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.

She visited ports in Japan, Korea, China, Ceylon, India, Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Spain, and England, and the islands of Madeira and Bermuda, before arriving at New York City on 27 September 1889 to complete her round-the-world cruise.

On 14 June, she provided fire support for elements of the 1st Marine Battalion at the Battle of Cuzco Well in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba resulting in a total rout of the Spanish forces.

[1] From 1899 until the outbreak of World War I in Europe, Dolphin served as a special dispatch ship for the Secretary of the Navy and often carried the President of the United States and other important officials and diplomats.

She departed Washington, D.C., on 11 January 1902 to survey the southeast coast of Santo Domingo, then carried the Chief of the Bureau of Equipment from Havana for a tour of inspection of the coaling stations in the West Indies.

[1] Dolphin sailed from Norfolk on 2 December 1902 to carry mail and dispatches to Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, then took the U.S. Minister to Venezuela to La Guaira, arriving on 11 January 1903.

From 1903 to 1905, she carried such dignitaries as the Naval Committee, Secretary of the Navy, Admiral and Mrs. George Dewey, the Philippine Commissioners, the Attorney General, Prince Louis of Battenberg and his party, and President Theodore Roosevelt on various cruises.

In 1907, the first live singing performed over radio, by Eugenia Farrar from Lee de Forest's laboratory atop the Parker Building,[13] was received by the Dolphin's wireless operator, Oliver A. Wyckoff, while docked at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

During his time on Dolphin FDR forged lifelong friendships with future Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy and Richard E. Byrd, both of whom served aboard.

[15] Sailing from Washington, D.C., on 2 April 1917 to take possession of the recently purchased United States Virgin Islands, Dolphin received word four days later that war had been declared between the U.S. and Germany.

She found her at St. Lucia on 5 May and since her registry showed irregularities, Dolphin kept her in custody until departing for Key West, Florida on 28 June, when she turned her charge over to British authorities.

[1] Assigned as flagship for the American Patrol Detachment on 17 September 1917, Dolphin was based at Key West, and operated in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to protect merchant shipping until the end of the war.

After an overhaul at Boston, Massachusetts, she sailed on 16 October as flagship of the Special Service Squadron and joined the gunboat Des Moines in representing the United States at the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Straits of Magellan.

Dolphin returned to Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone, and was based there for target practice, for hydrographic experiments, and to obtain political information, visiting various neighboring countries to promote friendly relations.