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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger 

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Warship Wednesday 23 September 2026:

Above we see the aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn ( I72), or more specifically one of her four twin 4″/45 Mark XVI guns in a sponson Mark XIX mounting.

A child of WWII, it was Unicorn’s aircraft that made the Germans howl off Salerno, but in September 1951, some 75 years ago this week, her guns made naval history off the coast of Korea.

A Replenishment Carrier?

In 1938, England knew she was stumbling headlong into a war with a revitalized Germany, likely to be allied to Mussolini’s Italy, which the West had been fighting by proxy in Spain for years, while Japan, which walked out of the League of Nations in 1933 and withdrew from the London Naval Treaty the next year, was beating war drums of her own.

While the battle line, with its 15 active and five building battleships and battlecruisers, was the stuff of legends, the Royal Navy had been in the aircraft carrier business for a solid 20 years– the first fleet to field a true flattop in the form of HMS Argus in September 1918.

Going into the Czech Sudeten crisis, the Brits had four active fleet carriers (the 26,000-ton/48-aircraft HMS Courageous and Glorious, the 23,000-ton/33-aircraft Furious, and the 26,000-ton/21-aircraft Eagle), while the brand-new 27,000-ton/60-aircraft Ark Royal would commission in November 1938.

On the builders’ ways at three different yards were the 28,000-ton/33-aircraft “Lusty” sisters (Illustrious, Formidable, and Victorious) of soon-to-be-famous class armored deck carriers, followed closely by near sisters Indomitable, Indefatigable, and Implacable, although none of these six would join the fleet until well into the war (the latter two not until 1944).

With 11 large flattops built or on the schedule, the Admiralty hit on an idea for a “replenishment carrier” which could be a floating workshop capable of receiving “flying duds” in need of repair or patchwork from these other carriers, then sending a fresh model over to replace it while said dud was cycled down to the hangars for refurbishment.

Plus, as the carrier was actually a sort of “depot ship,” its tonnage didn’t count against naval treaty limits.

The need for a decent-length flight deck capable of takeoffs and landings, complete with six arresting wires, a crash barrier, and a BHIII hydraulic catapult, resulted in a 600 x 90-foot “roof” over a 640-foot hull on a steamer that displaced 16,794 tons (standard, 20,625 full). Under said roof was a 324 x 65-foot upper hangar and a 360 x 62-foot lower hangar, both standing 16.5 feet tall.

Transit between the hangar and flight deck was via a pair of 10-ton elevators aligned to starboard, fore (46 x 33 feet) and aft (46 x 24 feet) of the island. In this manner, 20 single-engine aircraft could be easily stored in the below-deck workshops and, should the flight deck be used, this could bump up to 35ish.

Further, her shops had storage for 50 aircraft engines, and she carried a self-propelled lighter for moving aircraft between herself and other carriers. Avgas storage allowed for 36,500 imp gallons, enough to fill a Swordfish from empty something like 218 times, not enough for extended operations (by comparison, Ark Royal could carry over 100,000 imp gallons) but enough to get some sorties in for sure.

She also had a large crane for both handling seaplanes and amphibians and moving aircraft to and from lighters.

Powered by a pair of Parsons geared steam turbines delivering 40,000 shp when all four Admiralty 3-drum boilers were lit and pushing, this floating aviation repair depot would be able to steam at a respectable 24 knots maximum, with 3,157 tons of fuel oil bunkerage giving her a worldwide deployable endurance of 7,500nm at 20 knots, or 11,000nm at a 13.5-knot pace. While not as fast as the 30-knot fleet carriers, this depot ship could still keep up with the fleet in all but racing speeds.

She had a decent armament, easily the equivalent of a destroyer leader if not a scout cruiser. This included a main battery of eight high-angle dual-purpose 4″/45 QF Mk XVIs in four twin mounts located on sponsons, four quadruple 40mm 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom-pom AA guns sited immediately before and abaft the island, and 16 (five twin, six single) 20mm Oerlikons in sponsons below the flight deck towards the bow and stern. She also has four single 3-pounder saluting guns. Her magazines allowed for 3,816 4-inch and 19,000 40mm.

