Mary Rose

 The Mary Rose was the flagship of King Henry VIII’s Navy Royal.  Begun in 1510 and launched in 1511 at the royal shipyard in Portsmouth, the Mary Rose was the largest (500 tons) warship in England and one of the largest in Europe at the time.  It was originally built in the traditional carrack style, with large fighting castles fore and aft.  This was because war craft at that time saw ships largely as floating vehicles for moving soldiers close to each other for close-quarters combat.  As naval warfare and weaponry evolved, the concept of ships actually fighting each other developed.  In 1536, the Mary Rose was substantially rebuilt, expanding to about 700 tons.  A fourth deck was added above the original main deck, which was converted into a gun deck.  This made the Mary Rose one of the first warships able to fire broadsides, although the concept was still rudimentary at that stage.  Gun-ports were cut into the sides of the hull, along with heavy covers that, when lowered, provided a degree of water-tightness.  The Mary Rose had a long and illustrious history, but came to a tragic end on July 19, 1545.  A French fleet attacked the English fleet anchored in the Solent, north of the Isle of Wight.  The Mary Rose got underway.  While maneuvering in a fresh wind, it heeled suddenly.  Water poured in through the open gun-ports and the ship foundered rapidly, killing all but about 35 of the estimated 400 sailors and soldiers on board.  When the threat of invasion passed, the wreck of the Mary Rose was largely forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1971.  The Mary Rose Trust was founded and large portions of the hull and other items were salvaged starting in 1982.  They are now conserved and on display at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth.  The British Government recently unveiled a limited-edition £2 coin to mark the 500th anniversary of the launching of the Mary Rose.