When I joined the Mary Rose 500 crew last year to raise money for the new museum, I had no idea that I would come face to face with one of the original crew in the Mary Rose Reserve Collection or how amazing that would make me feel.
The Mary Rose 500 Appeal was launched last year to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne. It is the final push for the funds needed to secure the heritage lottery grant to build the new museum.
When finished, the museum will complete the conservation of the world famous Tudor warship, which has already spanned over 25 years, and build a permanent museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to reunite the hull and her artefacts.
During the excavation from 1971-1982, 19,000 artefacts were raised from the wreck, and these have served to add to the intrigue of one of the most haunting maritime disasters in history. Sadly only 6% of these artefacts are currently on display to the public in the Mary Rose Museum. The rest remain in storage hidden away from public view, mainly due to space constraints.
It’s some of these priceless artefacts you will get to see if you become a Mary Rose 500 new crew member, before some go on display in the new museum.
The artefacts themselves range from human remains through to organic food remains, weapons and surgeons’ tools. Every social facet of Tudor life is illustrated and tells a story. All are wonderfully preserved and provide a unique illustration spanning many social levels of 16th century domestic and maritime life.
For someone like myself with a passion for marine archaeology, the tour of the Reserve Collection took me back to being a little girl in a sweet shop. I was actually able to handle one of the long bows salvaged from the ship and look at some of the rare textiles found, including a child’s leather doublet, a multitude of leather shoes and the barber surgeon’s hat.
Other highlights included the nit comb complete with 500- year-old nits and the jars of preserved ointment from the surgeon’s toolkit – wonderful!
But the best part for me, a local girl from Portsmouth, was coming face to face with a complete skeleton of one of the original crew members, who was probably also a local, but five hundred years my senior – I’d like to add. I felt prickles down my spine thinking that this man, who died in his 30’s when the ship sank in 1545, was a fellow local.
This man’s skeleton is just one of around 100 skeletons found on the wreck of Mary Rose ranging from children up to men in their forties, from the lowliest crew member right up to the gentry. The human remains from the ship have been undergoing a meticulous examination since their excavation and will never be on display in the new museum. It is a haunting reminder that the Mary Rose is also a grave as well as an important historical resource.
But a visit to the Reserve Collection is not the only good reason to join the Mary Rose 500 new crew. What greater reason could there be than to be part of conserving the world famous Tudor warship for prosperity and for future generations.
If you have an interest in history and a passion for heritage it’s really important that you think about becoming involved. Help put Portsmouth on the map as a centre of excellence for maritime archaeology and as a prime tourist attraction in the South.
If you choose to become a new crew member, you’ll also get to meet some great people along the way and have some fun too. We’ve just finished our second ‘Drench A Wench’ event for the appeal and are just a little way off raising our £500 for the cause. I’ve got a tremendous amount of satisfaction from helping a cause that I’m so passionate about.
Join the new crew and you’ll get that too…
Mary Rose 500
