Fleet of Unicorns

“Eagle-eyed readers may be excused for being puzzled by the title of the forthcoming talk ‘11 Unicorns’ as there have in fact been at least 16 vessels in the Royal Navy named ‘Unicorn’, including our one here in Dundee,” says a regular reader.

“This great fleet of ‘Unicorns’ spans centuries of naval development; few ship names have been more used and one result is that the name ‘Unicorn’ has now earned more battle honours than almost any other RN ship name in history.

The 15 ‘Unicorn’ battle honours range from the earliest possible honour, the Armada, to one of the most recent, Korea. The latter regularly puzzles visitors as it was gained by a Second World War aircraft carrier which ‘borrowed’ the name.

“Unicorn has even more battle honours than Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory,” he adds, “which is a fascinating irony as ‘our’ HMS Unicorn was never commissioned for sea service. Yet this was no mistake.

“HMS Unicorn was built as part of the great pax britannica deterrent fleet of the early 19th Century and can be thought of as the Trident submarine of her day.

“Had she been required to ‘fire her guns in anger’, her deterrent role would have failed.

“HMS Unicorn will once again play host to the Royal Naval Reserve Service of Remembrance at 3pm on Sunday, November 13, and all members of the public are, as ever, welcome onboard for this uplifting service.”

“My wife Grace and I spotted this bird on the road past the old Auchterarder railway station,” says Mike Murray of Perth. “It’s a Golden Pheasant. The husband of one of my former work colleagues is an ornithologist and has reported our sighting to the...