Almost 40 years have passed since the wreck of the ill-fated Tudor flagship, the Mary Rose, was raised from the Solent seaway (see CA 218 and 272). Today, her surviving remains are preserved in a purpose-built museum in Portsmouth, a short distance from where the ship was built more than 500 years earlier, and in close proximity to other naval icons such as Nelson’s Victory and – outside the Historic Dockyard – some of the most modern warships in the Royal Navy, bristling with armaments that dwarf the bows, arrows, and cannon with which the Mary Rose fought.
Since the wreck’s recovery in 1982, an astonishing array of research has shed vivid light on the Mary Rose’s make-up, as well as on the skeletal remains of her crew – most of whom drowned when the ship sank while fighting the French in 1545 – and on the artefacts that they used on board. The leading interim academic publication on the ship, to which I contributed, came out just over a decade ago, but since then specialist analysis has continued, allowing a much more detailed reconstruction of the ship’s appearance, and a better understanding of the human remains from the wreck. Thanks, too, to the extensive publication of relevant historical documents in recent years, particularly French sources, we also now have a much clearer idea of what the Mary Rose was doing when she sank (see p.39). I have set out some of the latest advances in knowledge in 1545: who sank the Mary Rose? (see the ‘Further reading’ box on p.41). It is a book aimed at the general reader, and I have deliberately limited the use of technical shipbuilding terms (it is also worth noting that some terms have changed their use between the 16th century and the present day), while exploring some of the new thinking about the ship’s design, her crew, and her final moments – some of which I will discuss here.
Reconstructing a wreck
The partial survival of the Mary Rose in the seabed off Portsmouth has given us an amazing glimpse into the English Royal Navy soon after it was founded by Henry VIII in 1512. This is in no small part thanks to the efforts of the extraordinary archaeological team, led by Alexander McKee and Margaret Rule, that found, excavated, and raised her remains. Our understanding of how best to interpret the many human skeletons and the huge number of objects in this ship depends on knowing what the Mary Rose looked like at the time of her sinking in 1545. So, what can we deduce?
Celebrated crafts and cross-cultural connections