HMS Unicorn

Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Unicorn, after the mythological creature, the unicorn:

• English ship Unicorn (1544) was a 36-gun ship captured from Scotland in 1544 and sold in 1555.
• English ship Unicorn (1634) was a 56-gun ship launched in 1634 and sold in 1687.
• HMS Unicorn (1665) (or Little Unicorn) was an 18-gun fire ship originally in Dutch service as the Eenhoorn. She was captured in 1665 and expended on 4 June 1666, on the fourth day of the Four Days' Battle. ^[1]
• HMS Unicorn (1666) was a 6-gun purchased in 1666 and sunk as a blockship at Chatham on 11 June 1667, together with five other vessels, in a futile attempt to block the Dutch from advancing up the River Medway. ^[2]
• HMS Unicorn (1748) was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1748 and broken up in 1771.
• HMS Unicorn (1776) was a 20-gun post ship launched in 1776. The French frigate Andromaque captured her ^[3] on 4 October 1780 ^[4] took her into service as La Licorne. HMS Resource recaptured her in April 1781. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Unicorn Prize; she was broken up at Deptford in 1787.
• HMS Unicorn (1782) was a 36-gun fifth rate launched in 1782. She was renamed HMS Thalia in 1783 and was broken up in 1814.
• HMS Unicorn (1794) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1794 and broken up in 1815.
• HMS Unicorn (1824) is a Leda-class frigate, launched in 1824 and converted to a powder hulk in 1860. She was a Royal Naval Reserve drill ship from 1873. She was renamed Unicorn II in 1939 and Cressy from 1941 until 1959. She was handed over to a preservation society in 1968 and is preserved in Dundee as a museum ship.
• HMS Unicorn (I72) was an aircraft maintenance carrier, launched in 1941 and broken up around 1960.
• HMS Unicorn (S43) was an Upholder-class submarine launched in 1992. She was sold to Canada in 2001, who renamed her HMCS Windsor.

Battle honours

Ships named Unicorn have earned the following battle honours:

• Armada 1588
• Cadiz 1596
• Porto Farina 1655
• Santa Cruz 1657
• Lowestoft 1665
• Orfordness 1666
• Sole Bay 1672
• Schooneveld 1673
• Texel 1673
• "Vestale" 1761
• "Tribune" 1796
• Basque Roads 1809
• Salerno 1943
• Okinawa 1945
• Korea 1950–53

See also

• HMCS Unicorn, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• French ship Licorne, similarly named ships in the French Navy
• Unicorn (Tintin), a fictional ship of the French Royal Navy featured in The Adventures of Tintin.

Citations

1. Hepper (1994), p. 5.
2. Hepper (1994), p. 6.
3. Hepper (1994), p. 59.
4. Roche, p. 41.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN   0-948864-30-3.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN   978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC   165892922.