Today, another dolphin, but this one is a ship, one of several American vessels to be given that name starting with the USS Dolphin, a coastal patrol boat, of 1777. In fact our ship was the fourth of that name, the intervening two being a schooner and a brig. The last of these was decommissioned in 1860, and the name thought lost.
However in 1883, four ships were ordered by the Secretary of the Navy - The Atlanta, The Boston, The Chicago, and, oddly, for all the others were named after places, our ship, The Dolphin.
She started to be built in that same year but was not completed until over a year later, and not taken into the Navy until over a year after that. Part of the reason for the delay was in her fitting out, for she was graced with quite beautiful carpentry - in the absence of defences. Despite this she was almost scrapped in 1897, but was saved by the Spanish-American War, and sent to Cuba, where she served with distinction. After that, perhaps in way of thanks, she was kept on, used for surveying and also when needed, as the ship chosen to perform non military duties, and impress visiting dignitaries. She was also used in the First World War, and afterwards still kept going as the flagship of the Special Services Squadron. And she finally retired in 1921, though, for some reason, she was then sold, for scrap, something that many historians much regret.
In 1932 her name was given to a submarine, which served throughout the Second World War, and it was also used on a second submarine in 1968, though this was a research vehicle and not a military one.
Our set appears first in Jefferson Burdick`s "American Card Catalogue", as :
226 - Naval Vessels of the World (25)
He values them at fifteen cents each.
We know that this book was published first because the set appears in our World Tobacco Issues Index using that code, listed as :
NAVAL VESSELS OF THE WORLD. Sm. 70 x 38. Bkld. (25). Ref. USA/226 ... K32-16
This wording is exactly the same in our updated version, save the card code, which is now K524-270