A requirement for a two-deck ship capable of operating in the shallower waters of North America, led to the resurrection of a design by renowned naval architect, Sir Thomas Slade[1] Ordered by The Admiralty on 8 January 1777, Dolphin was the only one of her class not built under contract, and her keel of 115 feet 6+1⁄4 inches (35.2 m), was laid down on 1 May at Chatham Dockyard.

[3] She served a number of times as a transport or hospital ship, when she was armed with between twenty and twenty-four 9-pounders on her upper decks.

[3] Dolphin was commissioned for the North Sea in March 1781, under Captain William Blair, and was present at the Battle of Dogger Bank that summer.

Dolphin was part of Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker's squadron, which was escorting a convoy from the Baltic, when on 5 August it discovered a fleet of Dutch warships and merchant vessels near Dogger Bank.

[6] At 08:00 a close action ensued, which continued until mid-morning when the Dutch warships sought to disengage and return to Texel with their convoy.

[3] When war with the colonies ended in September 1783, Dolphin returned to England, where, between March and June 1784, £5,936.6.8d was spent on repairs at Chatham dockyard.

[3] Recommissioned as a store ship in January 1793, Dolphin was despatched to the Mediterranean when Britain entered the French Revolutionary War in February.

The commander of the garrison there, General Ulysses de Burgh, refused to leave however and after salvaging what it could in the way of stores and equipment, the squadron left for Gibraltar two days later, on 29 January.