CannyScot's Day

By CannyScot

HMS Unicorn in Dundee

On my way to undertake another session as a Panel Member in the Scottish Children's Hearing System I saw the Unicorn and, even though it was a wet afternoon, thought it would make a good photo. Here is some info about it:

HMS Unicorn and her near-sister ship, HMS Trincomalee, are surviving sailing frigates of the successful Leda class, although the original design had been modified by the time that the Unicorn was built, to incorporate a circular stern and "small-timber" system of construction. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, Unicorn is now a museum ship in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom.
HMS Unicorn was built in peacetime at Chatham Dockyard, Kent and launched in 1824. A superstructure was built over her main deck and she was laid up "in ordinary", serving as a hulk and a depot ship for most of the next 140 years. Her lack of active duty left her timbers well preserved, and in the 1960s steps were initiated to convert her to a museum ship.
Unicorn was never rigged, and only went to sea for the voyage from Chatham to Dundee, during which she was under tow. It is thought the roof that covers her upper deck has never been replaced.

It is nowhere near as great an attraction as the Discovery but, nonetheless it is an important example of early 19th Century ship building.

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