Mary Rose to Get New Exhibition Hall
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| Mary Rose. © 2008 Historic Naval Ships Association. |
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Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98-1543). Henry VIII (ca. 1537). Oil on wood. 28 x 20 cm (11 x 7.9 in.). Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. |
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| Jean Clouet (French, ca. 1485-1541). François I (ca. 1525). Oil on canvas. 96 x 74 cm (37.8 x 29.1 in.). Musée du Louvre. |
By STAN PARCHIN
December 28, 2009
The United Kingdom's Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £21 million to the Mary Rose Trust on January 24, 2008 for the continued restoration and permanent display of the favorite warship of King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) and its artifacts. The remaining half of its hull has been undergoing conservation in a enclosed and climate-controlled Portsmouth dry dock since its miraculous resurrection from the Solent Channel's depths on October 11, 1982.
Henry VIII's Treasured Ship
The Mary Rose, probably named after Henry VIII's younger sister, was an outstanding carrack or four-masted sailing warship in the king's highly organized fleet. Commissioned by the monarch in 1509, his flagship was launched from Portsmouth two years later. Its innovative design included water-tight and lidded gunports that allowed artillery broadsides to be fired from along the length of the boat's hull. The ship participated in all three of the ruler's wars with France. It also accompanied the sovereign on his voyage to the Field of Cloth of Gold near Calais for a pageant-filled meeting (June 7-24, 1520) with France's King François I (r. 1515-1547) that produced negligible diplomatic results.
After an illustrious career, the Mary Rose mysteriously sank and broke in half some two kilometers off Portsmouth on July 19, 1545 during an engagement with François I's invading flotilla. Many theories exist about the Mary's Rose's demise before Henry VIII's eyes. Perhaps the victim of human error and the crew's unruliness, the unstable ship likely capsized under the extreme weight of new guns with which King Henry outfitted the vessel. About 700 crew members (300 more than the ship was meant to carry) perished in the maritime disaster; some 30 men were rescued.
Conservation and a New Museum
One-half of the Mary Rose's hull was preserved underwater by the Solent seabed's thick silt. Beginning in 1994, polyethylene glycol (a waxy substance) began to be sprayed on the ship's timbers to conserve them. Once dry, the longitudinal half of the vessel's hull will be exhibited in a new boat-shaped museum opposite a state-of-the-art recreation of the wreck's other side. Visitors will be able to see all of the actual ship's deck levels along with more than 19,000 objects recovered by marine archaeologists. Scheduled for completion in 2012, the museum will display nautical equipment, uniforms, weaponry, medical instruments, ceramic mugs, eating utensils, silver tankards, dice, playing cards and more, describing the rich cultural heritage of 16th-century England.
Source
Starkey, David (ed.), et al. Henry VIII: A European Court in England (exh. cat.). London: Collins & Brown, 1991, 8-25, 172-181.