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94-422: Shuvalov's gun had an unusual, oval bore, which was designed to facilitate shot dispersal while firing canisters and therefore to increase the beaten zone . A special canister round produced for the cannon contained 168 balls; a grapeshot version, with 48 larger balls, was also provided for shooting at 300–600 yards distance. The name of the gun comes from the great secrecy which surrounded it. While not in use,

188-637: A de facto permanent "Navy Royal", the organizational ancestor of the modern Royal Navy . Construction of Mary Rose began on 29 January 1510 in Portsmouth and she was launched in July 1511. She was then towed to London and fitted with rigging and decking , and supplied with armaments. Other than the structural details needed to sail, stock and arm the Mary Rose , she was also equipped with flags, banners and streamers (extremely elongated flags that were flown from

282-410: A pomegranate . According to Childs, Loades and Marsden, the two ships, which were built around the same time, were named in honour of the king and queen, respectively. The Mary Rose was substantially rebuilt in 1536. The 1536 rebuilding turned a ship of 500 tons into one of 700 tons, and added an entire extra tier of broadside guns to the old carrack -style structure. By consequence, modern research

376-484: A canister round are the 76 mm and 105 mm tank guns and the 120 mm MOBAT and WOMBAT recoilless anti-tank guns. Shrapnel shells—named for the inventor, British artillery officer Henry Shrapnel —were developed from canister during the Napoleonic Wars and were intended to deliver the same canister effect, but at much longer ranges. As a result, its early designation was "spherical case shot". Instead of

470-637: A canister round, the M1028, for the M1 Abrams ' 120 mm smoothbore gun in time for the 2003 invasion of Iraq . The effect is to turn a large-caliber gun on an armored fighting vehicle into a giant shotgun . This can be used against enemy infantry even when in proximity to friendly armoured vehicles, as the projectiles do not penetrate armour. In addition it can be used to create entry points to buildings, reduce wire obstacles and clear heavy vegetation, as well as strike low flying aircraft and helicopters. At times when

564-408: A considerable proportion of longbow archers. Examination of the skeletal remains has found that there was a disproportionate number of men with a condition known as os acromiale , affecting their shoulder blades . This condition is known among modern elite archery athletes and is caused by placing considerable stress on the arm and shoulder muscles, particularly of the left arm that is used to hold

658-608: A depression. Canister shot was also used to good effect by U.S. Marine 37 mm anti-tank guns in World War II to break up Japanese banzai charges . During the Korean War United Nations tanks experienced close-range massed infantry attacks from Communist forces. As a consequence a canister-type tank round was introduced to "sweep" enemy infantry off friendly tanks without harming friendly tank crews, who were behind canister-proof armor. UK weapons known to have fielded

752-579: A devastating shotgun effect. Trials made with replicas of culverins and port pieces showed that they could penetrate wood the same thickness of the Mary Rose's hull planking, indicating a stand-off range of at least 90 m (300 ft). The port pieces proved particularly efficient at smashing large holes in wood when firing stone shot and were a devastating anti-personnel weapon when loaded with flakes or pebbles. To defend against being boarded, Mary Rose carried large stocks of melee weapons, including pikes and bills ; 150 of each kind were stocked on

846-545: A force of galleys from the Mediterranean, which sank one English ship and seriously damaged another. Howard landed forces near Brest, but made no headway against the town and was by now getting low on supplies. Attempting to force a victory, he took a small force of small oared vessels on a daring frontal attack on the French galleys on 25 April . Howard himself managed to reach the ship of French admiral, Prégent de Bidoux , and led

940-461: A joint, but ill-coordinated, French-Breton fleet at the battle of St. Mathieu . The English with one of the great ships in the lead (according to Marsden the Mary Rose ) battered the French ships with heavy gunfire and forced them to retreat. The Breton flagship Cordelière put up a fight and was boarded by the 1,000-ton Regent . By accident or through the unwillingness of the Breton crew to surrender,

