Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom
Friday, October 14, 2005
Mary Rose yields more relics
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The Guardian
By Maev Kennedy
October 12, 2005
A question which must have anguished Henry VIII on July 19 1545, as he watched his flagship sink barely a mile out to sea, may have been answered yesterday. A 10-metre length of curved Tudor elm, prised from the deep silt on the bed of the Solent, may finally explain the disaster which overwhelmed the Mary Rose, and the 700 men and boys who sailed in her.
The Mary Rose was the pride of his navy. In 1545 it had just undergone a major refit which may have sealed its fate. It put to sea to fight the French carrying almost twice the normal crew, and heavy new guns. It sank so fast, apparently from taking in water, that all but a handful of men went down with it.
A massive iron anchor from the ship was also lifted yesterday, but the timber is regarded as one of the most important finds since most of the hull of the ship was located, and lifted 23 years ago, on October 11 1982.
"Fantastic!" Margaret Rule, senior archaeologist on the project for over 30 years, said as she watched the wood being hauled up by a crane on to the dive ship Terschelling. "This piece of timber should tell us a great deal. Was she a fine ship, was she a blunt pig, did she roll or did she cut the water well?" The wood is the crucial missing section of the stem timber, which broke off as the ship settled into the silt, spilling corpses, guns and thousands of artefacts which made the wreck a unique snapshot of Tudor life at sea across the seabed.
The ship was one of a pair recorded as costing £700 to build. Gradually preserving and drying out the timber has cost over £500,000 every year, and there are still at least five years to go. Eventually the hull and the thousands of recovered artefacts will be displayed together in a new museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This is the last of three dive seasons paid for by the Ministry of Defence, whose proposal to dredge a new channel for the next giant generation of aircraft carriers threatened the wreck site, and the divers' last task will be to bury again much of what they found.
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www.dofundodomar.blogspot.com
The Guardian
By Maev Kennedy
October 12, 2005
A question which must have anguished Henry VIII on July 19 1545, as he watched his flagship sink barely a mile out to sea, may have been answered yesterday. A 10-metre length of curved Tudor elm, prised from the deep silt on the bed of the Solent, may finally explain the disaster which overwhelmed the Mary Rose, and the 700 men and boys who sailed in her.
The Mary Rose was the pride of his navy. In 1545 it had just undergone a major refit which may have sealed its fate. It put to sea to fight the French carrying almost twice the normal crew, and heavy new guns. It sank so fast, apparently from taking in water, that all but a handful of men went down with it.
A massive iron anchor from the ship was also lifted yesterday, but the timber is regarded as one of the most important finds since most of the hull of the ship was located, and lifted 23 years ago, on October 11 1982.
"Fantastic!" Margaret Rule, senior archaeologist on the project for over 30 years, said as she watched the wood being hauled up by a crane on to the dive ship Terschelling. "This piece of timber should tell us a great deal. Was she a fine ship, was she a blunt pig, did she roll or did she cut the water well?" The wood is the crucial missing section of the stem timber, which broke off as the ship settled into the silt, spilling corpses, guns and thousands of artefacts which made the wreck a unique snapshot of Tudor life at sea across the seabed.
The ship was one of a pair recorded as costing £700 to build. Gradually preserving and drying out the timber has cost over £500,000 every year, and there are still at least five years to go. Eventually the hull and the thousands of recovered artefacts will be displayed together in a new museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This is the last of three dive seasons paid for by the Ministry of Defence, whose proposal to dredge a new channel for the next giant generation of aircraft carriers threatened the wreck site, and the divers' last task will be to bury again much of what they found.
____
www.dofundodomar.blogspot.com
