HMS Unicorn

Back in 2010 my son was working in Dundee and I visited him on a couple of occasions. He was staying in a flat looking over the historc docks of Dundee and out of the window I could see this ship HMS Unicorn, well I was not going to look at it long I had to visit.
A little bit of History for you  HMS Unicorn was built in 1824  and a superstructure built over her deck and she was laid up in the ordinary condition serving as a depot ship for around 140 years. In the 1960's steps were taken to convert her to a museum ship and the only time she went to sea was to be towed from Chatham Docks to Dundee. You can read more on the Official Website 

This is the view you get from the dockside

and some more looking across from the bridge

Stern of the ship

and the famous figurehead

I think it looks very impressive

Ships Anchor 

Go onboard and one of the fist things you see is the Unicorn figurehead

There is also a display you can see on things associated with the ship and one of the interesting ones was the surrender of a German U Boat

Canons on display

These are ether side of the Ships War Memorial

The fallen are listed in the Roll of Honour

These are battle honours

Montrose Battle Honours

The Ships Bell

The Bell I suspect is from this HMS Unicorn

Another Figurehead

 The captains dining room and quarters   the Queen Mother was entertained here in her visit

The fireplace with the Royal Crest (it's an electric fire)

  The Royal coat of Arms with Remembrance crosses in front of it

Looking along the Gun Deck

Above the capstan on the Gun deck
and on the right more guns

Bit of a mock up showing using life size cut outs of the Gun crew, shame they did not use life size mannequins it would have looked a little more realistic

The Royal stamp on the guns

These are some shots of the guns which you might have realised now are not real but reproductions using fibreglass. No doubt the ship is very unstable with out them but will last a little longer without the weight

This is right down in the lower deck and you can see the original 1924 timbers

Crew quarters and mess deck

And above a Cat O Nine-tails not the most pestilent thing to make knowing some one was going to whip you with it, yep part of the punishment

Part of the storage area showing some of the barrels which kept salt pork & beef

Right up the bow of the ship showing some of the ballast

More ballast here no  doubt to help balance the ship with out the cannons

Rope locker











 

Not sure if this is the sick bay or a part off the crew deck but show you a sailor laying in the hammock. If the poor guy was killed or died they just sewed him up in the hammock and buried him at sea

The ship never had any masts but this is where the main mast would have been going through the ship

These are the officers quarters, see they have little rooms a bed and a table to eat from

This is the emergency steering if the main steering has gone, some poor soul has the job of going below decks to this and heaving the rudder around from here

No not the spare ships steering wheel but a pump which is hand cranked but the brass is kept well polished.

Well that's it for my trip round HMS Unicorn, I did not take as many photos as I thought but hope it gives you a little look as to what the ship offers. If your in Dundee and would like to visit then go along to Victoria Dock or visit the Official Website it is well worth while to look round