The National Museum of the Royal Navy

affiliation with

The Unicorn Preservation Society

Tuesday 19th April 2011, from 1200 to 1330.
 
The lunchtime event marks the launch of the Affiliation of the Unicorn Preservation Society with the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
 
Principal Guest:  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, will represent the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and this launch event represents a major step forward in the integration of Britain’s Naval Heritage.

See a selection of images of this event on our Facebook page

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) is emphasising its nationwide status as HM Frigate Unicorn in Dundee becomes an official affiliate. The NMRN was established to create, preserve, explain and celebrate the enormous contribution made by the Royal Navy during its remarkable history of over 1000 years, in the defence of the UK and its overseas interests.

The affiliation aims to increase the understanding and importance of the Navy to Britain’s heritage and to display a clear and practical link with HMS Victory in Portsmouth and HMS Unicorn in Dundee and thereby illustrate the ships and people of the Royal Navy in the final century of sail, and also the role of the Royal Navy’s Reserves in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It will also bring national support and experience to the Unicorn Preservation Society in its battle to secure HMS Unicorn’s long-term future.

 Lord Dalhousie, Chairman of the Unicorn Preservation Society, said, “This magnificent opportunity to link Unicorn with the National Museum of the Royal Navy arose as a direct result of the Princess Royal holding a Charity Forum last year to mark her 60th birthday. All her charities were invited to discuss their challenges and opportunities, and we all made some extremely relevant contacts.

 “HM Frigate Unicorn is no longer a commissioned warship, but she still firmly belongs in the naval family, and this affiliation and today’s presentation represent a very real and valuable integration of Britain’s Royal Naval heritage.

 “’Unicorn’ is a wooden ship and she cannot remain afloat indefinitely. We are determined to preserve her extraordinary originality, so she needs to be docked in a dry berth covered from the weather. There is now also an opportunity for Unicorn to move to an ideal final berth within Dundee’s new Central Waterfront development, and it is almost exactly where she spent her first century in Dundee.

 “This option brings HM Frigate Unicorn into a spectacular triangular relationship with RRS Discovery and the V&A Dundee, and would bring Dundee’s two great historic ships back together.”

 PRESENTATION & UNVEILING

HRH The Princess Royal, who is Patron of both the Unicorn Preservation Society and the National Museum of the Royal Navy, will unveil drawings by Sir Robert Seppings, who designed Unicorn, copies of originals held by the NMRN and donated to the Unicorn.

HMS Unicorn was built in 1824, to the designs of Sir Robert Seppings, the Surveyor of the Navy 1813-1832, at a time when the shortage of timber and the growing availability of iron was dramatically affecting the way ships were built.  Seppings, who can be thought of as the Navy’s Brunel, introduced engineering concepts to naval shipbuilding. His new methods of construction greatly strengthened wooden ships, and he took full advantage of the availability, strength and compactness of iron.  Unicorn represents the last great flourish of wooden shipbuilding and illustrates the birth of the iron steamship.

Dr Dominic Tweddle, Director-General of the National Museum of the Royal Navy commented: “The 19^th April marks a special day as the National Museum of the Royal Navy comes to Dundee. The opportunity to welcome HMS Unicorn, a historic ship of national importance, as an affiliate of the National Museum means that the story of the Royal Navy, its ships and its people can now be told on a national scale. The sharing of skills, knowledge, and in the future artefacts means that we can tell the story of the Royal Navy in a way that would have been impossible before.”

Download press release here:

2011-0419-HMS Unicorn Press Release-Final

(admission to the ship by invitation only,  please telephone 01382-200900 for information)