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Fundraising efforts to restore 200-year-old HMS Unicorn
29 January 2025
Enthusiasts hope an £800k handout from the National Lottery will kick-start efforts to save 200-year-old frigate HMS Unicorn.
Unicorn is the third oldest warship afloat in the world – and the third oldest Royal Navy vessel still in existence behind her sister HMS Trincomalee (a floating museum in Hartlepool) and iconic HMS Victory in Portsmouth.
Since ending her active service with the Royal Navy six decades ago, the ship has served as a floating museum in Dundee.
After two centuries in the water, however, she’s in urgent need of a major overhaul – part of a wider project to revitalise the waterfront in the Tayside city.
To unlock the £10m of funding to complete the ambitious project, the society needs to find £650,000 by April – so the initial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund is a big step towards the target.
Unicorn is a post-Napoleonic war frigate, but was never fitted with a superstructure/masts because the war was over and instead spent her entire career as a depot and drill ship – through most of the 20th Century she was home to reservists – until the late 1960s, when her naval service ended.
The emphasis over the past five years has been on moving Unicorn to Dundee’s revamped East Graving Dock, restoring the ship and building a visitor centre.
The initial £800k – there’s the potential of another £3.3m from the lottery later this year – will help, but the dock still needs emptying, repairing, a new caisson and a supportive cradle to house/support Unicorn.
“The clock is ticking,” warned Matthew Bellhouse Moran, executive director of the preservation society, who hailed the cash from the lottery fund as a “massive boost” to efforts to preserve the vintage vessel.
Unicorn is the third-oldest warship afloat – surpassed only by Trincomalee and USS Constitution and hence, Mr Moran said, a “national treasure”. She’s also an integral part of Dundonian history.
“Unicorn is a symbol of Dundee’s rich maritime history and without support may not survive,” he continued.
“We urgently need the support of individuals, businesses, and organisations to raise the finance needed for the next stage of Project Safe Haven – moving HMS Unicorn into Dundee’s East Graving Dock, ensuring she doesn’t succumb to the wear and tear of time.”
You can learn more about the plans for Unicorn’s future – and support fundraising – via www.hmsunicorn.org.uk/project-safe-haven/saving-hms-unicorn/