Shipwrecks
The Mary Rose
Sank 1545 · raised 1982 · The Solent, off Portsmouth, England
Raised (museum)The prize. Henry VIII's flagship, a Tudor time capsule
Where. The Solent, off Portsmouth, England
Status. Raised (museum)
Where. The Solent, off Portsmouth, England
Status. Raised (museum)
The account
Leading the charge against a French invasion fleet, Henry VIII's favourite warship heeled as she turned, took water through her open gunports, and went down in the Solent before the king's eyes. The Solent silt sealed half of her, and in 1982 she was lifted in one of the most complex salvages ever attempted, her hull, her longbows, her crew's shoes and combs, a whole Tudor world preserved.
Leads, where the trail points now
- Henry VIII's flagship sank in the Solent in 1545 and was raised in 1982; the hull and some 19,000 artifacts are in the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, so this is a site to study, not search.
- The wreck site is a protected designated wreck; parts of the bow and loose timbers remain on the seabed and are still surveyed.
- The live research is conservation of the waterlogged hull and the Tudor crew's remains, studied with isotope and DNA work.
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