Based on "So you think the Mary Rose sank on her Maiden Voyage? Think again…", a Third Thursday Talk at the Mary Rose Museum by Chris Figgins, Costumed Interpreter.
A lot of people have heard the popular myth about the Mary Rose sinking on her maiden voyage. We're fairly sure that originated with Blue Peter, due to some confusion. The Vasa, a ship from Sweden mentioned in our original press release, did sink on her maiden voyage, despite failing a stability test that resulted in the Admiral deciding not to be on board for the launch! However, that story is one that has clung to the Mary Rose since her raising in 1982.
The Mary Rose was launched in 1511, and sank 34 years later, on July 19th 1545, as depicted in the Cowdray engravings, copies of paintings until recently believed to have been commissioned by Sir Anthony Browne, but recent research has suggested that they were a gift from Henry VIII.
The Cowdray engraving that depicts the Battle of the Solent shows the events of the whole day, with French soldiers encountering the Isle of Wight Militia, the French and English Fleets, and, of course, the sinking of the Mary Rose.
The French fleet, the largest since 1066 and containing more ships than the Spanish Armada, included several Galleys, row-barges that could go against the wind and tide and create havoc, which had been loaned to the French by the Pope. During the Battle of the Solent they were used to try and draw out the English Fleet, as the French were unfamiliar with the sandbanks of the Solent and wanted to draw them out towards deeper water. Luckily, the English captains weren’t as impulsive as the French had hoped, and they waited until the wind was in their favour.
Despite the huge number of witnesses, the reason for the sinking of the Mary Rose is still a mystery. The French claimed they did it, but this may simply be the Admiral, Claude de Annalbart, trying to save his own reputation, as previously during the campaign he’d lost his first flagship to fire, and a second when it ran aground. However, none of the other eyewitnesses make this claim, although recently Dr Dominic Fontana of the University of Portsmouth claimed that a piece of stone shot found in the hold was made of stone found in France, which got a lot of media coverage. However, the "French" stone is also found in Cornwall and Scotland, and the shot itself was found in a shot locker, so this theory is generally discarded.
There have been many alternative suggestions made, form the silly "The entire crew rushed to one side to look at the King" (as when you are "up to your neck in muck, bullets and Frenchmen", your first priority is to gawp at a celebrity!), to the slightly more sensible "The gun crews forgot to close the gunports", although you have to wonder how 140 men can forget to do something as important as close the holes in the side of the ship! While the responsibility for the sinking has to go to the highest ranking officer, Rear Admiral George Carew, there may have been many small events which caused the Mary Rose to sink, we’ll never know for sure.
Mary Rose 500
