1802, and was broken up in 1803.
- HMS Dolphin (1801) was a 10 or 12-gun cutter hired by the Royal Navy in 1793, purchased in 1801, and sold in 1802.
- HMS Dolphin (1813) was the 12-gun American privateer schooner Dolphin captured by Admiral John Borlase Warren's squadron on 13 April 1813.
- HMS Hindostan (1804) was originally the East Indiaman Admiral Rainier, purchased in 1804 and renamed Hindostan, renamed Dolphin in 1819, and Justitia in 1830. She was used as a convict ship and sold in 1855.
- HMS Dolphin (1836) was a 3-gun brigantine launched in 1836 and sold in 1894.
- HMS Dolphin (1882) was a screw sloop launched in 1882. She served as a submarine depot ship in World War I. She foundered in 1925 but was beached and used as a school ship. She was broken up in 1977.
- HMS Dolphin (1914) was originally the depot ship Pandora, purchased in 1914. She was renamed Dolphin in 1924 and was sunk by a mine in 1939.
- HMS Dolphin (shore establishment), the spiritual home of the Royal Navy's submarine service at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport, and was a submarine base until 1994 and training school to 1999.
A ketch is a two-masted sailing craft whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast. The name "ketch" is derived from "catch" or fishing boat.
Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the second half of the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars to describe a ship of the sixth rate that was smaller than a frigate, but by virtue of being a rated ship, had to have as its captain a post captain rather than a lieutenant or commander. Thus ships with 20 to 26 guns were post ships, though this situation changed after 1817.
HMS Dolphin was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1751, she was used as a survey ship from 1764 and made two circumnavigations of the world under the successive commands of John Byron and Samuel Wallis. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the world twice. She remained in service until she was paid off in September 1776, and she was broken up in early 1777.
