Eleven ships of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
have borne the name HMS ''Unicorn'', after the
mythological
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
creature, the
unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...
:
* 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
A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...
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
The Four Days' Battle, also known as the Four Days' Fight in some English sources and as Vierdaagse Zeeslag in Dutch, was a naval battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Fought from 1 June to 4 June 1666 in the Julian or Old Style calendar that ...
.
* was a 6-gun purchased in 1666 and sunk as a
blockship
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland Harbour in 1914; ...
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
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
.
* was a 28-gun
sixth rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...
launched in 1748 and broken up in 1771.
* was a 20-gun
post ship
Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the second half of the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars to describe a ship of the sixth rate (see rating system of the Royal Navy) that was smaller than a frigate (in practice, carry ...
launched in 1776. The French frigate captured her on 4 October 1780
[Roche, p. 41.] 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
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal N ...
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
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
, 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
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
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
The Naval Reserve (NAVRES, french: link=no, Réserve navale) is the Primary Reserve component of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The primary mission of the NAVRES is to force generate sailors and teams for Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operations, in ...
division in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
,
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
* , similarly named ships in the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
* , a fictional ship of the French Royal Navy featured in ''The Adventures of Tintin''.
Citations
References
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unicorn, Hms
Royal Navy ship names