Mary Rose Trust

14th November 2024 The Mary Rose - One Moment in Time Kathy Powis

Kathy explained that Henry VIII’s flagship was raised from the Solent on October 11^th 1982; commissioned in 1510 and in service for 34 years. Why it sunk is still debated, although involved in a battle with France it is deemed to have been a freak accident with a combination of a gusty wind, gun port lids not closed and overweight cargo, certainly not the French guns! Kathy was hooked on the Mary Rose when she first saw it in 1996 and became a speaker for The Mary Rose Trust covering the East Midlands and a Patron since 2017. The starboard side of the hull is now preserved in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard along with HMS Victory and the Warrior. A few years ago, Kathy raised some funds for the Mary Rose Trust with a sponsored abseil from 100metres down the Spinnaker Tower in Gunwharf Quays.  The Tower, 170 metres tall, designed like a spinnaker sail first opened in 2005, when the lift going up the outside of the tower broke down! Kathy also showed a picture of the only statue of Charles Dickens in Britain, in Guildhall Square, born in Portsmouth in 1812. The current MR Museum opened in 2013 at a cost of £35m, taking 4 years to build and displays around 80% of the 9,500 Tudor artefacts (only 6% were on display in the original museum).

She reminded us about King Henry VIII, a great sportsman when he was young, but died at 28 stone in 1547, he played the lute, flute and composed choral music. He wanted France back, having commissioned 2 ships in 1510: The Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate (the emblem of the House of Aragon), and in July 1545 the French began the battle of the Solent, where the Mary Rose sank suddenly and unexpectedly, with only 35 surviving of the 500 on board.  According to the Anthony Roll, now held in the Samuel Pepys Library in Cambridge, in 1546 there were 58 Tudor ships, detailing their weaponry, crew and tonnage. She then moved on to the Cowdray engravings, commissioned by Sir Anthony Browne, depicting the Battle of the Solent and the last moments of the Mary Rose. She moved on to the rescue of the Mary Rose, around 700 divers, many of them volunteers, made 28000 dives from 1979 to 1982 before the incredible raising of the hull on a lifting frame and cradle in October 1982. The ship had been rediscovered in 1971 by Alexander McKee and his team of divers, the Mary Rose Trust being founded in 1979. The ship was brought by barge into dry dock number 3 (very close to where she had been built in 1510), sprayed with water for the first 12 years, then polyethylene glycol for a further 20 years, then dried over 3 years.  The divers recovered several of the 91 guns, 2000 cannon balls, 4 out of 7 anchors, the Flemish Watch Bell (1510), 7 sets of Rosary beads, the remains of 179 men, 2 of which were teenagers, a dog – the ship’s ratter belonging to the Master carpenter, musical instruments including a drum and a shawm, an officer’s sword and 400 shoes.

Following a number of questions Derek gave the vote of thanks, suggesting that he was “gobsmacked” by the enormity of the project: the world’s largest excavation and recovery, together with the world’s largest collection of Tudor artefacts, asking the members to join him in a rousing round of applause.                                        AR