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,:I!I (I The ters of (the channel INbetweenTHE lastthe2000Isle years,of Wightthe andwa• mainland England) have seen al• Second most everything. Invading Romans. Marauding Vikings. Lord Nelson. Bombing Germans. Trippers on the Flowering Queen Elizabeth Il But this year they will witness something abso• lutely new: a resurrection. In late of the summer, those waters will part to reveal a dripping ghost that has lain on the seabed for 437 years, a Tudor Mary Rose warship called the Mary Rose. Says Richard Harrison, executive director of the : "It will be the climax of the largest and most important underwater expedi• tion of all time." For the Mary Rose Secrets of Tudor England is not just any old warship. She was are surfacing from King Henry VIII's flagship, the flower of his fleet, the one that out• the world's most exciting raced all others. He cared so pas• underwater find: sionately about her that he named King Henry VIII's flagship, her after his sister, Mary Tudor. l~!'I', preserved in her prime J! More significant than regal senti• ment, however, is the missing link that the 91-gun Mary Rose repre• ,. sents in the evolution of warships . .. Until the teenage Henry became king in 1509, ships of war had gener• BY ROUL TUNLEY ally been merchant vessels convert• ed to carry troops into close combat. Henry, fascinated by technology, vigorously developed the concept of a full-time warship purposely built the bow and stern - was one of the c· this proud ship, which had safely with huge guns and were crowded .~ with 300 armed soldiers, supple• to fire long-range , which first ships to mount heavy guns be• weathered winter storms, sank on a menting the ship's normal company would immobilize enemy ships so tween decks. Says . naval historian f glorious summer's day. She had been that they would be easier to board. Lt. Comdr. Peter Whitlock: '~The becalmed in the Solent at the head of of 415 men. When a breeze sprang Completed at in Mary Rose was in fact the beginning. a 56-strong English fleet defending up and the top-heavy Mary Rose hoisted sail to engage the French, 1511, the Mary Rose - a beamy of the ." Portsmouth from, 235 French shipS. The Mary Rose's,'castles bristled' she swung suddenly round to star• four-master with towering castles at Nobody' knows for certain why 55 54 ILLUSTRATION JAMES lEECH

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board. Then she heeled over and the Treasures from of ointment stilI showing the sur• the "Mary sea poured in, perhaps through gun• geon's finger marks. We even know Rose": carved ports left open near the . what the crew were to eat after the bone plaque battle that fateful afternoon. The depicting two The ship foundered in six fathoms angels. prob• of water. Only the tops of her masts cook, in his brick-built , had ably part of a book cover protruded through the waves. Some been preparing fish and fresh peas. 35 were saved, mostly servants not One mystery in particular has burdened with armor. The remain• been solved. A "square murderer" is der, including Vice Admiral Sir mentioned in a 1628 ordnance man• , were trapped be• ual, but nobody knew what it was neath the netting which enveloped until the Mary Rose turned one up Mary Rose's decks to keep off board• - a square-mouthed gun, firing a ing parties. lethal hail of iron dice shot. As well, I: II""'! ' The 700-ton vessel hit the bottom the discovery of possibly the world's I ). I with such momentum that she en• oldest surviving ship's compass, to• !' tombed three quarters of her star• gether with a protractor and di• Above: ''square murderer" gun. board in the mud. The viders, tells us that maritime charts stone. iron and lead shot. bronze dispenser from a powder flask. is a unique time capsule. Like the were more widely used at that time Left: leather scabbard. arrows in lava which preserved Pompeii, the than anyone believed. leather spacer. archer's wrist-guard creamy silt of the Solent has frozen Within days of the Mary Rose the Mary Rose in a moment of histo• sinking, an attempt was made to ry: 2 p.m. on Sunday, , 1545. haul her afloat by means of No ship of this importance has ever slung between two empty ships, ris• been found before. "Every aspect ing with the . But the bid failed. of Tudor life at sea has been pre• The Mary Rose lay almost buried served," says Trust director Richard and largely forgotten until 1836 Harrison. when , a salvor from "Square Murderer." Already the who invented the first practi• bounty retrieved from the wreck is cal , worked with his awesome. In all, the 10,000 and brother Charles to bring up some more firsthand insights we have into timbers and guns - many of them 16th-century England include leath• ready-loaded and primed. After four er jerkins, chests of clothes in the years though, the brothers felt they latest styles, an exquisitely wrought had found everything of value. They manicure set, lidded pocket sundials abandoned the site. The shifting "~.'; I (the Tudor equivalents of pocket seabed completely covered the Mary watches), 4000 arrows (hitherto, Rose and her secrets. Above. clockwise: apothecary's metal mortar. '·1 chafing-dish base. drug flask. bleeding bowl I only one dubious arrow had come I There she might have rested, and syringe. canisters. Left: leather shoe. down to us from pre-Georgian hidden for ever, were it not for Alex• wooden combs. leather comb case. bone manicure set. bronze purse mount times), and a barber-surgeon's medi• ander McKee, an author and histo• cine chest complete with two sy• rian who lives near Portsmouth. ringes, dressings, poultices, and jars "I'd been intrigued by the Mary 56 P-1:.')S AOIJI. WQOLFITT

