Jack of Harts

My planning for Hooves on the Water started with researching real life Unicorns. Yes. And no. Not real live horses with horns on them. But there are many places in history that have things with the name unicorn. Some people call Rhinos Assault Unicorns with their tongues firmly implanted in their cheeks. And some nations name things after unicorns. The English Navy has had many ships named HMS Unicorn over the years. The current HMS Unicorn was built just after the Napoleonic Wars. Most of her sisters served in the wars. Unicorn was completed too late to join them, and was I believe the last of her class officially completed. They finished her hull, put a roof on her, and towed her to a harbor to hold cargo.

Two centuries later, she has taken exactly one ocean voyage, where she was towed behind another ship, and has spent the last century plus of her life acting as the militia defense command and training facility on the East Coast of Scotland. She is the third oldest ship on the water, behind America’s USS Constitution, and one of Unicorn’s older sister ships. And she is still semi-active today, housed in a what is effectively a big bathtub to keep her from getting waves and weather, near her old stomping grounds that were covered up by the footings of a bridge in the last half century. All of this information gave me a very interesting idea when it came time to write a story about Unicorns.

Or, more accurately, about the HMS Unicorn. It is available now. I hope you enjoy it.

https://books2read.com/hooves-and-horns