The Mary Rose: 1511-1545.

One of Henry VIII’s little runabouts and a defence against the (perennially) grumbling Scots and the (perpetually) disgruntled French. The Mary Rose had a thirty-four year long, highly successful career before acquiring a surfeit of negative buoyancy in July of 1545 during the Third (Officially Declared)  French War. She sank quickly and with several hundred men aboard, there being only approximately thirty-four survivors.

There is a surprising amount of the vessel remaining – I had expected half a rowing boat and the end of an oar, but there are several decks preserved.

After the Battle of The Solent had finished, and the correct side had won, Venetian salvage operators were hired to raise the Mary Rose. On the 1st of August 1545 they declared that the vessel would be back afloat by “Monday or Tuesday”…

Foreign contractors being what they are, the Mary Rose sat on…