Mary Rose

[ozzy72]

To think it is 24 years ago today she finally returned to the surface I remember watching it on TV

[expat]

To think it is 24 years ago today she finally returned to the surface I remember watching it on TV

Me too. It was the only English lesson that I ever had, that ended up being a history lesson. Any excuse to watch TV and not do comprehension.

Matt

[Woodlouse2002]

Has anyone been to see it at all? I havn't but I know it's nothing like as impressive as the Vasa in Stockholm. I think they're also getting in a bit of a flap about it because the stuff they've been spraying on it for the last 24 years to preserve it might actually in the long run end up destroying it.

[Hagar]

Has anyone been to see it at all?

I visited Portsmouth dockyard last year but decided against it. The Trafalgar Day celebration would not have been the ideal time.

[ozzy72]

I saw it a couple of years ago as the missus wanted to go and see it...

[Hagar]

So was it worth seeing?

[expat]

I saw it a couple of years ago as the missus wanted to go and see it...

Your wife was just the excuse Ozzy, you are just a closet sailor boy at heart  ;D

Matt

[ozzy72]

It was worth seeing but I thought some of the other stuff at Portsmouth as better. My wife is a history buff...
Oh and I'm not one of those nancy bellbottom wearing weirdos! My uncle was one

[expat]

My uncle was one

By blood or marriage?

Matt

[ozzy72]

By marriage! We don't talk about him. I also have one ex-RAF by marriage. The blood relatives were all Army or RM. Long line of ground pounders in my clan

[expat]

By marriage! We don't talk about him.

That was a close call then.  :o

Matt

[Polynomial]

i recall going to a Mary Rose exhibition in Australia several years ago seeing some of the artifacts retrieved from it - when you look at the shape of the ship, its no wonder it sunk!

[Woodlouse2002]

i recall going to a Mary Rose exhibition in Australia several years ago seeing some of the artifacts retrieved from it - when you look at the shape of the ship, its no wonder it sunk!

You say that but the ship only sank because she was dangerously overloaded and while turning in a reasonable swell her lower gunports (that were open at the time) dipped under the water and she flooded.

Unlike the Vasa, that sank after less than half a mile on her maiden voyage the Mary Rose had sailed before, it was just an unfortunate sequence of events that caused her to sink.

[Hagar]

when you look at the shape of the ship, its no wonder it sunk!

The sinking of the Mary Rose

Mary Rose had a long career and was frequently in battle against the French. On 10 August 1512 she was part of an English force that attacked the French fleet at Brest. Mary Rose crippled the enemy flagship, bringing down her mast and causing 300 casualties. This was possibly the first battle in the Channel when ships fired their heavy guns through gun ports.

The sinking of the Mary Rose is the event for which the ship is best known. On 19 July 1545 Mary Rose was part of an English fleet that sailed out of Portsmouth to engage the French. She fired a broadside at the enemy and was turning to fire the other broadside when water flooded into her open gun ports and the ship suddenly capsized in full view of Henry VIII watching from the shore. It is not certain what caused Mary Rose to capsize; she was overloaded with extra soldiers and may have been caught by a gust of wind, which made the ship heel over.

[Ivan]

@Hagar: tipping over because of wrong cannon postioioning was a common way to lose a ship in that age.

Here in holland they are building a replica of the Man-O-War 'De Zeven Provincien'. It is almost twice as wide as the 'Batavia' that they built before. Only reason for that is to keep the whole thing stable enough to fire a full broadside shot