Dundee’s almost 200-year-old HMS Unicorn has received £100,000 to help fund repairs – its single biggest donation to date.
The gift from UK charity the Headley Trust will help to cover the cost of the “much-needed” restoration of Scotland’s oldest vessel.
The fundraising boost amounts to 10% of the total £1 million financial investment required for immediate conservation repairs to the ship.
It follows a donation of £20,000 by American entrepreneur and self-made billionaire, John Paul DeJoria, for the same purpose.
HMS Unicorn closed for ‘urgent’ repairs
The Unicorn Preservation Society says the £100,000 will go specifically towards the replacement of missing or rotten timbers and engineering works to strengthen the ship’s weakest points.
The issues were identified by recent extensive surveying and structural analysis of the ship.
The work will be completed in advance of the ship being moved to dry dock for major conservation works.
The popular museum and visitor attraction – docked at City Quay – is temporarily closed to the public, undergoing urgent roof repairs.
A temporary steel roof has been installed on the ship to ensure it is kept wind and watertight for the next five years, until it can be treated properly.
Once the necessary funds have been raised for the repairs and the structural work has been undertaken, the ship will be moved to East Graving Dock in Dundee from its current location, as part of Project Safe Haven.
Project Safe Haven will see HMS Unicorn form the centre piece of the new Dundee Maritime Heritage Centre.
Unicorn Preservation Society ‘extremely grateful’
Museum director Matthew Bellhouse Moran said: “This very generous £100,000 donation by the Headley Trust is an incredible boost to our fundraising efforts to raise the £1m we need to make the ship structurally safe, replacing rotten and missing timber from the hull of the ship, which will ensure a safe move to dry dock to continue with the much needed conservation efforts.
“We are extremely grateful for this donation, which brings us a step closer to achieving our vision of HMS Unicorn becoming a central attraction of the new Dundee Maritime Heritage Centre, as part of Project Safe Haven.”
The Headley Trust is a charitable trust which supports arts and heritage projects in the UK.
First launched in 1824, HMS Unicorn is the third oldest ship in the world and has been under the care of the Unicorn Preservation Society since 1968.
Conversation