",\?,!,,~-..:.:>.;~"J~" 58 READER'S DIGEST June 1982 THE SECOND FLOWERING OF THE MAR Y ROSE 59 Rose ever since I read about her as a publicity brought the boats, com• ample of this popular 16th-century is far from over. The ship with many youngster," he says. "I suppose it pressors, diving gear and other musical instrument, a predecessor of exciting moments in her history has was a subconscious reason for my equipment needed. the oboe, is known to have survived perhaps her greatest yet to come. learning to skin dive. I knew that the By the mid-70s enough of the hull in England. The hull, strengthened by special most important wreck in Europe lay was exposed to reveal the full po• At Alexander McKee's invitation, internal bracing, will be gently lifted on my own doorstep." tential of the prize. The ship's port Prince Charles made a trip down off the seabed in a web of nylon But where was it, exactly? Books side, which was uppermost when to the wreck in 1975. The prince straps. Then, still underwater and in libraries gave no clue to the she heeled over and sank at a 60• has described the Solent as "murky; therefore still a comparatively wreck's precise location. Then by degree angle, had been almost total• rather like swimming about in lentil lightweight 50 tons, it will be eased luck in 1966 McKee came across a ly eaten away by erosion and soup." He reported: "The transom, into a cradle, preformed to match its 19th-century chart of the Solent. marine organisms. "At first we were part of the stern, you could see quite shape, for raising to the surface. "It bore an X and the words Mary disappointed that so much of it is easily. I looked down into a hole. Nobody can predict with assurance, Rose. I was electrified." McKee per- missing," says , ar• Suddenly I came face-to-face with however, what will happen when a suaded Prof. Harold Edgerton, of cheological director of the Mary a skull. I must say it did give me weakened ship is snatched from the the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- Rose Trust. "Then we realized how quite a fright; marvelously pre• watery grave where she has lain for nology, to lend a new scanner he lucky we are. If the ship had hit served, beautiful teeth, absolutely four centuries. Will she break apart had perfected for exploring under bottom squarely, little of it might be perfect." The human remains in the under the strain? the seabed. "The device revealed a left. But the half that remains is, ship show that all the crew were Whatever happens, the world's buried object the size of the Mary after all, a replica of the missing extremely fit. The oldest were in most intricate, ambitious and expen• Rose," McKee recalls. "I sank half." their early forties. The youngest was sive project of its kind has already a long pole with a hollow end, As news of the wreck rippled aged about 14. paid off handsomely. Not only is hit something solid and brought up through the diving world, it attract• By August 1980 enough of the it unlocking many secrets of 16th• fragments of ancient wood. Skeptics ed underwater explorers from all excavating had been completed to century life, it has enhanced the said the wreck was probably a parts of Britain and abroad. The make an important decision. Every• knowledge of both divers and con• French galley. But a blip on my 200 or more enthusiasts have made thing, including decks, would be re• servators. In fact, the undoubted innermost radar told me I had got in 25,000 dives among them. In 1981 moved from inside the hull and success of the IS-year struggle to touch with Henry VIII." they shifted the equivalent of 200 replaced after this year's big lift, capture and preserve this Tudor So Much Missing. For the first truckloads of silt from inside the which is becoming urgent. Explains time bubble has, in the opinion of four years, McKee's excavation proj- ship. Margaret Rule: "We are in a race Trust director Richard Harrison, ect was strictly shoestring. "We had Archeological goodies brought to against time. Excavations have ex• opened up a whole new era of ex• no money, no boats, no facilities - the surface from the Mary Rose are posed so much of the hull to micro• ploration. "The golden age of nothing." McKee would persuade a sealed in plastic bags to protect them organisms, currents and marine life underwater archeology is just begin• friendly fishing-boat captain to take from air. They are then taken ashore that we must get it out of the water ning," he says. "And amateurs will him and his band of dedicated aqua- for today's most advanced preserva• as soon as possible." playa vital role in it, just as they did t' lungers out to the wreck for an hour tion techniques, including fungicidal Thus the drama of the Mary Rose with the Mary Rose. " or two on weekends. sprays, chemical baths and freeze- • Then in 1970 the group found a drying. A brown silk velvet skullcap

:t Tudor gun. "It practically screamed found in the medicine chest of the Relief Pitcher ;, 'I 'Henry VIII'!" says Maurice Young, Mary Rose's barber-surgeon has SIGN on the bedroom' door of a Little Leaguer: "Help wanted. Young boy ;j a Southampton shipwright. "At last been washed and air-dried and looks needs understanding parent to help ease pain of losing game 0-25. Must be 1 people were convinced we had real- like new. A shawm was one of 1980's skilled in carrying large platter of chocolate cookies and large glass of miJk. ly discovered the Mary Rose." The most fascinating finds. No other ex- Apply in person. P.S. Hurry, Mom." - Marylyn L Diebold

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