The Sinking of the Tudor Warship Mary Rose

The new and ambitious young English King was keen to play a more active role in the ongoing War of the League of Cambrai between Europe’s major powers than had been the case during the reign of his predecessor, Henry VII. By 1512, England was at war with France and, in April of that year, the newly appointed Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Edward Howard, chose the Mary Rose as his flagship. Only four months later, the English navy’s newest warship played a pivotal role in the Battle of Saint-Mathieu, off the coast of Brittany. 

This is considered a landmark moment in the history of naval warfare, as it is believed to mark the first occasion on which two ships, equipped with gunports, faced off against each other. In previous naval engagements, most of the fighting took place at close quarters with the victorious crew eventually boarding the defeated vessel. Here, the Mary Rose defeated her French counterpart, Louise, because of superior firepower, with the coup de grace coming when she shot off the French warship’s main mast.

Thereafter, the Mary Rose saw active service in several relatively minor skirmishes, but the warship was not involved in another large-scale naval battle until the mid-1540s. By that time, tensions were again running high between England and France. For centuries, the two nations had fought over ownership of the strategic French port of Boulogne and, in 1544, Henry’s forces captured the town. 

As a result, the French King, Francis I, decided to launch an invasion of England. In July 1545, news reached Henry that a large French fleet had assembled in the Solent in preparation for an attack on Portsmouth. Under the command of Sir George Carew, the Mary Rose was at the forefront of the initial attempt to repel the enemy fleet. By this stage England’s flagship was equipped with more firepower than ever before, having undergone a significant upgrade in 1536. Before long, though, disaster struck, as, with Henry looking on, the Mary Rose swiftly capsized without warning. 

The only known eyewitness account of events came from a Flemish sailor, who was one of the fortunate few to survive the tragedy. He reported that as the Mary Rose was executing a sharp turn, her sails were hit by a sudden gust of wind, causing the ship to be blown onto its side. The cannons on this side of the ship had only just been fired and the gunports were not yet closed. As a result, seawater began to pour into the ship, quickly causing it to sink despite being in relatively shallow water. It has been suggested that the Mary Rose was severely overloaded in terms of the number of men and weapons on board, which may offer an explanation as to why the warship sank with such extraordinary rapidity.

The Battle of the Solent was over within three days and the French returned home with their invasion plans in tatters. Almost immediately, a Venetian salvage team was entrusted with the delicate mission of raising England’s most prized warship from the seabed, but, after several failed attempts, any hope of rescuing the entire wreck was lost. Instead, attention shifted to salvaging as much as possible of the most valuable equipment on board.

Thereafter, the wreck of the Mary Rose remained largely undisturbed for nearly three centuries until it was rediscovered, by chance, in the mid-1830s. A local man named Henry Abbinett spotted the remains of a ship on the seabed whilst on an exploratory dive to discover the cause of damage to the nets of local fishermen. Realizing that the wreck was the Mary Rose, he applied unsuccessfully for salvage rights. Instead, they were awarded to brothers Charles and John Deane, probably because they had just developed a new style of diving helmet that enabled them to remain underwater for longer periods of time than their peers. From around 1836 to 1843, the Deanes undertook several salvage missions at the site of the Mary Rose shipwreck. Several guns were retrieved, along with a section of the mast and some of the ship’s timbers.

Soon after this salvage operation came to an end, another famous shipwreck in the Solent, the Royal George, was destroyed with explosives when it was decreed to have become a hazard to shipping. The man in charge of this operation, Colonel Charles Pasley, was long said to have also been tasked with the demolition of the Mary Rose. 

Undeterred by these rumors, a local military historian named Alexander McKee launched a new search for the Mary Rose during the early 1960s. Using an 1841 nautical chart as their guide, he and a small team of amateur divers began the painstaking process of searching the area close to the last recorded position of the Tudor shipwreck. For years they had little success with just the occasional tantalizing find of an old gun or piece of timber to spur them on, but eventually, in May 1971, the buried hull of the Tudor ship was spotted for the first time in well over a century.

What happened next has been described as the most important maritime archaeological project in British history. Extensive fundraising was required before any operation to raise the hull of the ship from the water could even commence, but the project received a huge publicity boost when it attracted royal patronage in the form of Prince Charles (now King Charles III), who even participated in a dive at the site of the wreck.

Next, the delicate process of removing the layers of silt that covered the shipwreck commenced. At the same time, underwater archaeological work began on a previously unprecedented scale to unearth the many thousands of artefacts and pieces of timber as well as extensive skeletal remains, both human and animal, that were present at the site. The items recovered from the wreckage have provided historians with a unique insight into the Tudor period, particularly with regard to naval warfare.

In October 1982, the Mary Rose was finally raised from the seabed with the aid of a purpose-built tubular steel lifting frame to which the hull was attached. Such was the level of interest that around 60 million people from across the globe are estimated to have watched live TV coverage of the unfolding events. King Henry VIII’s former flagship was then transported to Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, where it was placed in dry dock close to its original 16th-century construction site.

A purpose-built structure was quickly erected around the rescued wreck and then began essential conservation work. Initially, the hull was sprayed with a constant jet of water. This proved helpful in removing excess salt and dirt from the timbers but also, vitally, prevented the wood from drying out and shrinking. Only after a decade did the next stage of treatment commence. This involved spraying a water-soluble wax called polyethylene glycol onto the hull, a technique proven to be highly effective in preserving and stabilizing waterlogged wood. Finally, in 2013, the spray jets were switched off and the three-year process of air drying the ship began. 

Since 2016, visitors have been able to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Mary Rose, the oldest ship of its kind on display anywhere in the world. The conservation process remains ongoing, with its condition constantly monitored to ensure that this priceless Tudor warship may continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Source: Mary Rose Museum