The Mary Rose

In addition to the HMS Victory, Sister Rose and The Bride went to see the Mary Rose museum and ship in Portsmouth. They were so glad they did because the museum will close in September 2009 and not reopen until 2012. They are building a big new museum.

The two pictures are Before and After shots. It's a little hard to make sense of the After shot because only about 2/3s of the hull survived intact, and it's on its side here.





The Mary Rose, if you don't know, is a 16th century warship, supposedly Henry VIII's favorite ship, which sank with all hands (over 400 men and boys) (and a dog) in the Solent in 1545 while fighting the French. It's not known why it sank, there are lots of theories. However, it had been a successful battle ship for 35 years before it sank, so the question is - what happened this time that was different.
The result of the sinking, though, was to capture a moment in time. When it was discovered and, later, raised with over half the hull intact, they recovered tens of thousands of artifacts of everyday life at sea.