If you think this is a lot of guns, remember that the preceding RN fleet and light carriers– HMS Argus (6 x 4″/45s), Hermes (6 x 5.5″/50s), Eagle (9 x 6″/50s), Courageous/Glorious (16 x 4.7/40s), Ark Royal, Indomitable, and Illustrious/Formidable/Victorious (16 x 4.5″/45s)– all had significant batteries of medium guns while not being that much larger than Unicorn. It should also be noted that the 10 follow-on 18,000-ton Colossus-class light carriers commissioned after Unicorn never mounted anything larger than 40mm AAA guns.

The AA armament was controlled by two AR Type 285 RDF fitted HA/DCT’s and three AR Type 282-fitted barrage directors. A Type 290 radar was carried at the masthead, as was a Type 72 homing beacon.

In British fashion, Unicorn had an armored flight deck with two inches of box-shaped protection stretching to three inches over the engineering and magazine spaces, along with a 1.5-inch anti-torpedo bulkhead below decks. It should be pointed out that the similarly-sized late-war Colossuses were all but unarmored, only carrying a 10mm plate over their aviation magazines.

Able to switch hit between carrier and depot ship, Unicorn’s motto was very appropriate: In utrumque excelso animo (Ready for either duty with a soaring spirit).

Unicorn also had extensive medical facilities, including aid stations, fore and aft, and a central sick bay complete with a fully equipped surgical theatre and dental clinic.

At that, Unicorn was meant for RN use, shipping and supporting FAA aircraft and carriers either directly or in the fleet train. The vessel would be the equivalent of a deployable destroyer tender to destroyers, or a submarine tender to subs, yet also capable of performing as a carrier when needed– and sometimes she was needed.

As discussed on Unicorn at Armoured Carriers, it was thought that one such Unicorn type would deploy to support three fleet carriers, making the need for three such depot carriers to replenish the expected nine deployable fleet carriers. However, just one Unicorn would be completed, with no sisters or follow-on depot carriers ordered.

For shipping RAF aircraft in a “knocked down” condition with the wings removed, the RN in 1940 converted a pair of 10,700 ton Cameron-class twin-screw steamers, HMS Engadine (ex-Clan Buchanan) and HMS Athene (Clan Brodie), originally planned to be seaplane depot ships, for the task. Capable of 17.5 knots, they were thought too fast to be U-boat bait, especially when running with an escort. For air and surface defense, they had Type 286 radars, two QF 4-inchers, four quad 40mm pom poms, 10 Oerlikons, and two inches of armor plate on deck. They could carry up to 40 planes with the wings removed, and had bunkerage for 34,000 gallons of avgas. Planes were lifted on and off as cargo via two large cranes, fore and aft.

This all brings us to…

Meet Unicorn

Our subject is the 10th such vessel to carry the name of the mythical horned horse, going back to 1544.

The eighth was a 32-gun fifth-rate that served throughout the Napoleonic Wars, capturing over 30 vessels at sea, each including the French 44-gun frigate Tribune, the latter after a brutal ten-hour-long running fight.

The ninth Unicorn was a 46-gun Leda-class frigate that entered service in 1824, then lingered as a powder hulk and later Royal Naval Reserve drill ship until she was handed over to a preservation society in 1968 and is preserved in Dundee as a museum ship— noted to be the sixth oldest warship in the world.

This left our Unicorn with a full dozen battle honors to inherit (Armada 1588, Cadiz 1596, Porto Farina 1655, Santa Cruz 1657, Lowestoft 1665, Orfordness 1666, Solebay 1672, Schooneveld 1673, Texel 1673, Vestale 1761, Tribune 1796, and Basque Roads 1809).

