HMS Dove (1898)
1898 Bullfinch-class destroyer
HMS Dove was a three funnel, 30 knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1896–1897 Naval Estimates. She was the ninth ship to carry the name.
Construction
HMS Dove was one of two "thirty-knotter" torpedo boat destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty from the Kingston upon Hull shipyard of Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company as part of the 1896–1897 shipbuilding programme for the Royal Navy, out of a total of 20 destroyers ordered from various builders as part of this programme, consisting of 17 "thirty-knotters" contracted to reach a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) during sea trials and three builders specials contracted to give higher speeds. As with other early Royal Navy destroyers, the design of Dove was left to the builder, with the Admiralty laying down only broad requirements (although all designs were approved by the Admiralty), rather than the Admiralty ordering ships to a standard design.
Dove was 214 feet 6 inches (65.38 m) long overall and 210 feet (64.01 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m) and a draught of 7 feet 10 inches (2.39 m). Displacement was 345 long tons (351 t) light and 390 long tons (400 t) deep load. Four Thornycroft boilers fed steam at 220–250 pounds per square inch (1,500–1,700 kPa) to 2 four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines rated at 5,800 indicated horsepower (4,300 kW). The boilers' outtakes were routed to three flat-sided funnels. Up to 80 long tons (81 t) of coal could be carried, giving a range of 1,490 nautical miles (2,760 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). The ship had the standard armament of the Thirty-Knotters, i.e.
“HMS Dove (1898)” enters the record as 1898 Bullfinch-class destroyer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dove, Bullfinch-class and destroyer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“HMS Dove (1898)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dove, Bullfinch-class and destroyer provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5632185. The first chronological checks are 1896 and 1897.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “HMS Dove (1898)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow HMS Dove (1898) primary sources, HMS Dove (1898) archive and Dove research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “HMS Dove (1898)”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “HMS Dove (1898)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.