1034-421: A possible "piss-dale", a general urinal to complement the regular toilets which would probably have been located in the bow. The castles of the Mary Rose had additional decks, but since almost nothing of them survives, their design has had to be reconstructed from historical records. Contemporary ships of equal size were consistently listed as having three decks in both castles. Although speculative, this layout

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1128-509: A rare type of firearm consisting of a wooden shield with a small gun fixed in the middle. Throughout her 33-year career, the crew of the Mary Rose changed several times and varied considerably in size. It would have a minimal skeleton crew of 17 men or fewer in peacetime and when she was " laid up in ordinary " (in reserve). The average wartime manning would have been about 185 soldiers, 200 sailors, 20–30 gunners and an assortment of other specialists such as surgeons, trumpeters and members of

1222-410: A small party to board it. The French fought back fiercely and cut the cables that attached the two ships, separating Howard from his men. It left him at the mercy of the soldiers aboard the galley, who instantly killed him. Demoralised by the loss of its admiral and seriously short of food, the fleet returned to Plymouth . Thomas Howard , elder brother of Edward, was assigned the new Lord Admiral, and

1316-407: A square sail might be equipped with a bonnet – an extra section of sail that is laced onto the foot of a square sail. Instead of reefing, the bonnet was removed. Lacing that would suit a bonnet was found on Mary Rose . When the wreck of Mary Rose was first recovered, there was surprise that this was not the beamy vessel that was expected. The relatively narrow length to breadth ratio

1410-589: A square sail; and the bowsprit set a small square spritsail . According to the Anthony Roll illustration (see top of this section), the yards (the spars from which the sails were set) on the foremast and mainmast were also equipped with sheerhooks – twin curved blades sharpened on the inside – that were intended to cut an enemy ship's rigging during boarding actions. The operation of Mary Rose 's rig and some of its fitments were substantially different from several phases of later versions of square rig. All

1504-495: A tin can filled with metal balls, the shrapnel shells carry a small powder charge to break open the case and disperse the shrapnel. Grapeshot was a geometric arrangement of round shot packed tightly into a canvas bag and separated from the gunpowder charge by a metal disk of full bore diameter. Grapeshot used fewer but larger projectiles than were contained within canister or shrapnel shells. Case shot broadly describes any multi-projectile artillery ammunition. The canister round

1598-434: A variety of ammunition intended to destroy rigging and light structure or injure enemy personnel. The majority of the guns were small iron guns with short range that could be aimed and fired by a single person. The two most common are the bases , breech-loading swivel guns , most likely placed in the castles, and hailshot pieces , small muzzle-loaders with rectangular bores and fin-like protrusions that were used to support

1692-563: A weakened strategic position on its southern flank. Despite this, Henry VII managed to maintain a comparatively long period of peace and a small but powerful core of a navy. At the onset of the early modern period , the great European powers were France, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain . All three became involved in the War of the League of Cambrai in 1508. The conflict was initially aimed at

1786-463: Is carvel built. The ship is an early example of this method of construction in England. Her hull shape is now known to have been set out using the three arc method of producing the hull cross section. This geometric process is similar to that known to have been used some two hundred years later, so giving a much earlier date for this technique. This, and studies of other ships specified in the 15th century,

1880-434: Is based mostly on interpretations of the concrete physical evidence of this version of the Mary Rose . The construction of the original design from 1509 is less known. The Mary Rose was built according to the carrack -style with high "castles" fore and aft with a low waist of open decking in the middle. The hull has tumblehome : above the waterline, the hull gradually narrows. This makes boarding more difficult and reduces

1974-481: Is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 by statutory instrument 1974/55. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England. The finds include weapons, sailing equipment, naval supplies, and a wide array of objects used by the crew. Many of the artefacts are unique to the Mary Rose and have provided insights into topics ranging from naval warfare to the history of musical instruments. The remains of

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2068-495: Is known as a case, so canister was sometimes called case shot and the term has confusingly become generic for grapeshot and shrapnel shells. However, the term case shot is also used to describe a hollow ball containing a powder charge and bullets. After firing the iron ball the powder would explode, scattering the bullets. Mary Rose The Mary Rose was a carrack in the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII . She

