A short list

Facts

A compact reminder. The longer wording, and the disagreements, are on the topic pages and in the fact-check log.

A favourite warship

The Mary Rose was built at Portsmouth for Henry VIII, often served as the flagship of the fleet, and was lost in the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545.

Not a maiden voyage

She was 34 years old when she sank, the Trust says, and had travelled hundreds of miles, from Scotland to the Atlantic coast of France.

A sister ship

She was ordered with the Peter Pomegranate. The Trust gives 600 tons to the Peter Pomegranate’s 450. Sources still disagree about the year she was “built”.

Southsea Castle

Henry watched from Southsea Castle, which had not taken part in the fighting. Work on the castle had begun in a second phase of building that started in 1544.

Why she sank

A Flemish survivor said she had fired, was turning, and a gust pushed open gunports under the water. Greenwich says she sank before firing a single shot. Both stay in view.

Early salvage

Attempts began within days. The masts were raised; the hull was not. The Trust notes that the same technique was later used on the Vasa.

The raising

The Trust and Britannica date the lift to 11 October 1982. One Greenwich sentence says she was recovered in 1981.

Conservation and the Vasa

PEG was chosen in part because of its success on the Vasa. Spraying began in 1994; drying in a ‘hot box’ followed; the current museum opened in 2013.