Mary Rose was an English warship that sank in a 1545 naval battle. The ship served in the navy of King Henry VIII. It fought against an invading French fleet and sunk near Portsmouth, England. The wreckage of the ship was discovered in 1971. Since that time, the Mary Rose has become among the most famous shipwrecks.
The Mary Rose was a carrack, the same general type of ship as Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria. Built around 1510, it had four masts (upright poles for holding sails) and four decks (levels). The Mary Rose was one of the earliest ships specially built to hold large guns. The weapons could fire through holes in the ship’s sides, called gunports. This feature enabled the ship to carry heavy cannons closer to the water, where their weight would not make the ship unstable. During turning maneuvers or in rough seas, the ship’s gunports could be closed. Special planking construction ensured that the closed gunports remained watertight.
After the wreck was discovered, divers carefully began to prepare the ship and its contents for recovery and preservation. In 1982, millions of television viewers watched a live broadcast of workers raising a large part of the Mary Rose’s hull (outer shell) from the sea. Workers then spent more than a decade trying to stabilize (preserve) the wreck. They sprayed the hull with synthetic wax. The wax replaced the water in the waterlogged wood cells, enabling the timbers to dry slowly, limiting further damage.
In 2003, divers discovered what they believed to be the missing bow (front section) of the Mary Rose. Workers have recovered thousands of objects from the ship, including compasses, guns, longbows and arrows, and such personal items as boots, dice, board games, and musical instruments. These items provide an incredibly detailed record of daily life at sea during the period. Much of the ship and its contents are on display at a museum in Portsmouth.
