Henry VIII's Flagship The Mary Rose Finally Reveals Her Secrets

The Mary Rose is a Tudor ship, built in 1510 for the newly crowned King Henry VIII.
It was in service for 34 years, sank in 1545. Rediscovered in 1971.
Raised in 1982. Now in the final stages of conservation,
She now takes her place in a stunning and unique museum.



The £35m purpose-built museum for Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose will officially open in Portsmouth 31st May 2013.

The 16th Century hull will once again be on display at the Historic Dockyard museum - yards from where the Tudor warship was built 500 years ago, and the new museum finally reunites the Mary Rose with many thousands of the 19,000 artefacts found with it.
The ship was discovered in 1971 and raised from the seabed of the Solent in 1982.
The new museum will be fully open to the public from Friday, but tickets do have to be pre-booked.

Forensic science experts, more used to working with murder victims, have recreated amazing likenesses of some of the crew using skulls found with the wreck, which will give visitors the chance to come face-to-face with the cook, carpenter, archer, and even the ship's dog 'Hatch' . Some of the areas of the ship such as the surgeon's cabin and the gun deck, where they lived and worked, have also been recreated with dimly lit interiors and groaning sounds of the sea outside all combining to give visitors a sense of being on board the 16th Century vessel.

The crew's quarters are all visible, while rows of cannons line the main deck, pointing out of the open gunports ready to be fired at enemy ships. It is a Tudor time capsule - dubbed "Britain's Pompeii" by historian David Starkey - and its custodians cannot wait to show it off. Every artefact on show is an original piece found with the wreck. Some of the cannons were still sticking out of the gunports when it was discovered in 1971

Up to 500 men and boys died when the ship sank and the new museum has been dedicated to them. A day of events to mark the opening, started with the laying of a wreath at the spot where it sank. The Mary Rose Bell was then taken by Naval escort from the wreck site and into the museum. A giant Tudor flag will cover the museum until it is lowered to a fanfare by the band of the Royal Marines. The day-long event will mark the symbolic journey of the ship's bell as the last artefact to be placed into the new Mary Rose museum ahead of its public opening. 
Since it was brought up, the hull has been constantly sprayed with water and wax chemicals, but the jets were turned off last month. For the next four years it will be kept in a "hot box" chamber to be dried out, but visitors to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will be able to view it through windows. After that the hull will be on full view in the museum, in which a mirror image of the decks has been created to give people a feeling of what life was like on the ship.

The Mary Rose saw 34 years of service before she sank while leading an attack on a French invasion fleet in 1545. King Henry VIII watched from Southsea Castle as it disappeared, killing all but 35 of the crew. Most of them drowned, trapped underneath netting designed to prevent the enemy from boarding.

The bulk of the £35m funding for the museum and conservation project came from a £23m Heritage Lottery Fund grant, with remaining cash raised through various charitable trusts, fundraising and sponsors.



To coincide with the opening of this prestigious museum, Hobbies are pleased to offer the stunning Caldercroft 1:80 scale Marie Rose Model Kit. This impressive model kit features quality wood and metal components, along with full size plans and comprehensive manual which will delight and challenge both professional and enthusiastic beginner modellers.