HMS Unicorn (I72)
HMS Unicorn at a Japanese port (probably Sasebo)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Unicorn |
| Namesake: | Unicorn |
| Ordered: | 14 April 1939 |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Cost: | £2,531,000 |
| Yard number: | 1031 |
| Laid down: | 26 June 1939 |
| Launched: | 20 November 1941 |
| Completed: | 12 March 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | January 1946 |
| Recommissioned: | Mid-1949 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 November 1953 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: I72 |
| Fate: | Scrapped beginning 15 June 1959 |
| General characteristics (as completed) | |
| Type: | Maintenance aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | |
| Length: | 640 ft (195.1 m) |
| Beam: | 90 ft 3 in (27.51 m) |
| Draught: | 23 ft (7.0 m) (deep load) |
| Installed power: | 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
| Range: | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,200 (wartime) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Approximately 33 (operational use) |
HMS Unicorn was an aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. She was completed during World War II and provided air cover over the amphibious landing at Salerno, Italy in September 1943. The ship was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean at the end of the year. Unicorn supported the aircraft carriers of the fleet on their operations until the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was formed in November 1944. She was transferred to Australia in early 1945 to support the BPF's operations during Operation Iceberg, the Allied invasion of Okinawa in May. To shorten the time required to replenish the BPF's carriers, the ship was based in the Admiralty Islands and in the Philippine Islands until the Japanese surrender in August. Unicorn was decommissioned and placed in reserve when she returned to the UK in January 1946.
The ship was recommissioned in 1949 to support the light carrier of the Far East Fleet, as the Eastern Fleet had been redesignated after the end of World War II. She was unloading aircraft and equipment in Singapore in June 1950 when the Korean War began. She spent most of the war ferrying aircraft, troops, stores and equipment in support of Commonwealth operations in Korea. Unicorn supported other carriers during operations in Korea, but she became the only aircraft carrier to conduct a shore bombardment with her guns during wartime when she attacked North Korean observers on the coast during the war. The ship returned to the UK after the end of the war and was again placed in reserve. She was listed for disposal in 1958 and sold for scrap in 1959.
The Abyssinia Crisis of 1934–35 demonstrated to the Admiralty that it needed a depot ship to support the aircraft carriers in active service, just like submarine and destroyer tenders supported those types. Such a ship would be able to perform a wider range of aircraft repair and maintenance tasks than aircraft carriers and on the full range of aircraft operated by the Royal Navy, including amphibians. Admiral Reginald Henderson, Controller of the Navy was instrumental for gaining approval for the ship and ensuring that she had a complete flight deck that would allow her to land, service and launch aircraft on active operations. She was the first ship built in any navy that could "carry out the full range of aircraft maintenance and repair work in addition to the ability to operate aircraft from the flight deck". In practice, Unicorn proved the value of the concept and two similar support ships, Perseus and Pioneer were converted into aircraft maintenance ships by modifying light aircraft carriers still under construction.
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