Our subject, the 10th Unicorn, was part of the 1938 Estimates and ordered from the Titanic-famous yard of Harland & Wolff at Belfast on 14 April 1939. She was laid down as Yard No. 1031 on 29th June that year, by which time Czechoslovakia had been erased from the map of Europe and tensions were at an all-time high.

Her launch on 20 November 1941, sponsored by Lady Mabel MacNaughton, was delayed as the yard was ordered to suspend work on several occasions so that workers could be diverted to complete smaller warships urgently required for convoy defense. Harland and Wolff completed no less than 20 Flower-class corvettes at Belfast between HMS Arabis, laid down in October 1939, and HMS Pimpernel, commissioned in November 1940.

Incidentally, to keep from having two Unicorns on the Admiralty’s Naval List, the old frigate HMS Unicorn in Dundee was renamed HMS Cressy in 1941, to free up the name. We’ll revisit that later.

Our carrier’s first skipper was Capt. Quintin Dick Graham, RN, a seasoned regular who had commanded the light cruiser HMS Arethusa (26) earlier in the war and had joined up in 1908 as a cadet.

Unicorn was delivered by the yard to the Admiralty on 12 March 1943, commissioned for service with the Home Fleet, and commenced acceptance trials in the Clyde area.

War!

Carrying an Admiralty standard camouflage scheme of Grey (G45) with a Blue (B20) panel, Unicorn spent April and May 1943 on a series of landing trials, aircrew training, and work-ups for operational service out of Scapa Flow.

Rather than serve her intended depot carrier role, she was needed as a training carrier, conducting operations with the Sea Hurricane IIcs of 800 Squadron, Swordfish of 818 and 824 Squadrons, and Seafire L.IIs of 887 Squadron.

On 19 May 1943, sailing from the Clyde with Algiers-bound Convoy KMF.15, Unicorn, escorted by the cruiser HMS Suffolk, made for the Mediterranean with 18 crated RAF Beaufighters and aircraft spares bound for Gibraltars belowdecks while her Swords from 818 NAS and Seafires from 887 remained aboard to provide the convoy with a combat air patrol– one that came in handy on 24 and 25 May in chasing off big German Fw200 Condors, one of which reportedly dropped ordnance near our carrier.

After arriving at “The Rock” and unloading her Beaus, Unicorn returned to England with Convoy MKF 015, reaching Greenock on the early evening of 4 June.

She returned to training duties and suffered her first loss: Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) James A F Lawrance, RNVR, FAA, an 818 Squadron observer who fell from his Swordfish in rough weather near Ailsa Craig on 15 July and was never heard from again. She suffered her second loss, Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Joseph Brooks Pilling, RNVR, FAA, also of 818 Squadron, killed in an air crash at age 20.

By this time, Unicorn was deployed with elements of the Home Fleet in a feint towards German-occupied Norway as part of Operation Governor, in an effort to entice the Tirpitz out to be destroyed– and to divert German attention from the Mediterranean where the Husky Landings were being made on Sicily.

For Governor, Unicorn carried  887, 818 and 824 NAS and sailed with Force B from Scapa, with ADM Fraiser running his flag from the battleship HMS Duke of York while the new 16-inch battlewagon USS South Dakota joined the effort. The rest of Force A was balanced by the cruiser HMS Bermuda and nine destroyers. Meanwhile, Force A, from Iceland, with the carrier HMS Illustrious, battleships HMS Anson and USS Alabama, and eight destroyers worked as a pincer while Forces C, D, and E were nimble cruiser-destroyer greyhound packs.

Governor proved fruitless, with Martlets from Illustrious downing two German BV.138 seaplanes and RAF Beaus out of Scotland jumping another two as the only contact.

Unicorn was then given orders to sail for the Med to take part in the Avalanche landings at Salerno in Italy proper. For this task, she would lend her air group (30 Seafires of 809, 887, and 897 Squadrons and nine Swords of 818 Squadron) as part of Force V to cover the beachheads.

