The Reported Sale of the USS Dolphin (PG-24)
The USS Dolphin was a despatch vessel completed for the USN in 1885 and served in a variety of peacetime roles. During World War One Dolphin operated as a patrol vessel protecting merchant shipping in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
Dolphin was decommissioned by the USN on 8 December 1921. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry for Dolphin simply states that she was sold on 25 February 1922 without providing any further detail, however records held by the US Naval History and Heritage Command indicate that Dolphin was sold to the Ammunition Products Corp. in 1922. In contrast, several normally reputable sources claim that Dolphin was sold to Mexico on 25 February 1922, where she served as Plan de Guadalupe.
Plan de Guadalupe (ex-Dolphin) is included in the Mexican Navy section of the 1919 edition of Janes Fighting Ships, at a time when USS Dolphin (PG-24) was still in USN service. Furthermore, key data provided for Plan de Guadalupe in Janes (824 tons, launched in 1892, 213 ft long (oa)) is significantly different than the corresponding data for USS Dolphin (PG-24) (1,486 tons, launched in 1884, 256 ft 6 in long (oa)), but remarkably similar to the data reported for an SS Dolphin, operated by the Alaska Steamship Company until it was sold in 1917.
Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships also reports a gunboat Plan de Guadalupe, ex-Dolphin, which was in Mexican Navy service in 1921-22, and disposed of in 1924, with a displacement and launch date consistent with the data from Janes. No subsequent Mexican Navy vessels called Plan de Guadalupe have been identified.
It is therefore apparent that although the Mexican Navy did operate a warship Plan de Guadalupe, which had formerly been named Dolphin, it is not the same vessel as USS Dolphin (PG-24), and the reports of the sale of USS Dolphin (PG-24) to Mexico are in error.