Built between 1509 and 1511, the Mary Rose sank in the Solent during a battle with the French in 1545. Lost until the 20th century, her rediscovery and recovery were revolutionary events in the history of maritime archaeology.
The Rediscovery of the Mary Rose
The wreck of the Mary Rose was first rediscovered in 1836 by a local fisherman. Divers subsequently investigated the wreck and recovered a number of iron and bronze guns and some of the ship’s timbers. But they did not recognise the ship as the Mary Rose and it was soon forgotten.
In 1967, Lex McKee used side scan sonar to investigate the area pinpointed as the site of the Mary Rose’s sinking. A 200-foot-long oval anomaly was discovered on the sea bed. McKee was convinced he had found the Tudor warship, but further exploration was required to confirm this.
Preliminary excavations using water jets and airlifts removed silt from the area, exposing the ship. She had fallen on her starboard side, which was preserved in the silt of the Solent. The exposed port side was eroded and decayed. However, much of the ship’s interior remained intact, including passageways, cabins and ancillary structures.
Excavation of the Wreck
Full-scale excavation began in 1979. With a salvage vessel positioned above the wreck as a base, divers could excavate in shifts while finds were sorted on board.
A bright yellow grid was suspended in the water over the wreck to help record and map the site. Excavators worked with trowels and their hands to move sediment away from the area they were working on, while airlifts removed large volumes of silt. The site was photographed, and video footage provided detailed frame-by-frame visuals of the wreck.
Recording the site was completed on the salvage ship, where detailed reports and drawings were completed when the excavators returned to the surface.
Surveying the ship was difficult because of the amount hidden in sediment or detached from the vessel’s main body. The Direct Survey Measurement system or DSM was developed as a result of this. First, the main body of the ship was measured at four fixed points, which were then converted into coordinates acting as reference points. In this way, the whole structure could be measured by relating back to these coordinates, allowing the creation of a 3D model of the overall structure.
Raising the Mary Rose
Raising the ship involved the most innovative techniques of all:
- The ship was wired to a frame specially designed to lift it from the sea bed.
- Hydraulic jacks set in the legs of the frame raised the hull until it was just out of the silt. The frame was then lifted by a crane onboard a ship, which lowered the remains of the hull into a cradle specially designed using the survey results.
- The frame and cradle snapped together to protect the vessel and allow it to be lifted safely to the surface.
Conservation
The Mary Rose was then wrapped in foam and polythene to protect it and moved to Portsmouth naval base. She was turned upright and kept wet under a sprinkler system to prevent the wood from drying out and shrinking and fungi from developing. The ship was cleaned, and interior timbers removed during excavation were replaced.
In the early 1990s, the chilled water was replaced by a solution of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG), a wax that gradually replaced water in the timbers. A more concentrated application has been used since 2004, coating and sealing the timbers. Once the outer layer of wood was strengthened with a final, high molecular weight of PEG, treatment was complete, and the ship was allowed to air dry.
The Finds
About 20,000 artifacts were found in the Mary Rose’s wreckage — as well as the remains of around 200 members of her crew. The survival of so many everyday items in situ has offered archaeologists a unique insight into day-to-day Tudor life.
