Some of your may know that the Mary Rose was the flagship of Henry VIII that sank in 1545 and was raised from the sea off Portsmouth in 1982. I remember when that happened as it got lots of TV coverage. It was put in a special building to preserve the timbers. That involved spraying it with water to stop it drying out and then using chemicals to stabilise it. That went on for years. We visited about 15 years ago when that was still going on. You could not clearly see the ship then, but it was still impressive.
Skip forward a few years and a lot has changed. It is housed in this striking building that looks something like a ship.
This is next to Nelson's ship Victory. These are just two of the exhibits in the Portsmouth docks that are also an active naval base. There are armed police patrolling the site. You can see the new aircraft carrier Prince of Wales there too. That just suffered mechanical issues when sailing out. Its sister ship was also docked.
Now you can see the Mary Rose much better. There is an exhibition spread over three floors with views of the ship. On the top one you go through airlocks to have a view of the ship without glass between. The air feels different in there, but I expect the temperature and humidity are carefully controlled. They had a guy dressed as Henry VIII telling the story of it and he mentioned that it costs thousands of pounds per day to maintain the right conditions.
Lots of cannons were recovered from the sandy seabed and they are well preserved. It is hard to imagine what a battle would be like with deafening explosions, smoke and people dying around you.
The crew had to be fed and this is one of the cauldrons used to prepare their meals. It was surrounded by bricks as you do not want to make a fire on a wooden deck. In the bottom right you may see a dog's pawprint made when the bricks were produced.
It is amazing how much stuff survived over 400 years in the sea, but being buried protected it. There are tools, musical instruments, ropes, clothes and lots of bones. They only know the names of three of the crew of several hundred, but they can tell a lot about them from their possessions and from the conditions of their bones. The archers would have different muscle structure from pulling their bows. There were some simulated bows and they were hard to draw even though they were not at full tension. There were some early guns on board, but the longbow was still the main personal weapon.
There are theories that the ship sank during a battle with the French as it took on water through the gun ports as it made a turn. There were attempts to recover it back then, but they did not have the technology.
I have to say this is not a cheap day out. You can pay individually to visit different ships and I think the Mary Rose along was £24 each. We actually opted to pay a bit more to get a ticket that covers everything. That included the harbour boat tour and it lasts for a year. We will be in Portsmouth again so we can go back to see more. I just noticed on their site that there is more to see on the other side of the harbour at Gosport and our tickets include that.
There is a building where various boats are being worked on. Those skills are being kept alive.
The harbour tour was good. They took us part all the naval ships and told us about them. There were more police in small boats keeping an eye on things. There are also cargo ships as well as ferries to the Isle of Wight and across the English Channel.
If you enjoy history then it is a good day out.
