H.M.S. Dolphin, the name-ship of her class, was a composite screw sloop and typical of that breed of vessel developed in the second half of the nineteenth century to police the Empire and its trade routes. Built by Raylton Dixon at Middlesbrough to a design by Nathaniel Barnaby, she was the first sloop to benefit from the Admiralty's new policy of replacing old muzzle-loading guns by modern breech-loaders, and was launched on 9 December 1882. Displacing 925 tons, she measured 157 feet in length with a 32 foot beam, and carried a crew of 115 men. Originally armed with 2-6ins., 2-5ins., 1 'light' gun and 3 machine guns, she was engined by Hawthorn's and could steam comfortably at 11.3 knots.

Entering service in 1883, she was serving in Commodore Molyneux's Red Sea division of the Mediterranean Fleet when she was asked to provide men for the naval brigade then being gathered to march up the Nile to relieve General Gordon who was besieged in Khartoum during the war in Sudan. Amongst several actions during that prolonged campaign, the men of Dolphin distinguished themselves at the Battle of Tofrek on 22 March 1885, at Suakin in March 1888, and were present for the final engagement of the war at Afafit in February 1891. Between 1899 and 1907, Dolphin was used as a sail training ship and, after being hulked in 1907, became the first depot ship for the expanding submarine fleet in 1912 based at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport. Sold out of the service in March 1925, she foundered whilst under tow the following month but was successfully raised and beached. After spending her last years as an accommodation school ship, she was finally broken up in 1977.

It is likely that this picture was executed when Dolphin was laid-up in Malta during 1885 whilst her crew was serving with the naval brigade in the Sudan.