HMS Unicorn explained

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

• was a 36-gun ship captured from Scotland in 1544 and sold in 1555.
• was a 56-gun ship launched in 1634 and sold in 1687.
• (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]
• 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]
• was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1748 and broken up in 1771.
• was a 20-gun post ship launched in 1776. The French frigate captured her^[3] on 4 October 1780^[4] took her into service as La Licorne. recaptured her in April 1781. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Unicorn Prize; she was broken up at Deptford in 1787.
• was a 36-gun fifth rate launched in 1782. She was renamed HMS Thalia in 1783 and was broken up in 1814.
• was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1794 and broken up in 1815.
• is a 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.
• was an aircraft maintenance carrier, launched in 1941 and broken up around 1960.
• was an launched in 1992. She was sold to Canada in 2001, who renamed her HMCS Windsor.

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

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

References

• • Book: Hepper, David J.. 1994. British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Jean Boudriot. Rotherfield. 0-948864-30-3.
• Book: Roche, Jean-Michel. 2005. Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. 978-2-9525917-0-6. 165892922. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. 1.

Notes and References

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