The Mary Rose Buoy is moored above the wreck site of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s famous flagship, which sank in battle with a French invasion fleet on 19 July 1545.
The site is just inside the easternmost extent of the Solent, the stretch of water that separates the Isle of Wight from the central South Coast mainland. It is roughly a mile south west of Southsea Castle, from where the King witnessed the disaster.
The depth of water over the site varies from roughly 10 to 15 metres, depending on the state of the tide. There are strong currents as the tides ebb from Portsmouth Harbour. The wave action at the surface often combines with the tidal flow to stir up the fine silt upper layer of the sea bed. This can cut visibility for a diver to just a few centimetres.
The current buoy was laid in June 2014 and uses state-of-the-art technology to collect and relay information from sensors planted in the seabed.
The Wreck Site
The Mary Rose sank quickly in relatively shallow water, landing on her starboard side. A contemporary illustration shows her with only her mast tops clear of the water.
Early salvage attempts failed. Over the following centuries she sank further into the seabed while her port side timbers collapsed and were washed away. A thick layer of mud, silt and debris from the nearby main shipping channel into Portsmouth Harbour soon hid her completely. The site was searched and some items recovered by pioneering early divers between 1836-9. Their efforts were soon forgotten and the Mary Rose lay undisturbed, protected by the fine mud which enveloped her, for a further 130 years.
A new attempt to find her began in 1965. Features on the seabed and the use of experimental new ‘side-scan’ sonar soon led the team towards the same area searched in the 1830s. In September 1970, a small ‘grab’ used to raise samples from the seabed brought up a small iron gun which proved to be one of a single pair known to have been among the guns on board the Mary Rose. The discovery confirmed the Mary Rose’s wreck site had been found, if not yet the ship itself. That breakthrough came the following May.
The discovery of such an important site highlighted the lack of legal protection for historic wrecks in British waters. The outcome was a new Protection of Wrecks Act, passed by Parliament in 1973. It created a register of protected historic wreck sites, on which the Mary Rose became the first named ship to be listed.
The Act prohibits activities such as commercial fishing, diving and salvage in the near vicinity of a listed site. The Mary Rose buoy marks the centre of such an exclusion zone. However, there is little that can be done to prevent the activities of those determined to ignore the Act. Despite the cooperation of local fisherman, the Mary Rose site has proved to the activities of maritime “cowboys”.
Ironically, illegal trawling on the wreck site helped reveal the Mary Rose’s hitherto undiscovered bow section when further test dives were undertaken between 2002 – 5. Abandoned fishing gear was caught on what proved to be the end of the Mary Rose’s stem, the heavy curved timber that was the literal “sharp end” of her bow. The stem was raised and will soon (March 2016) be placed in situ with the rest of the hull to help give visitors a better sense of the Mary Rose’s overall size.
The other timbers that were briefly exposed have since been protected by sandbags and allowed to be recovered by silt. They may be all that is left of the Mary Rose, or could be only a small area of a much bigger surviving section. If a fresh investigation reveals there is a substantial part of the Mary Rose still to be excavated and raised, the commitment and costs involved could prove even greater than what has already been invested. However, they might finally settle the question of exactly what did sink the Mary Rose.
The Men of the Mary Rose
The Mary Rose Buoy also marks where some 500 men lost their lives. Fewer than 35 of those on board survived the sinking. Many died at their posts on the Mary Rose’s lower decks, helpless against the force of water pouring in through her open gun ports. Others, on the upper decks, were weighed down by armour. Even those who could swim found themselves trapped beneath the heavy tarred and sanded rope netting stretched across her open decks to stop enemy troops from boarding.
Almost immediately, the divers working on the excavation began to encounter their remains, mostly as disconnected bones but sometimes as a more complete part of a human skeleton. A commitment was made to try to match up those bones large enough to be paired with others. The painstaking and respectful study took over two years to complete and eventually identified 179 individuals, 92 as ‘fairly complete skeletons’.
All were male, the youngest a boy of 10 and the oldest in his mid-40s. Most were aged from 18-30. Some could be identified as archers or gunners, their joints and bones bearing physical testimony to their occupations in life. Others could be identified from the tools, clothing and possessions found with them.
From the outset, a key concern was how the remains should be treated. Their individual religious beliefs could not be assumed from a time so soon after the King’s disputes with the Papacy and his founding of the Church of England little more than a decade before. As an initial mark of respect, and on behalf of all those lost, the remains of an individual crew member were interred in Portsmouth’s Anglican Cathedral on 19 July 1984. The multi-faith ceremony followed the form of service in use in 1545, and a wreath-laying and re-dedication takes place each year on the Sunday closest to the sinking’s anniversary.
Discussions continued over the form a fitting final memorial might take as plans moved forward for a purpose-built Mary Rose Museum. It was already a cornerstone of the vision for a dedicated new museum to reunite the ship with the many artefacts raised from her. These were the tools, equipment and personal possessions of the men who had died aboard her. So what better way could there be to honour their memory than to make the museum itself their lasting memorial?
On the eve of its official opening on 30 May 2013, a new multi-faith ceremony took place to dedicate the brand-new Mary Rose Museum to the men who died aboard her. Their remains are kept in a secure, reserved area inside the building, in a carefully-maintained environment designed to ensure their safe preservation. They rest with their comrades, alongside the possessions, ship and surroundings that were theirs in life.
Did You Know?
- Few of the men on board the Mary Rose could read or write. One who could was the ship’s cook, who carved his name, “Ny Coep” (or “Ny Cop”), and the word “cook” onto several of the wooden items found in the galley area. He is the only member of the Mary Rose’s crew whose name we have, apart from the vice-admiral aboard, Sir George Carew.
- The Mary Rose's first commander was Sir Edward Howard, Earl of Surrey and the second son of the Duke of Norfolk. One of his first acts on taking command was to test all the King's ships in a series of exercises between the Thames estuary and Dover. He reported to his sovereign that the Mary Rose had proved herself, "your noblest ship".
- The professional archers on board were identified by a distinctive shoulder condition known as os acromiale, where a small bone that normally becomes fused to the shoulder blade in early adulthood fails to do so. The condition is akin to a modern “repetitive strain injury”, caused by the enormous strain of repeatedly drawing a warbow.