Force V was balanced by four British escort carriers (HMS Attacker, Battler, Hunter and Stalker), three cruisers and 10 destroyers, the latter including two Poles. The four CVEs were packed with two Seafire squadrons each, lending some 76 aircraft to Unicorn’s 39. Two larger fleet carriers, Illustrious and Formidable, were assigned to nearby Force H with six further squadrons aboard.

A total of 265 sorties were flown by Force V over Salerno on the first day, 9 September. Unicorn lost two aviators that day, Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Malcolm A. McKenzie, RNVR, FAA of 809 Sqn, and Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Joseph J Urlich, RNZNVR of 887 Sqn.

Another 232 sorties were flown by Force V on 10 September. Unicorn lost Sub Lieutenant (A) Brian Razzall, RNVR, of 897 Sqn that day, who bailed out of his Seafire but was never found. Also, Unicorn’s Swords carried “spare” pilots in their observers’ seats to Castelvetrano, Sicily, where more Seafires were staged to fly those aircraft out to the action, while also receiving “flying duds” from Force V’s escort carriers.

While it had been planned for Montecorvino airfield to be used ashore by D+2, that fell through, and Force V made another 160 carrier-borne sorties on the 11th. Ultimately, an ersatz strip was set up ashore at Paestrum on the 12th, allowing Force V to withdraw, its Seafires flown ashore, to Tunisia on the 13th.

All in all, for Salerno, Unicorn’s Seafires flew 198 combat sorties, which was certainly near exhaustion for her limited avgas storage.

Sent back to Scapa to rejoin the Home Fleet, Unicorn arrived at Gibraltar on 23 September and, in company with the carriers Illustrious and Formidable and the battleship Valiant along with a cruiser-destroyer screen, made Greenock on 10 October. Flying off her Swords, Unicorn arrived back at Harland & Wolff for repairs and alterations, remaining in the yard for a month. She would spend the rest of the year in a series of gunnery and flying exercises, celebrating Christmas at home.

Headed to fight the Emperor

On 30 December 1943, Unicorn and Illustrious departed Scapa with the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, the battlecruiser HMS Renown, and a force of cruisers and destroyers bound for Trincomalee, Ceylon, to join the Eastern Fleet for service against the Japanese. During the cruise, Unicorn was packed with spares and aviation material, bound for points East, which meant she could only carry four Swords of 818 Squadron– later augmented for a few weeks by 8 Barracudas of 847 Squadron.

Arriving at the Suez on 13 January 1944, on the 19th Unicorn called at Aden for fuel, made Cochin on the 27th, and Trincomalee on 2 February, wrapping up more than 8,000nm.

Spending the year shuttling between Colombo, Bombay, and Trincomalee, Unicorn’s final assigned air group was made up of Barracuda IIs of 817 Squadron, which shipped aboard in November 1944 and continued operations over the new year into January 1945. She also had regular flights of Grumman Martlets, Corsairs, and Hellcats conduct flight training from her deck from RAF China Bay outside of Trincomalee.

Crossing into 1945, Unicorn was ordered to join the British Pacific Fleet, which was soon to field the largest RN carrier force ever seen before or since. When she left for Australia, she carried 82 aircraft and 120 engines with her.

Unicorn would serve with TF 112/113, then TF 37/57 for the rest of the Pacific campaign, arriving at Manus on 7 March and running back and forth to Sydney for replacement aircraft, engines, and parts to keep the British 1st Aircraft Carrier Squadron in combat, making a huge effort during the Iceberg landings on Okinawa.

As detailed by the Royal Navy Research Archives,

Since Unicorn left the UK in December 1943, a total of 626 aircraft passed through the hands of the Air Repair Division; these included Albacore, Avenger, Barracuda, Corsair, Firefly, Fulmar, Hellcat, Martinet, Sea Hurricane, Seafire, Swordfish, Vengeance, and Walrus aircraft. Additionally, the Department also handled 283 engines and power plants. 63 engines were installed in aircraft or power plants.

