The Mary Rose... But It Wasn't Simply Just One.

This vast English warship (carrick-type vessel) was first commissioned during Henry VIII's reign and often served as the flagship of the fleet of that time period. It was built in Portsmouth, England, between the years of 1509 & 1511, where she served in the Royal Navy until it was sunk in 1545.

I find it disturbing yet interesting too, that this great ship of the time, never left any exact details of its overall dimensions. No accuracy of these records was ever documented or recorded.

Suffice to say, only rough approximations are available of these. According to Britannica, this ship ran lengths ranging from 110 feet (34 meters) to 148 feet (45 meters) end-to-end, with an initial weight of up to 600 tons. The Mary Rose was heavily armed, with the vessel carrying 60–80 guns and had a crew of 400–500 men. The main building block of the Mary Rose was designed & erected from walnut wood, revered for its rich, dark color, and its propensity to last.

Just a little factoid that was not known about back in the 16th-century but, did you know that the fruit, leaves, and roots of black walnut trees contain a chemical, juglone. Ingesting even a small amount of pure juglone can cause a serious poisoning effect in humans.

So, no licking the wood!

Around the time of 1536, the Mary Rose was heavily fortified, transforming her into a 700-ton prototype galleon, to encompass an array of powerful batteries of heavy cannon (capable of inflicting serious damage on other ships from a distance) The existing high castles were cut down, her decks strengthened, and she was armed with heavy guns, with both 15 large bronze guns, 24 wrought-iron carriage guns, and 52 smaller anti-personnel guns.

The fortification of the Mary Rose had come about as the solution of the time, for engaging in 16th-century warfare.

King Henry VIII's sinister warship went into battle twice, once against France, with the other being against Scotland (Flodden Field.)

Sadly, this vast ship saw its own demise whilst in the Solent in Portsmouth on July 19th, 1545 , sunk whilst engaging French gunfire.

The Mary Rose, raised from the seabed in 1982, was the flagship of Henry VIII’s navy and now sits in her permanent home within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. There are a number of theories as to how the ship sank in the Solent in Portsmouth in July 1545 – though whatever the cause, her demise was swift. Here, we bring you seven facts about the Tudor war vessel, which was the flagship of Henry VIII's navy for 34 years…

How was this great ship discovered?

It was discovered in 1965, in joint efforts with the Southsea branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, and Alexander Paul Charrier McKee OBE, initiated 'Project Solent Ships,' to investigate wrecks in the Solent. His real hope was to find the Mary Rose. By using sonar scans, the team discovered a strange shape underneath the seabed. Mckee suspected he had found his quest at that moment. Between 1968 and 1971, a team of volunteer divers explored the area. Using dredgers, water jets, and airlifts, they began excavation of the underwater terrain and were encouraged by the appearance of stray pieces of timber. From then onward, the 5th of May 1971 saw three of the port frames of the Mary Rose by Percy Ackland.

The initial search team decided to excavate the ship in its entirety, from that point onward, seeing in the formation of the Mary Rose Trust in 1979 with H.R.H. The Prince of Wales as president. Full-time staff members were then appointed to carry out the work of excavating the ship and revealing her contents.

Just over 500 volunteer divers, and many more volunteers on shore, helped with the work of the raising of the historic ship, the Mary Rose.

This video clip (below) shows the raising of this historic ship on the 11th of October 1982.

Courtesy of YouTube Raising the Mary Rose, 1982 (accessed by author, dated 17.10.2021.)

But why did the Mary Rose sink?

There are some suggestions bandied around during discussions over just how the Mary Rose did sink, but they did not hold any solid evidence:

Stucturally unstable.

Hitting an iceberg.

Now this one did make me laugh as one explanation given was that the gun ports were open to let out the smell of poo!

(Discover the Mary Rose.)

Doomed itself by having unskilled seamen on board that didn’t correctly maneuver the ship.

Human error could also have caused the sinking by insubordination or mistaken judgment about the strength, of their French sea attackers of the era.

Surviving eyewitnesses claim that a sudden strong wind may have struck the sails at just the right angle to turn the ship over. Theorists believe that these reports led to their theorizing that the weather could have been blamed.

Uneven weight load distribution. She could have had too heavy a load of cannons and sailors, for its build.

Historic Mysteries.

Whatever really was the reason for the watery gravesite of the wreck of the Mary Rose, it would, nevertheless, remain an undisclosed fact, at the very least until it would be discovered 426 years later, in 1971.

Now at this point in my article, I would like to reflect upon, what can be seen as familiar patterns of excuses, that can be highlighted from these structures, being those at sea (Mary Rose), in the air (Concorde,) and lastly toward space exploration (STS-51-L.)

At which point I would like to share with you, two past articles that I have written about, so you can draw your own conclusions from them:

And also,

Take a look at an excuse given for 'retirement' of the Concorde fleet of aircraft:

One of Cocorde's fleet of aircraft crashed near Paris (France) killing 113 people (109 passengers, and 4 people on the ground.) Following on from a huge cash injection of £17m being spent on safety improvements, Concorde returned to active commercial service, just months later in November 2001.

And then take a look at the agreed cause of the STS-51-L shuttle disaster:

- a single joint in its right-side solid rocket booster (SRB) which failed on liftoff. This was caused by the failure of the seals used in the joint that were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions that existed at this launch. The ambient air temperature is usually quoted as 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 degrees Celsius) at launch time, but the temperature near the failed Solid Rocket Booster joint at that time was estimated to be just 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2.2 degrees Celsius.)

What common link can you see, standing out screaming at you?

They all had human error to blame.

Faults were laid to blame on the Mary Rose sinking, due to a lack of sufficient training for onboard sailors. Faults were laid to blame for Concorde having too heavy a flight payload. Faults were laid to blame that STS-51-L had been launched in an extreme range of temperature

Of course, yes, blame was also laid on tools, resources, and equipment too but, these again can be laid down right at the feet of the humans who designed and piloted them also.

Remember the age-old saying?

A workman always blames his tools.

So do you reckon that manufacturers blame their tools too? Well, in these disasters they certainly were happy to do just that. Just to close shortly, I am going to leave you with a thought around two other historical sea disasters:

1. Townsend Thorensen.

MS Herald of Free Enterprise.

'...appears the ferry then left port with her bow doors open and the extra ballast still in her tanks. Water began flowing onto the car deck and the vessel quickly became unstable'.

Reported by BBC News dated, 6th March 1987.

2.Carnival Corporation & PLC.

Costa Concordia.

A recording was released in which the coastguard ordered Captain Schettino to 'get back on board.'

Capt Schettino was arrested and later went on trial, charged with multiple counts of manslaughter and abandoning ship.

He admitted making a navigational error, and told investigators he had 'ordered the turn too late,' as the ship sailed close to th island.

The ship's owners, Costa Cruises, said the captain had made an "unapproved, unauthorised" deviation in course, sailing too close to the island in order to show the ship to locals.

News Europe dated, 10th February 2015.

Takeaway thoughts?

It is pretty simple for anyone to see the link in all four of these individual disasters don't you think. Each one had human involvement in either the planning, building, or piloting of them. In all, there were those that chose to blame the weather or the equipment, or the people directly involved, but, as the old saying DOES GO... 'a workman always blames his tools.'

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