2162-458: Is subject to conflicting testimonies and a lack of conclusive evidence. In the late 15th century, England was still reeling from its dynastic wars first with France and then among its ruling families back on home soil. The great victories against France in the Hundred Years' War were in the past; only the small exclave of Calais in northern France remained of the vast continental holdings of

2256-410: Is suggestive that the three arc methodology was probably already in existence before the time Mary Rose was built. The construction sequence began with laying the keel and setting up the stem and sternpost. The midships frame and a few other frames (master frames) controlled the shape of the hull, so the floor s in those positions were fastened to the top of the keel. Then planking started with

2350-473: Is supported by the illustration in the Anthony Roll and the gun inventories. During the early stages of excavation of the wreck, it was erroneously believed that the ship had originally been built with clinker (or clench) planking, a technique in which the hull consisted of overlapping planks that bore the structural strength of the ship. Cutting gunports into a clinker-built hull would have meant weakening

2444-403: The garboard s being fastened to the keel and those floors that were already installed. A temporary timber batten (called a ribband) was fastened across the floors that had been fitted and the remaining floors were shaped to fit the curve delineated by the ribbands and the garboards. The keelson was fastened over the top of the floors and planking continued up from the garboards to near the end of

2538-709: The Battle of Brice's Cross Roads the Confederates used this method. At times, trained artillerists would fire the canister shot towards the ground in front of advancing enemy troops, causing the conical pattern to flatten out as the balls ricocheted and skipped off the terrain. This in effect widened the killing zone. An example of this tactic was on the first day of Gettysburg , where Lt. James Stewart's Battery B, 4th U.S. Artillery on Seminary Ridge skipped canister shot at Alfred M. Scales 's approaching Confederate infantry , breaking up their attack and forcing them to take cover in

2632-505: The Bay of Biscay and then attacked Gascony . The 35-year-old Sir Edward Howard was appointed Lord High Admiral in April and chose the Mary Rose as his flagship . His first mission was to clear the seas of French naval forces between England to the northern coast of Spain to allow for the landing of supporting troops near the French border at Fuenterrabia . The fleet consisted of 18 ships, among them

2726-610: The Henry Grace à Dieu and the Mary Rose performed very well, riding steadily in rough seas and that it would have been a "hard chose" between the two. The reports of good sailing performance early in her career did not continue after successive repairs and the major rebuild altered her characteristics. The Mary Rose represented a transitional ship design in naval warfare. Since ancient times, war at sea had been fought much as on land: with melee weapons and bows and arrows, only on floating wooden platforms rather than battlefields. Though

2820-558: The Mary Rose were commented on by her contemporaries and were once even put to the test. In March 1513 a contest was arranged off The Downs , east of Kent , in which she raced against nine other ships. She won the contest, and Admiral Edward Howard described her enthusiastically as "the noblest ship of sayle [of any] gret ship, at this howr, that I trow [believe] be in Cristendom". Several years later, while sailing between Dover and The Downs, Vice-Admiral William Fitzwilliam noted that both

2914-505: The Mary Rose Trust in one of the most complex and expensive maritime salvage projects in history. The surviving section of the ship and thousands of recovered artefacts are of great value as a Tudor period time capsule. The excavation and raising of the Mary Rose was a milestone in the field of maritime archaeology, comparable in complexity and cost to the raising of the 17th-century Swedish warship Vasa in 1961. The Mary Rose site

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3008-526: The Red Bay wreck 24M . There is some fastening of floors to timbers in Mary Rose that is less systematic and robust, but there are no treenails connecting frame elements to each other as seen on later vessels. This demonstrates that the hull was not made by first building the hull framework and then adding the planking once that was complete. Instead planking and framing were carried out in alternating steps, with later futtocks being added as planking carried on up to

3102-717: The Regent and Three Ostrich Feathers (referring to the crest of the Prince of Wales ). The Virgin Mary is a more likely candidate for a namesake, and she was also associated with the Rosa Mystica (mystic rose). The name of the sister ship of the Mary Rose , the Peter Pomegranate , is believed to have been named in honour of Saint Peter , and the badge of the Queen Catharine of Aragon ,

