A Ship at Risk:  The Opportunity

This year has seen a serious set-back in the Unicorn Preservation Society’s fight to save HMS Unicorn for posterity, and we invite you to support our ‘Battle for the Unicorn’ to save Scotland’s only ‘wooden-wall’ and the sixth oldest ship left in the world.

A proposed site for Unicorn within Dundee's central waterfront development

The Heritage Lottery Fund has recently turned down our initial application for development funding towards a dramatic opportunity to link Unicorn, Discovery and the V&A within the Dundee Central Waterfront, and for Unicorn to act as one corner of this iconic cultural triangle which could completely transform Dundee.

Unicorn’s heritage merit is unquestioned. She is the sixth oldest ship in the world, and, as a result of her unusual history, she is now the most original of all.  National Historic Ships, which advises the Secretary of State and other public funding bodies on ship preservation and funding priorities, recognizes that Unicorn has been consistently under-funded in recent years and now considers the ship to be the most important ‘Ship at Risk’ within the UK.

The Heritage Lottery Fund, currently the main agency for funding for historic ships in Britain, awarded the Unicorn Preservation Society a project planning grant in 2007, and this was used to inform a Stage 1 application for a main heritage grant in 2008. Very disappointingly, this application was turned down earlier this year, though with the proviso that a modified application would be considered in future.

The Unicorn Preservation Society is now engaged in establishing the criteria which would satisfy the Heritage Lottery Fund, and in meeting these criteria. However this process is expected to take some time, and Unicorn’s structure is deteriorating fast.