1st September 2004

The Mary Rose Trust by Ted Sutton

This was a most interesting lecture by Ted Sutton (left), it is always indicative of a good lecture when the questions come thick and fast at the end, this was certainly this case, even after the vote of thanks and well deserved applause, Ted was surrounded by members wanting to hear more and to touch, and indeed smell (the smell of tar after nearly 500 years) the artefacts that Ted had brought to the venue.

Ted continued and said the Mary Rose was built at Portsmouth between 1509 and 1511, she was one of a new line of ships to enhance the new Navy, perhaps the first ships able to fire a broadside, and was a firm favourite of King Henry VIII. The design and weapons of the Mary Rose made her as an original ship of a new line, and Henry VIII may perhaps be perhaps considered to be the father of the Royal Navy. The Mary Rose had a keel length of 32metres and a breadth of nearly 12metres. Her length at the waterline is estimated to have been 40metres and her draught perhaps 5metres.

The Mary Rose perhaps is named after Princess Mary, Henry's youngest sister, the fifth child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York who was five years younger than her brother, the future King of England.

Ted Sutton shattered the general myth that she capsized on her maiden voyage, in fact after a long and successful career; she sank accidentally during an engagement with the French fleet in 1545, this was close inshore between the mainland and the Isle of Wight and was observed by Henry. Although when Ted showed a slide of the vessel but mentioned that whilst this indicated it was top heavy, this did not match the data from the raised vessel.

Ted with more excellent slides covered her rediscovery and in a most excellent presentation, showing a selection of the 20,000 artefacts that were handpicked by a team of volunteer divers over many years of painstaking application. Bringing us well up to date with the Trusts Museum and the efforts necessary to stop the wooden structure from decaying to dust, most of the iron fittings and artefacts had already rusted away.

He continued by giving a potted history as follows; the project to excavate and raise her was the dream of the late Alex McKee and the development of that project, from the work of a small band of dedicated divers to the massive engineering work needed to recover the hull of the ship is an epic in its own right.

The surviving height of the ship is 13metres, measured on the starboard side at the after castle. The weight of the ship increased during her lifetime, she was rated at 500 tons in 1512 and at 700 tons when she sank.

The Mary Rose underwent two recorded major refits, one in Portsmouth in 1527-28 and the other in the Thames around 1536, it is assumed her burden was increased to 700 tons during this last refit.

The ship appears to have been frame built and carvel planked from her inception, Ted in question time explained this concept and how a watertight construction was achieved by caulking and tarring.

It is perhaps easy to forget that this beautiful ship was in reality a high-tech war machine. Like the warships of today she was equipped with an integrated weapons system carried in a purpose designed hull. The Mary Rose was designed purely as a warship, she had no trading function and there are no records of her ever-taking part in trading voyages.

Her complement and equipment show that she could fulfil a number of roles, she could fight at sea, take part in shore bombardment, or use the troops carried on board as marines. Her gun-ports allowed the Mary Rose to carry heavy guns on her main deck, closer to the waterline, maintaining her stability with increased firepower.

While the heavy guns provided the ship smashing and shore bombardment power, the Mary Rose also carried a variety of weapons for use at closer quarters. The weapons carried on board the ship are an interesting mixture of the latest technology, for instance the cast bronze guns, and weapons of a much older design, like the longbows and the wrought iron guns.

The Mary Rose was a devastating opponent, in the battle off the French port of Brest in 1512 she crippled the enemy flagship, and is said to have brought down her mainmast with a single shot.

While raising the Mary Rose ended one era for the project, it marked the start of a new and continuing phase.

The ship herself had to be housed in a suitable environment, there were thousands of artefacts to store, record and then conserve, and a new museum had to be built to house them.

To support these aims, money had to be raised, (this is still ongoing and Ted thanked the Ewell Club for today’s gift) the media had to be kept interested.

After the ship was raised she was towed into Portsmouth naval base. She was wrapped in protective foam and polythene and constantly sprayed to keep her wet.

She has been found a new home into a Dry-dock, (just behind HMS Victory) and preparatory work began by removing the lifting frame. After that she had to be jacked up and wheeled onto a smaller barge, the one she was on was too large to fit into the dock.

As stated earlier this was a well-presented and enjoyable lecture, well done Ted and thanks.

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