3196-732: The Republic of Venice but eventually turned against France. England's close economic relationship with the Low Countries , ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs and any ambition of the young Henry VIII to recover territory in France made Spain the obvious ally. In 1509, six weeks into his reign, Henry married the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon and joined the League, intent on certifying his historical claim as king of both England and France. By 1511 Henry

3290-689: The English kings. The War of the Roses  – the civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster  – had ended with Henry VII 's establishment of the House of Tudor , the new ruling dynasty of England. The ambitious naval policies of Henry V were not continued by his successors, and from 1422 to 1509 only six ships were built for the crown. The marriage alliance between Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII of France in 1491, and his successor Louis XII in 1499, left England with

3384-424: The French. Before seeing action, she took part in a race against other ships where she was deemed to be one of the most nimble and the fastest of the great ships in the fleet (see details under " Sails and rigging "). On 11 April , Howard's force arrived off Brest only to see a small enemy force join with the larger force in the safety of Brest harbour and its fortifications. The French had recently been reinforced by

3478-501: The Observation Corps and howitzer units, in 1759 they were attached to the infantry regiments; however, next year the decision was reversed. Secret howitzers were withdrawn from service soon after the death of their inventor, in the 1780s. In practice the shot dispersal was hardly better than of ordinary guns, reloading was slower, and the inability of the cannon to fire any other projectiles hampered its effectiveness. Slow reloading

3572-400: The admiral's staff, for a total of 400–450 men. When taking part in land invasions or raids, such as in the summer of 1512, the number of soldiers could have swelled to just over 400 for a combined total of more than 700. Even with the normal crew size of around 400, the ship was quite crowded, and with additional soldiers would have been extremely cramped. Little is known of the identities of

3666-454: The advent of gunpowder-firing artillery in Western armies, and saw particularly frequent use on land and at sea in the various wars of the 18th and 19th century. Canister is still used today in modern artillery. Canister shot consists of a closed metal cylinder typically loosely filled with round lead or iron balls packed with sawdust to add more solidity and cohesion to the mass and to prevent

3760-399: The balls from crowding each other when the round was fired. The canister itself was usually made of tin , often dipped in a lacquer of beeswax diluted with turpentine to prevent corrosion of the metal. Iron was substituted for tin for larger-caliber guns. The ends of the canister were closed with wooden or metal disks. A cloth cartridge bag containing the round's gunpowder used to fire

3854-550: The bow to brace against the pull on the bowstring. Among the men who died on the ship it was likely that some had practised using the longbow since childhood, and served on board as specialist archers. A group of six skeletons was found grouped close to one of the 2-tonne bronze culverins on the main deck near the bow. Fusing of parts of the spine and ossification , the growth of new bone, on several vertebrae evidenced all but one of these crewmen to have been strong, well-muscled men who had been engaged in heavy pulling and pushing,

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3948-529: The building of the Mary Rose is unclear; although construction began during Henry VIII's reign, the plans for naval expansion could have been in the making earlier. Henry VIII oversaw the project and he ordered additional large ships to be built, most notably the Henry Grace à Dieu ("Henry by the Grace of God"), or Great Harry at more than 1000 tons burthen . By the 1520s the English state had established

4042-742: The canister from the gun barrel could be attached to the back of the metal canister for smaller caliber cannon. A sabot of wood, metal, or similar material was sometimes used to help the round during firing from the cannon. Various types of canister were devised for specific models of artillery field pieces. In 1753, the " secret howitzer ", a special gun with an oval bore—intended to spread shot even wider—was briefly introduced into Russian service, but ultimately proved unsuccessful. The Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich, London, holds examples of two early 18th century experimental French wide bore cannon—flattened tubes intended to scatter canister wide but in one horizontal plane. The United States Army developed

4136-403: The crew has been conjectured based on contemporary records. The Mary Rose would have carried a captain, a master responsible for navigation, and deck crew. There would also have been a purser responsible for handling payments, a boatswain , the captain's second in command, at least one carpenter, a pilot in charge of navigation, and a cook, all of whom had one or more assistants (mates). The ship

