Thought of you when I saw this.
The Unicorn came off the slips and went straight into Ordinary. She never sailed under a commission pennant. Because of that, she came to be preserved, at least in her hull, frame and essential furniture. Much of the original construction can be seen today and ought to be conserved as a tribute to the Age of Sails.
The Unicorn is nice and is a fine example of British Ship building in the 1800s. Interesting, but I am not sure how much of a tourist attraction she would be except for Naval historical buffs, like me. In the early part of this Century, another Chief and I were visiting Portsmouth. We went on board the HMS Warrior. The first steel hulled ship in the Royal Navy. There were workers on the aft deck welding something or other. We were not sure by the way they looked at us if we were even supposed to be on board. So we just took a tour on our own. It was great there was nobody there and we climbed through every part of the ship like ship rats. Nobody stopped us so what the hell. Probably wrote us off as crazy Yanks. The Royal Navy has some really cool Museums.
I love the figurehead of the unicorn. Beautiful!
Can’t wait to hear Joe Biden’s war stories on how he saved the ship from an enemy.