The Mary Rose
Steve Adams , a volunteer in the Whitehill & Bordon Group, gave a brilliant talk on The Mary Rose ship, resplendent in full costume!! Here is a summary of Steve’s talk.
Being a volunteer at The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard gives me immense satisfaction – but being a costumed volunteer – dressed as a 16th Century Tudor sailor – brings a whole new meaning to engaging the public!
King Henry VIII’s flagship sank in the Solent in 1545. Her story from rediscovery on the seabed, to a global television audience of 60 million people watching her being raised, to the ship itself and over 4,000 artifacts of the 19,500 recovered being on show to the public is truly a remarkable story.
The ‘time capsule’ discovered when she was found again in 1971 has lead to the discovery of many ‘lost’ and ‘unknown’ items from Tudor life – for example, prior to her rediscovery, there was only 1 known Tudor longbow in the world and we now have over 170. The remains of the ships dog were found on board – he was there to catch rats and mice as the Pope at the time deemed cats unholy, unclean, bad luck and were associated with witches so you didn’t have a cat on board your ship!
Of the 180+ human remains that were found, DNA analysis on a small number shows that there was a black African, a mixed race Moroccan, a man with Italian heritage and also one most likely from Spain. This lends itself nicely to the theory that as there was no conscripted Army or Navy at that time, these men were mercenaries fighting for whoever was paying them the most money.
How did she sink? Despite an introductory film as you enter the museum, it’s the first question a lot of visitors ask the volunteers when they enter the ships deck! Outrageous theories are put to us by many “ The crew only spoke Spanish therefore didn’t understand orders” “ The crew all rushed to one side to get a sight of the King as he was standing at Southsea Castle” “ The French sank her” and finally, “ So she sank on her maiden voyage”
None of the above are true! She sank after firing the cannon on the starboard side (the side facing the French fleet) then on turning to fire the portside cannon – with the starboard side gun lids still open, hit enough wind and wave to tip the ship and allow water into the open Starboard gun ports thus causing her to sink. And, by the way, she had been in service for 34 years so definitely not her maiden voyage!
The rest of her story, as they say. Is history and to get the complete picture – together with the sights and sounds of 19th July 1545, I strongly suggest you visit the dockyard and spend a few hours in the museum – you never know, I may be walking the decks that day!
Please visit www.maryrose.org for more information.