The Mary Rose

Although it is not clear which King originally ordered the construction of the Mary Rose and another ship Peter Pomegranate, King Henry VIII oversaw the projects as one of his first acts as King in 1509.

The Mary Rose was one of Henry’s favorite ships and marked a revolutionary change in the way warships were built.

The Mary Rose was a carrack, which was a huge shift in that ships were previously built as and looked like “castles of the sea.” Instead it had 4 masts with a high forecastle (front of the ship) and a low waist (middle of the ship) to pull alongside ships to engage in combat. 

The construction of a ship of this kind, all by hand, is the equivalent of building a space shuttle today.  The ship itself weighed around 500 tons on its maiden voyage. Each hull plank weighed over 300 kilograms. 

Around 40 acres of wood was used to construct the Mary Rose, equating to around 600 large oak and elm trees. As trees that large were rare in 16th-century England, this wood had to be sourced from many different places in southern England. 

The Mary Rose would have cost King Henry VIII at least £6.5 million in today’s money to build and outfit. The flags flying on the ship cost approximately £133, 000 alone, calculating in today's money. 

The Mary Rose carried a crew of 415 men. Two hundred of these men were needed to sail the ship, and included officers, gentlemen, cook, purser, and surgeon. Another 185 men were soldiers, and 30 men were gunners.

Life as a sailor in Tudor times was an excellent career choice if you could lift heavy objects and didn’t get seasick. A widespread famine during this time meant that many workers on land were starving. 

In contrast, life on board the Mary Rose came with guaranteed meals and less labor intensive work than a field laborer. 

Netting was installed all over the ship. This protective device was designed to keep the enemy from boarding the ship, and gaining access to the gunning section in particular. 

All the sailors aboard the Mary Rose were volunteers. A sailor’s life was paid in cash and although it didn’t have the prestige of other land professions, it was an attractive career choice that paid very well at the end of each voyage.

At 7 a.m. the dutyman would blow his whistle to signal the beginning of a new day. Only officers were allocated rooms with bunks, so sailors slept on the deck wherever they could. Some sailors had their own sleeping mats but this was rare. 

The daily tasks of a sailor aboard the Mary Rose included working the sails and adjusting the rigging. Other responsibilities and duties were sweeping and washing the decks, steering the ship, and keeping a lookout. 

Life on board the Mary Rose was a pious one. Psalms were sung at 6 p.m. and the night watch sang Psalms at midnight. Many sailors’ only possessions (apart from their own wooden plates and cups) was a set of rosary beads.

To relieve themselves, everyone on board used the beakheads. These 2 boxes at the foremost section of the ship had holes inside of them that dropped directly into the sea and the sea itself acted as a convenient flusher. 

During their downtime, the men enjoyed playing a number of different games. King Henry VIII banned all forms of gambling (although he loved to gamble himself) so sailors made small dice that they could hide quickly if an officer approached. 

The carpenter, or shipwright, not only repaired minor things like shelves, he was responsible for keeping the ship afloat. He had to listen closely to the creaks of the ship and inspect the ship from top to bottom looking for leaks, rot or bowing. 

The Mary Rose was many stories high. Located underneath the deck were the all-important guns and cannons, the cabins for all the officers, cabins for the shipwright and the barber-surgeon and the most important section of all (certainly in regards to keeping the crew happy) the galley, or kitchen, where the cook worked.

The crew of the Mary Rose was fed quite well as most voyages remained close to England giving her crew access to fresh food. However, there was a lack of vitamin C and most crew members had varying degrees of scurvy. 

Nobody drank water on the Mary Rose. In fact, all over the country people didn’t drink water as a practice because the water was too polluted. Instead, each sailor was allocated 8 pints (almost 4 liters) of beer a day.

Sailors were provided 2 square meals a day, a word resulting from the trenches (plates) they used, which were square in shape. Ships followed a weekly menu that dictated whether the day was a “flesh day,” for meat such as beef or pork, or a “fish” day. 

Interestingly, sailors probably ate more healthily than officers. Officers and people of higher class didn’t eat vegetables as they didn’t want to eat things that grew in the dirt. The gentry also thought that eating too much fruit was unwholesome. 

The galley on the Mary Rose consisted of 2 large copper cauldrons, set over a brick oven. Each cauldron would hold around 400 liters of liquid. On these the cook not only made broth but also baked bread and cooked meat. 

The barber-surgeon was responsible for tending to broken bones, black eyes, and fractures as well as illnesses. During battle he would be kept very busy. Outside his cabin, a musician played soothing music to distract the patient while the barber-surgeon worked. 

Many attempts were made to locate and salvage the wreck of the Mary Rose. She remained hidden for 437 years at the bottom of the Solent before being brought up to the surface to a live television audience of 60 million people.

Attempts at finding the Mary Rose continued over the next 400 years. However, thanks to the introduction of sonar technology and a very dedicated team of researchers, the wreck of the Mary Rose was discovered in 1971. 

The Mary Rose is sometimes referred to as England’s Pompeii. The silt in the Solent preserved everything in the hull of the ship in remarkable condition and the artifacts recovered represent the most complete picture of marine life during Tudor times to date. 

It took over 27,000 dives to collect all the artifacts left behind inside the Mary Rose, about 19,000 items. The objects recovered included carpentry tools, longbows, arrows, syringes, plates, bowls, and gold and silver coins.

 The remarkable decision to raise the entire wreck (what was left of the Mary Rose) was unprecedented. It took almost 11 years to clear the hull of silt, remove artifacts, and prepare the hull for recovery.  Over 60 million people worldwide watched the recovery.

Once recovered, the Mary Rose needed further preservation. She was sprayed with a special set of chemicals and kept wet during restoration work. Since her first appearance above the sea in 1982, it took almost 30 years to protect the hull from deterioration.