‘BATTLE FOR THE UNICORN’
Naval Mess Dinner onboard H M Frigate UNICORN
Principal Guest: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
Tuesday 8th September 2009
The ‘Battle for the Unicorn’ naval mess dinner was held onboard Unicorn on Tuesday 8th September 2009, and the text of the invitation is presented below as it summarises the policy of the Unicorn Preservation Society following the Lottery decision earlier in 2009
Dear Supporter
This year has seen a serious set-back in our fight to save HMS Unicorn for posterity, and I write to invite you to support our ‘Battle for the Unicorn’ Mess Dinner onboard H M Frigate Unicorn, Scotland’s only ‘wooden-wall’ and the sixth oldest ship left in the world.
I am delighted to announce that our Principal Guest will be our Patron, Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal.
This exclusive event will be run with the full ceremony of a traditional Royal Naval Mess Dinner. The evening will open with a quayside reception during which the full Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland will beat Retreat and perform the traditional ceremony of Sunset in a dramatic and memorable setting outside Unicorn. A Royal Marine Band quartet will also play onboard throughout dinner.
The Heritage Lottery Fund recently turned down our initial application for development funding towards a plan to move Unicorn to the Dundee Central Waterfront where she would be close to RRS Discovery and part of an iconic cultural triangle with the proposed V&A outstation.
However the overall plan is far too good to be abandoned. We have been told that a modified application would be considered, and the Unicorn Preservation Society, together with major advisors such as National Historic Ships, remains committed to this project which would see Unicorn given her rightful recognition within Dundee.
I greatly hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to support Scotland’s only preserved warship amongst friends onboard this wonderfully atmospheric ship.
Honorary Captain The Rt Hon The Earl of Dalhousie DL OstJ RNR
Chairman
The Unicorn Preservation Society
The Battle for the Unicorn:
Dundee Central Waterfront?
There is an extraordinary 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.
The Battle for the Unicorn:
The Race Against Rot
Conventionally built wooden ships are designed to flex under stress. Unicorn was built to an innovative scheme developed by Sir Robert Seppings which was carefully designed to prevent such distortion. This system was so effective that when Unicorn was docked in 1972 her hull had hogged by a tiny 1 ½ inches, after 150 years afloat. However, thirty years later, the hog now measures over two feet, and the consensus of opinion is that Unicorn cannot remain afloat and exposed to the weather for much longer.
The Battle for the Unicorn:
Unicorn is a Dundee Ship
Ships are essentially nomadic and rarely have ‘homes’; indeed their whole purpose is to travel. So when the time comes for a working ship to retire there may be no obvious final site for her.
Unicorn, on the other hand, is most unusual amongst big ships in having a ‘home’. She spent her entire working life in one port, Dundee, has now been here 136 years, and is now firmly embedded in Dundee’s social and maritime history.
The Governors of the Unicorn Preservation Society are clear that their main priority is the preservation of HMS Unicorn but they are particularly keen to support options which will allow her to remain in her own home in her old age.
The Battle for the Unicorn:
The ‘Unicorn’ of Scotland
Unicorns are the heraldic supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms, and an earlier Unicorn was the flagship of the old Scots navy. There could be few more appropriate ships to preserve in Scotland than HM Frigate Unicorn.
HMS UNICORN: BATTLE HONOURS
HMS Unicorn was launched at Chatham in 1824 as a 46 gun sailing frigate for the Royal Navy. She is now the world’s last intact warship from the days of sail, one of the six oldest ships in the world, and Scotland’s only representative of the sailing navy.
It has long been traditional in the Royal Navy for a ship to take great pride in the battles fought by her namesakes. The first Unicorn in the Royal Navy was the Scottish flagship which was captured from the Scots in 1544 by Henry VIII. Since then a total of sixteen ships have carried the name HMS Unicorn, and between them they have accumulated fifteen Battle Honours, one of the highest totals for any naval ship name, and surprisingly more even than Nelson’s famous flagship HMS Victory! These Honours range from the Spanish Armada, the earliest possible honour, to Korea, the most recent prior to the Falklands. The latter was gained by an aircraft carrier which ‘borrowed’ the name during WW2, but the name was returned when the carrier was later scrapped.
The list of Honours displayed on the carved scrolls onboard is far from being complete, and the full list comprises:
| 1588 | Armada | War with Spain |
| 1596 | Cadiz | War with Spain |
| 1655 | Port Farina | Turkish Pirates in the Mediterranean |
| 1657 | Santa Cruz | War with Spain |
| 1665 | Lowestoft | Second Dutch War |
| 1666 | Orfordness | Second Dutch War |
| 1672 | Sole Bay | Third Dutch War |
| 1673 | Schooneveld | Third Dutch War |
| 1673 | Texel | Third Dutch War |
| 1761 | Vestale | Seven Years’ War |
| 1796 | Tribune | War with Revolutionary France |
| 1809 | Basque Roads | Napoleonic War |
| 1943 | Salerno | Second World War |
| 1945 | Okinawa | Second World War |
| 1950-53 | Korea | Korean War |
HMS Unicorn is now facing what may be her most important Battle – the Battle for the Unicorn. Tables will be named after each previous battle, and your support now will be greatly appreciated.