Post VJ Day, Unicorn assisted in the evacuation of units in the Admiralty Islands and Manus, landing withdrawn personnel, cargo, and aircraft at Brisbane in at least three round-trip 3,000-mile runs by Halloween. Leaving Fremantle in late November, she arrived back home in Devonport on 16 January 1946.

By the end of January, Unicorn was paid off and de-stored before reduction to Reserve status; her war was finished.

Unicorn, in her WWII service, added two battle honors (Salerno 1943, Okinawa 1945) to the dozen she inherited.

She had proven the replenishment carrier concept so thoroughly that two similar support ships, the Colossus-class light carriers HMS Perseus (ex-Edgar) and Pioneer (ex-Mars), were converted into aircraft maintenance ships while still under construction, although they arrived too late to be of use during the war.

Cold War

In mid-1949, with the newer replenishment carrier Perseus designated the trials ship for steam catapult development, and Pioneer laid up while at the same time Red China was growling, the RN decided it was cheaper to reactivate Unicorn for use as a maintenance and ferry carrier, backing up the forward-deployed light carrier HMS Triumph out of Hong Kong, which was carrying the 13th Carrier Air Group (Seafires of 800 Squadron and Fireflies of 827 Squadron).

Unicorn sailed from Devonport on 22 September 1949, packed with a cargo of 27 Seafires, 38 Fireflies, 6 Sea Furys, and two Sea Otters bound for the Med and Far East, arriving in late November after numerous flag-showing colonial port calls, dropping off planes at RNAS along the way.

In May 1950, while calling in Kure, Japan, Unicorn and the Australian River-class frigate HMAS Shoalhaven pulled out their glad rags and fired simultaneous 21-gun salutes to mark George VI’s 13th Coronation.

Korea

In drydock at Singapore when the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel in June 1950, before a planned voyage back to England, Unicorn hurriedly refloated and rearmed, headed north to back up Triumph with spare Seafires and Fireflys.

Pulling into Sasebo, Japan, she unloaded her good planes in exchange for worn-out duds from Triumph.

Unicorn would continue the cycle for the next three years, jogging the 2,500nm from Sasebo to Singapore, via Hong Kong, carrying good aircraft and stores to the theatre and unserviceable airframes back.

Besides supporting Triumph, she did the same for HMS Theseus, which took Triumph’s place in September; HMS Glory, which replaced Theseus; HMS Ocean, which replaced Glory; and the Australian HMAS Sydney.

Besides shuttle trips, Unicorn would often clock in close to the line, supporting her front-line carrier in real-time, providing a base for loaned CAP aircraft, and serving as a lily pad for U.S. Navy SAR helicopters.

In July 1951, an unidentified shutterbug on Unicorn captured an incoming Sea Fury in such distress that it had to ditch alongside the carrier, with its pilot being scooped out by a whirlybird and delivered on deck just 2.5 minutes after hitting the drink.

Thus:

Unicorn also served as an intermediate hospital ship as needed and would carry troops intra-theater to Korea as well.

One of her first such missions was to carry the “Die-hards” of 1st Bn, Middlesex Regiment, from their restful and exotic garrison in Hong Kong to active combat at Pusan.

On 21 September 1951, Unicorn became the first aircraft carrier to conduct a shore bombardment when she used her eight 4-inch guns to shell North Korean coast watchers at Chopekki Point. As noted by the  Royal Navy Research Archive, “out of sixteen salvos, three were known to have found the target.”

She also provided yeoman service delivering land-based Commonwealth tactical aircraft to the front.

Unicorn’s work involved supporting evolving aircraft types, and she took on board SMEs to help accomplish that.