4230-528: The earliest examples of a purpose-built sailing warship. She was armed with new types of heavy guns that could fire through the recently invented gun-ports. She was substantially rebuilt in 1536 and was also one of the earliest ships that could fire a broadside , although the line of battle tactics had not yet been developed. Several theories have sought to explain the demise of the Mary Rose , based on historical records, knowledge of 16th-century shipbuilding, and modern experiments. The precise cause of her sinking

4324-470: The exception possibly being a " powder monkey " not involved in heavy work. These have been tentatively classified as members of a complete gun crew, all having died at their battle station. The Mary Rose first saw battle in 1512, in a joint naval operation with the Spanish against the French. The English were to meet the French and Breton fleets in the English Channel while the Spanish attacked them in

4418-471: The final battle, although the accuracy of the sourcing for this has been disputed by maritime archaeologist Peter Marsden. The bones of a total of 179 people were found during the excavations of the Mary Rose , including 92 "fairly complete skeletons", more or less complete collections of bones associated with specific individuals. Analysis of these has shown that crew members were all male, most of them young adults. Some were no more than 11–13 years old, and

4512-453: The floors. The first futtock s were then installed, again using ribbands to achieve a fair shape relative to the master frames. The hull construction continued with phases of planking and the fitting of second and third futtock until deck level was reached. Mary Rose does not have the characteristic dove-tailed mortises seen joining the floors and first futtocks in Basque -built ships such as

4606-531: The gun tube and fired simultaneously using a single charge. At the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, Mercer's Troop , Royal Horse Artillery , fired a roundshot and a canister from each gun as a double-shot. The roundshot was loaded first with the canister on top. Canister played a key role for Union forces during their defeat of Confederate troops in Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. In 1864 at

4700-441: The guns against the railing and allow the ship structure to take the force of the recoil. Though the design is unknown, there were two top pieces in a 1546 inventory (finished after the sinking) which were probably similar to a base, but placed in one or more of the fighting tops. The ship went through several changes in her armament throughout her career, most significantly accompanying her "rebuilding" in 1536 (see below), when

4794-483: The guns on one side of a ship – possible, at least in theory, for the first time in history. Naval tactics throughout the 16th century and well into the 17th century focused on countering the oar-powered galleys that were armed with heavy guns in the bow, facing forwards, which were aimed by turning the entire ship against its target. Combined with inefficient gunpowder and the difficulties inherent in firing accurately from moving platforms, this meant that boarding remained

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4888-650: The heavier design could possibly have been used to shoot fire arrows. The inventories of both 1514 and 1546 also list several hundred heavy darts and lime pots that were designed to be thrown onto the deck of enemy ships from the fighting tops, although no physical evidence of either of these weapon types has been identified. Of the 50 handguns listed in the Anthony Roll, the complete stocks of five matchlock muskets and fragments of another eleven have been found. They had been manufactured mainly in Italy, with some originating from Germany. Found in storage were several gunshields ,

4982-552: The historians David Childs, David Loades and Peter Marsden, no direct evidence of naming the ship after the King's sister exists. It was far more common at the time to give ships pious Christian names, a long-standing tradition in Western Europe, or to associate them with their royal patrons. Names like Grace Dieu ( Hallelujah ) and Holighost ( Holy Spirit ) had been common since the 15th century and other Tudor navy ships had names like

5076-533: The hull have been on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard since the mid-1980s while undergoing restoration. An extensive collection of well-preserved artefacts is on display at the Mary Rose Museum , built to display the remains of the ship and its artefacts. Mary Rose was one of the largest ships in the English navy through more than three decades of intermittent war, and she was one of

5170-467: The incident, making it the focal point of several contemporary chronicles and reports. On 11 August , the English burnt 27 French ships, captured another five and landed forces near Brest to raid and take prisoners, but storms forced the fleet back to Dartmouth in Devon and then to Southampton for repairs. In early 1513, the Mary Rose was once more chosen by Howard as the flagship for an expedition against

