Don’t forget the RNR Remembrance Service, which is open to all and will be held onboard at 3pm on Sunday 13 Nov 2011. Our Guest Preacher is Cardinal O’Brien and Dundee Instrumental Band will provide the accompaniment as in previous years. Click 2011 RNR Remembrance Service for details.
HMS Unicorn at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo!
Here’s a link to a video shot by one of our Volunteers at the Preview Night of the Tattoo. Brad Sandidge had a great seat, so this gives a good impression of the act, which features the figurehead and guns very prominently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjU4fpXS178
The whole show gets better every night and will be on television later in the month, and also on DVD so we’ll keep you posted when we know dates…
PS It is to be shot in HDTV for the first time and the estimated TV audience is 300 million!
HMS UNICORN Swaps her Figurehead!
HMS Unicorn’s familiar ‘Unicorn’ figurehead takes a surprising aerial journey, courtesy of Nationwide Platforms. HMS Unicorn is unique amongst sailing ships in having three figureheads: one wooden master carving kept in store and two light-weight copies in fibreglass! The figurehead on Unicorn’s beakhead is one of the GRP copies, greatly easing maintenance, and the spare is usually displayed inside the ship, allowing visitors a close up view of the size and detail of this impressive carving.
The Unicorn mounted on the beak-head had become weather-worn, and has been replaced with the spare, newly refurbished by Peter Stewart-Blacker of Petrocrest, the UK’s leading heraldic wood-carvers based outside Blairgowrie.
After the figureheads had been changed over, using a special Genie S-45 boom from Nationwide Platforms with 11.2 m outreach, then the first Unicorn figurehead had a quick polish up, ready for yet another journey, this time to Edinburgh, where he will take centre stage in this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo!
The Royal Navy is the lead service at this year’s Edinburgh Tattoo, and will stage a Trafalgar-period gun display each night. We were delighted to help out by lending two gun batteries which will be called into action every night at the Tattoo, but no sailing ship is complete without a figurehead, and Unicorn’s dramatic ‘Unicorn’ figurehead will give the Tattoo ship its final touch. So visitors to this year’s Tattoo will enjoy the unusual sight of ‘HMS Unicorn’ sailing on the Castle Esplanade, firing her great 18 pounder cannon to port and starboard.
HMS Unicorn was launched in 1824, is the sixth oldest ship in the World and is the only warship preserved in Scotland. And, as Unicorn takes her name from the supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms and her figurehead represents a Scottish Unicorn bounding over the waves, she makes an ideal ship to represent the Navy at this supremely Scottish event.
[The mythical Unicorn is not simply a horse with a single horn. He had the legs and beard of a goat, and the figurehead therefore has cloven hooves. Had his hindquarters been carved, he would have had a lion’s tail!]
Dundee’s H M S Unicorn ‘sails’ to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo!
Unicorn 'stabled' under the Tatto grandstand, and enjoying the view of Edinburgh
With the Royal Navy as the lead service at this year’s Edinburgh Tattoo, it was natural to recreate some Trafalgar-period gunnery as the lead-in to the Navy’s traditional Field Gun Race, but where to find the guns? We were delighted to help out and are lending two gun batteries which will be called into action every night at the Tattoo, as well as a dramatic ‘Unicorn’ figurehead to give the Tattoo ship its final touch.
So visitors to this year’s Tattoo will see the unlikely sight of ‘HMS Unicorn’ sailing on the Castle Esplanade, firing her great 18 pounder cannon to port and starboard.
HMS Unicorn was launched in 1824, is the sixth oldest ship in the World and is the only warship preserved in Scotland. And, as Unicorn takes her name from the supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms, she makes an ideal ship to represent the Navy at this supremely Scottish event.
see http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2011/07/28/unicorn-to-make-an-appearance-at-edinburgh-tattoo/ for one news story…
Gilbert & Sullivan Afloat: This year’s performance is ‘Patience’ with lots of great music, on Thursday 16, Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June, so click here to find out more and book tickets.
The Unicorn Preservation Society became affiliated with the National Museum of the Royal Navy at a lunchtime ceremony at which the Principal Guest was HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of both organisations.
Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB DL, Chairman of the Trustees of the National Museum of the Royal Navy and a former First Sea Lord, represented the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and this affiliation represents a major step forward in the integration of Britain’s Naval Heritage. See page Affiliation with National Museum of the Royal Navy for full details, and our Unicorn Facebook Pages for low resolution photographs. Prints or high resolution copies may be obtained from GSR Photographic.
Check out our new web pages!
WW2: Unicorn’s WRENSand
The Formation of the Unicorn Preservation SocietyWatch out for further new pages!
Dine and Dance aboard Unicorn on Saturday 4th June 2011 from 19.30-0100. Tickets £16.
This is a very friendly and lively event, so come prepared for fun and dress as outrageously as you wish. Even elephants and hottentots (see 2010 Summer Ball Report) have been know to ‘brave the briney’ aboard Unicorn on this annual event.
Please bring a hamper supper to eat onboard. This can be as plain or as posh as you wish, and should include plates, cutlery, wine etc. There will not be a bar onboard, so do please bring your own liquid requirements.
Watch 2011 4th June Summer Ball 'Arabian Nights' for further details
If you, or someone you’re acquainted with, has ever served aboard HMS Unicorn (aka HMS Cressy for those of WWII vintage), we want to know!
Our “Old Hands Form” has been placed online so you can share your experiences and stories of the ship, or even just simply inform us that you served. Any information is greatly appreciated and helps us weave the history of the ship together.
You can find the form by clicking here.
Our theme for the 2010 Unicorn Ball will be ‘Out of Africa’ so dig out your ‘tribal tartan’ and come prepared to dance the night away!
