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Unicorn: Victoria Dock, Dundee Harbour, Outer Tay Estuary, North Sea
War Memorial(S) (20th Century), Frigate (19th Century)
Site Name Unicorn: Victoria Dock, Dundee Harbour, Outer Tay Estuary, North Sea
Classification War Memorial(S) (20th Century), Frigate (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Hms Unicorn And War Memorial; Hms Cressy; Tay Division, Royal Naval Reserve; Firth Of Tay
Canmore ID 297350
Site Number NO43SW 8014
NGR NO 40843 30246
NGR Description NO c. 40843 30246
Datum Datum not recorded
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/297350
First 100 images shown. See the Collections panel (below) for a link to all digital images.
- Council Dundee, City Of
- Parish Maritime - Dundee, City Of
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Maritime
- Former County Not Applicable
NO43SW 8014 c. 40843 30246
N56 27.645 W2 57.605
For adjacent and successor Royal Naval Reserve training centre (HMS Camperdown), see NO43SW 712.
Unicorn: uncompleted sailing frigate.
Former name[s]: HMS Unicorn II, HMS Cressy, HMS Unicorn.
Built 1824 by Chatham Dockayrd, Chatham, England.
Original owners: Royal navy.
Propulsion: full-rigged ship rig (intended).
Tonnage: 1084 gross, 1077 displacement.
Length: 166ft (50.6m)
Breadth: 39.92ft (12.17m)
Draight: 13.08ft (4.0m)
Materials: wood throughout.
Original use: frigate (never completed).
Condition: intact hull, never rigged.
Present owners: Unicorn Preservation Society
Location: Dundee, Scotland.
One of two surviving sailing frigates of the Royal Navy. It was never commissioned as a seagoing vessel and spent its entire career as a stationary drill ship.
Present owners had intended to rog the vessel, but apparently now plan to preserve her in her present configuration.
[Additional references cited].
N J Brouwer 1999.
[HMS] Unicorn: 5th rate [46 guns]
1.08 [tons] BM [Builders' Measurement]
151.5ft [48.2m] x 40.5ft [12.25m]
[Built] Chatham Dockyard 30 March 1824
Powder hulk 1860: RNR drillship November 1873, Dundee
(Bore name Unicorn 11 Feb Feb [19]39, then [HMS] Cressy 20 November 1941 - 14 July 1959.
Handed over to Unicorn Preservation Society, 29 September 1969.
J J Colledge and B Warlow 2006.
Following prolonged service as a drillship and training vessel of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and (later) Royal Naval Reserve, this vessel is now in preservation and open to the public as a museum ship. She is derigged, and lies near the SW corner of Victoria Dock (NO43SW 89.00). She remains afloat and might potentially be moved, although not under her own power. Launched at Chatham, Kent, in 1824, she has been described by Osborne and Armstrong as 'perhaps the least-altered wooden hull in good condition anywhere in the world.'
This vessel is classified within the core collection of National Historic Ships, Register of Historic Vessels (Greenwich): the relevant Certificate No is 498.
The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative, the vessel not being noted on the available maps and charts of the area.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 23 December 2008.
B D Osborne and R Armstrong 2007.
Note (25 July 2023)
HMS Unicorn is the most original and authentic of all the world’s large ships. Built as a British Royal Navy frigate in the early 19th century, it encapsulates centuries of naval heritage and technological advancements in the age of sail. Now anchored in Dundee, Unicorn is the 3rd oldest ship afloat in the world , the 4th oldest British built warship in existence and the oldest ship afloat in Scotland.
The Unicorn has been managed by the Unicorn Preservation Trust since 1968. The careful conservation of the Unicorn allows an interpretation of life on a naval vessel under sail from the late- 18th century to the mid-19th century.
A photographic survey was carried out by the Heritage Recording section of Historic Environment Scotland to document the details of this warship. The aim of this photographic survey was to create a record for the National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) of Scotland, to fill a gap in NRHE holdings and to capture the Upper Deck prior to work being carried out on the weather deck roof.
See WP 008500 for a fuller account.
Visited by Heritage Recording Service, HES (Nimisha Misal), July 2023.
