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This famous ship was a Carrack with a
length of 105 feet along the keel, a breadth of 38.3 feet and a depth of
15.1 feet. She was built of wood at Portsmouth Dockyard in England in
1510. She was the beginning of the future warships built of wood that
would later become the “wooden walls” of England. At the beginning of
the sixteenth century, ships were used primarily for moving troops and
sea fights consisted of pitched battles at close quarters where crew and
soldiers fought for the capture of the enemy ship via hand to hand
combat. Even after the development of the cannon in the fourteenth
century, naval guns were essentially for use against opposing soldiers
and sailors massed in preparation for a boarding action. Fighting ships
tended to have towering “castles” fore and aft, from which gunners and
archers could fire down onto their opponents. The evolution of antiship
gunnery became possible with the development of guns of increased range
and weight of shot. Because of stability requirements for the ship, the
guns could only be mounted low down in the hull. This could not take
place until watertight gunports were realized in the early 1500’s. Much
of this was discovered only recently with the raising of what is left of
the MARY ROSE.
Thus, the oldest extant ship in which these converging technologies is
seen is the MARY ROSE. She was one of the first purpose built warships
built by Henry VIII and named after his sister. She was carvel-built,
one of the last warships to be built this way. Gunners were just
becoming important for a warship, as indicated by the fact that her
compliment consisted of 200 sailors, 185 soldiers, and 30 gunners. In
her day, MARY ROSE was not only one of the first gun platform to perform
well, but also did well as a sailing ship. Admiral Sir Edward Howard
reported that she was the finest warship in Christendom.
The sailing event was in 1511 when the MARY ROSE sailed as the flagship
of Howard’s fleet of twenty ships patrolling, with a Spanish fleet,
between Brest and the then English port of Calais. The following year
King Henry VIII joined the Holy League of the Papal States and Venice in
order to confront France’s Louis XII. The first taste of real battle for
the MARY ROSE was on August 10, 1512, when Howard attached the French
fleet in Brest. The action resulted in Howard destroying or capturing 32
French ships along with 800 prisoners. In one spectacular event, the
French flagship LA CORDELIERE caught fire along with the English warship
REGENT. Fire was a major disaster at sea and this one resulted in the
loss of all but 6 of the crew of 1500 which manned the LA CORDELIERE.
One the English side, the REGENT did not fair much better, only 180 of
her crew of 700 survived.
In April of 1513 Howard was killed at the blockade of Brest. King Henry
VIII named his older brother, Sir Thomas Howard, as his replacement.
MARY ROSE next participated in the ferrying of the English army to
Calais where they were victorious later in the battle of the Spurs. This
was immediately followed by the MARY ROSE sailing north to Scotland,
where Howard took part in the defeat of James IV at the Battle of
Flodden Field. MARY ROSE continued in service to the English crown until
1536, when she went in for a major refit. She came out of this refit
with 91 guns now aboard including bronze culverins, demi-culverins,
sakers and falcons.
MARY ROSE continued to serve the king in his efforts against the French
king through 1544. In 1545, Francis I mounted an invasion of Portsmouth
with a force of 30,000 troops carried in 235 ships. Most people do not
realize it today, but this force was better organized than the Spanish
Armada and almost succeeded were the Spanish failed. Henry’s defensive
force consisted of only sixty ships at Portsmouth, with forty more en
route, manned by a total of 12,000 crew. The French fleet arrived off
the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth on July 18th. The English fleet
weighted anchor to meet the threat. The MARY ROSE was part of the fleet,
being commanded by Admiral Sir George Carew, who was just appointed. The
next day the French were tactically in a very good position, even with
the loss of the French flagship LA MAITRESSE, which sprang a leek and
sank off St. Helen’s. The French galleys advanced on the English fleet
and started firing in the GREAT HARRY. The wind sprang up from the north
and the English fleet began to advance to support the GREAT HARRY.
Unfortunately, MARY ROSE was having problems. According to contemporary
sources, Admiral Carew’s last words were “I have the sort of knaves I
cannot rule.” This must have been the case, since the MARY ROSE had not
secured her guns nor closed the lower gunports. As a result, the MARY
ROSE suddenly heeled, flooded, and sank with the loss of all but 35 of
her complement. Since she had all her boarding nets up it was impossible
to escape the ship – most of her crew could not swim anyway. Despite
this major loss, the French forces, even though they landed four days
later on the Isle of Wight and the coast of Sussex, were defeated and
sent packing. The French fleet was back in Le Havre by August 17th.
Immediate efforts were made to salvage the MARY ROSE. There was no
problem finding her, since her upper masts were protruding from the
water where she had sank. The only thing they could bring up at that
time were a few of her guns. Almost 200 years later, in 1836, the divers
John and Charles Deane investigated the wreck. They recovered four
bronze and four complete wrought-iron guns and a few other things but
stopped in 1840. The site of the wreck was then again forgotten until
the ship was again found in 1970. History was made 12 years later when
the starboard side of the MARY ROSE was raised from the deep and housed
at Portsmouth Naval Base where it is on public display today. Thus the
MARY ROSE now is composed of a four or five story structure complete
with everything it contained on the day in 1545 when she sank. There are
surgeons instruments, bows and arrows and other archer supplies,
navigation items, clothing from the crew, etc., all on display for all
to see. Many of the pre-conceived ideas on naval construction were
either confirmed or shown to be false – this is the only surviving
pictorial evidence of what life was like in Tudor-era ships.
There is a kit model of this ship that is authorized by the Mary Rose
Trust based on the most up to date research and information. This kit is
in the scale of 1:80 and is offered by Caldercraft. The material in the
kit includes CNC cut in walnut and walnut ply; double plank-on-frame
construction in lime and walnut; deck planking material, rigging thread
and blocks; brass etched and white metal fittings; 8 sheets of plans and
construction manual. More information and details can be obtained on
both the MARY ROSE herself and the kit model via the internet for those
who are interested.
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