Mary Rose Treasures Revealed
Relics from Henry VIII's flagship, the
Mary Rose, have gone on show for the first time since they sank to the seabed in 1545. The Tudor artefacts, which include sailors' shoes, rat bones, a fiddle and nit combs, offer a unique insight into life aboard one of British history's most famous ships.
The relics are on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, which currently can only display 6 per cent of the 19,000 objects that were recovered almost 30 years ago due to lack of space. A new Mary Rose Museum, which plans to exhibit 70 per cent of the items, is under construction to be opened in 2012, provided the
Mary Rose Trust can raise the final £1 million it needs from a public appeal for the £35 million project.
The
Mary Rose sank in the Solent in 1545 while attempting to repel the French Navy. The Genesis miniature edition
THE RELIC OF THE MARY ROSE is a delightful book, published in 1983, soon after the ship's hull was raised from the seabed, and is devoted to the story of the sinking of the Tudor ship, each copy bound with an inlay of lacquered English Oak from the
Mary Rose and signed by Margaret Rule, Archeological Director of the Mary Rose Trust.
Above: Sailors' leather shoes and a nit comb, complete with nits. Click
here to see more of the fascinating artefacts.
