HMS Unicorn: Dundee’s fascinating 200-year-old vessel

THOUGH its history as a shipbuilding centre has always been overshadowed by Glasgow and the Clyde, it is Dundee and the Tay that house the best museum ships in Scotland in the research ship Discovery and the early 19th-century sailing ship HMS Unicorn.

Interestingly, Trincomalee was one of the Leda-class frigates built for the Royal Navy between 1805 and 1832, as was Unicorn. They shared the same length of 150ft but Trincomalee was built of teak in India while Unicorn was built at Chatham and was largely made of oak. Instead, after her launch from Slipway No 4 at Chatham Royal Dockyard, she was immediately laid up or put “in ordinary” as it was termed back then. Ordered in 1817, HMS Unicorn was then the latest in a long line of naval vessels that carried the name – and of course, the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal so it’s appropriate that she now rests here.

From 1857, for five years, HMS Unicorn became a powder store for general use by the military, but her career as a possible fighting frigate was over, with iron ships and steam power rendering her redundant. It was at that point in 1962 that it looked as though Unicorn would end her days in the breaker’s yard. Instead, former captain Jack Anderson started the campaign that led to the Unicorn Preservation Society being formed, with the late Prince Philip accepting the ship into the care of UPS in 1968.

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