Talk:HMS Dolphin (1751)

Copper Sheathing
I removed the reference to the 1751 Dolphin having copper sheathing - I see from references the next ship named Dolphin did have this, however, I discovered a resource stating the HMS Alarm was first sheated in copper in 1761, which could indeed make the 1751 Dolphin have this sheathing. --Broux (talk) 17:59, 21 March 2008 (UTC)


 * You're correct that Dolphin wasn't copper-sheathed on commissioning - as you point out, the first naval vessel to be copper-sheathed was Alarm in 1761. However she was copper-sheathed sometime between 1761 (when Alarm was sheathed) and 1764 (when she put to sea under Byron's command).


 * Sources for this include:
 * J.C. Beaglehole (Pacific Exploration 1966, page 195, ref in this article) describing Dolphin as copper-sheathed when assigned to Byron's survey voyage in 1764;
 * J.R. Harris ("Copper and Shipping in the Eighteenth Century." The Economic History Review 19(3) 1966 p.553 - source in article on Copper sheathing) giving detail of the damage to Dolphin's copper sheathing in 1768 "after a period of strenuous service ... in passing through the sea in two voyages around the World" - making clear the sheathing occurred before the first voyage in 1764. I'll add this as reference in detail in this article shortly.


 * On the basis of the above, have restored the reference to copper-sheathing in this article. Happy to discuss if anyone disagrees. Euryalus (talk) 05:02, 6 September 2014 (UTC)