For instance, in October 1950, when Theseus relieved Triumph, the new carrier’s wing was made up of 807 Sqn’s Hawker Sea Fury FB.11s and newly-built Firefly FR.5s of 810 Squadron. The changeover between the two flattops resulted in Triumph’s 827 Squadron paying off its older Fairey Firefly Mk.1s and the unit’s skipper, LCDR (A) Bernard Campbell “Ben” Lyons, cross-decking over to Unicorn to help provide the crucial support to keep the Fireflies serviceable for Theseus’s tour.

Of note, Lyons had flown the Fleet Air Arm’s very first strike in the Korean War, leading his 827 Sqn Fireflies on a rocket attack from Triumph against the hangars of Haeju airfield in North Korea on the morning of 3 July 1950. Lyons had also flown some of the last RN sorties against Japan in 1945, at the controls of a 1771 Sqn Firefly from HMS Implacable.

Briefly, in October 1952, Unicorn served as flag for the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roderick McGrigor, joined by ADM Sir Guy Russell, head of the Far East Fleet, for their visit to Japan.

With the outbreak of the ceasefire, Unicorn was released on 15 October 1953 and sailed home from Singapore, arriving at Devonport on 17 November.

Her decorations list for her four Korean War tours:

• Clifford Frank Dubber, RAN, Mention in Despatches
• Chief Petty Officer, Eugene Elderfield Fernandez, RAN, Mention in Despatches
• Chief Airman, William Daniel Gardner, RAN, Mention in Despatches
• Chief Electrical Artificer, James Patrick Whelan, RAN, Mention in Despatches
• Chief Air Fitter (E) Arthur Winstanley, RAN, Mention in Despatches

During her four years’ service in the Far East, Unicorn steamed 130,000 miles and spent over 500 days at sea, carrying over 6,000 troops intra-theatre, and handled some 600 FAA, RAF, RAAF, and RAN aircraft.

During the war, British carrier aircraft dropped 15,200 bombs of various sizes, fired 57,600 rockets, and 3,300,000 rounds of 20mm cannon ammunition in around 23,000 operational sorties.

Redesignated as a ferry carrier (pennant A195) with a skeleton crew, Unicorn remained in reserve until March 1957.

Placed on the disposal list in 1958, ex-Unicorn was sold for scrap in June 1959 and arrived at Dalmuir on 15 June 1959 for breaking.

Epilogue

The old frigate HMS Unicorn, still in Dundee, has our carrier’s 1942-marked bell on display. She had her original name restored from HMS Cressy in 1959 during a ceremony by Mrs. Keay, widow of the late Captain William Foggie Keay, RNVR, who had commanded the frigate throughout the war.

She is remembered in maritime art.

Further, several aircraft tied to her are preserved in museums, including Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 WJ231/O-115 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton, and Gloster Meteor F.3 A77-867 – NZ6001 at the Ashburton Aviation Museum in New Zealand. The first, preserved in Korean War “invasion stripes,” was shifted from Unicorn to Ocean during Korea, while the second shipped aboard Unicorn to Korea in August 1952, where it served with 77 Squadron, RAAF, based out of Kimpo.

Unicorn’s plank owner skipper, Capt. Quintin Dick Graham DSO with Bar, RN, remained aboard through Op Governor and the Salerno Landings, then commanded the big deck carrier HMS Indefatigable during the Pacific. Passing to the reserve list in July 1946 after 38 years of service, he passed the bar in 1968, aged 73. His replacement, Henry Lockhart St. John Fancourt DSO, RN, who commanded Unicorn in the Pacific in 1945, retired in 1950 and passed in 2004, aged a distinguished 103.

As for the RN, the Admiralty commissioned an 11th Unicorn, S 43, an Upholder-class SSK, in 1993 after the name became available when the 9th Unicorn, the old frigate, finally passed out of naval service in 1968.

Finally, perhaps the last naval gunfire support via an aircraft carrier was also done by the British. It occurred during the Aden Emergency when 145 Battery, 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery, fired 105mm pack howitzers directly from the flight deck of the Centaur-class commando carrier HMS Albion off the coast of Aden in November 1967.

But that’s another story.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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