Mary Rose

A Tudor warship, flagship of Henry VIII's fleet which sank in the Solent off Portsmouth on its maiden voyage on the warm sunny afternoon of Sunday 19 July 1545. The site of the wreck was discovered in 1966 by Alexander McKee and Margaret Rule who carefully excavated and recorded it in what became one of the largest underwater archaeology projects ever undertaken. The remains of the hull of the ship were finally raised on 11 October 1982 with live television coverage. Since then it has been undergoing conservation treatment in a specially constructed museum in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK. The finds from the ship, including the skeletons of many of the 700 hands that went down with her, provide a unique microcosm of material culture relating to navy life in mid 16th-century ad Britain.

[Sum.: M. Rule, 1982, The Mary Rose: the excavation and raising of Henry VIII's flagship. London: Conway Maritime Press]