The Frigate Unicorn could be forced to leave Dundee if the right place cannot be found to ensure her preservation and display, one of the UK’s leading experts on historic ships has warned.
Martyn Heighton, director of National Historic Ships, was commenting on the ongoing uncertainty over the future of the 189-year-old vessel.
The Unicorn Preservation Society, which owns the ship and seeks to give her a viable future, has seen a change in leadership after a coup by a faction of board members.
Lord Dalhousie, whose father formed the society in 1968, was ousted as chairman and vice-chairman and former lord provost of Dundee Mervyn Rolfe was another casualty of the shake-up.
The changes came when the society was in discussion with the National Museum of the Royal Navy about the Unicorn becoming a NMRN ship.
That elevated status would put her in the same bracket as Admiral Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory and boost efforts to attract the major funding needed to safeguard her future in Dundee, where she has been for 135 years.
Mr Heighton said both Lord Dalhousie and Mr Rolfe remained highly respected by National Historic Ships.
The Unicorn was one of the world’s most important historic ships, he said, as more of her original construction had survived than that of any other vessel of her age.
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