5264-438: The introduction of guns was a significant change, it only slowly changed the dynamics of ship-to-ship combat. As guns became heavier and able to take more powerful gunpowder charges, they needed to be placed lower in the ship, closer to the water line. Gunports cut in the hull of ships had been introduced as early as 1501, only about a decade before the Mary Rose was built. This made broadsides – coordinated volleys from all

5358-467: The large ships the Regent and the Peter Pomegranate , carrying over 5,000 men. Howard's expedition led to the capture of twelve Breton ships and a four-day raiding tour of Brittany where English forces successfully fought against local forces and burned numerous settlements. The fleet returned to Southampton in June where it was visited by King Henry. In August the fleet sailed for Brest where it encountered

5452-509: The larger breech-loading iron murderers and the small serpentines , demi-slings and stone guns. Only a handful of guns in the first inventory were powerful enough to hole enemy ships, and most would have been supported by the ship's structure rather than resting on carriages. The inventories of both the Mary Rose and the Tower had changed radically by 1540. There were now the new cast bronze cannons , demi-cannons , culverins and sakers and

5546-591: The majority (81%) under 30. They were mainly of English origin and, according to archaeologist Julie Gardiner, they most likely came from the West Country ; many following their aristocratic masters into maritime service. There were also a few people from continental Europe. An eyewitness testimony right after the sinking refers to a survivor who was a Fleming , and the pilot may very well have been French. Analysis of oxygen isotopes in teeth indicates that some were also of southern European origin. At least one crewmember

5640-435: The men who served on the Mary Rose , even when it comes to the names of the officers, who would have belonged to the gentry. Two admirals and four captains (including Edward and Thomas Howard, who served both positions) are known through records, as well as a few ship masters, pursers , master gunners and other specialists. Forensic science has been used by artists to create reconstructions of faces of eight crew members, and

5734-591: The muzzle was covered with a lid to hide its unusual shape. The death penalty was set as the punishment for revealing the secret of the weapon. The first guns built used quoins for changing the elevation, but in 1753–1758 turnscrews were introduced. Originally they had cylindrical powder chambers like howitzers, but guns produced after 1758 had conical chambers like licornes . The guns proved quite effective in action during Seven Years' War , especially at Gross-Jägersdorf , but some were lost to Prussians at Zorndorf (thus revealing their secret). Originally used by

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5828-481: The number of anti-personnel guns was reduced and a second tier of carriage-mounted long guns fitted. There are three inventories that list her guns, dating to 1514, 1540 and 1546. Together with records from the armoury at the Tower of London , these show how the configuration of guns changed as gun-making technology evolved and new classifications were invented. In 1514, the armament consisted mostly of anti-personnel guns like

5922-509: The number of trees is around 600 mostly large oaks , representing about 16 hectares (40 acres) of woodland. The huge trees that had been common in Europe and the British Isles in previous centuries were by the 16th century quite rare, which meant that timbers were brought in from all over southern England. The largest timbers used in the construction were of roughly the same size as those used in

6016-400: The only known contemporary depiction of the ship from the Anthony Roll have been used to determine how the Mary Rose was rigged. Nine, or possibly ten, sails were set from four masts and a bowsprit: the foremast had two square sails and the mainmast three; the mizzen mast had a lateen sail and a small square sail; the bonaventure mizzen had at least one lateen sail and possibly also

6110-524: The powder magazine of the Cordelière caught fire and blew up in a violent explosion, setting fire to the Regent and eventually sinking her. About 180 English crew members saved themselves by throwing themselves into the sea; a handful of Bretons survived, only to be captured. The captain of the Regent , 600 soldiers and sailors, the High Admiral of France and the steward of the town of Morlaix were killed in

6204-727: The primary tactic for decisive victory throughout the 16th century. As the Mary Rose was built and served during a period of rapid development of heavy artillery, her armament was a mix of old designs and innovations. The heavy armament was a mix of older-type wrought iron and cast bronze guns, which differed considerably in size, range and design. The large iron guns were made up of staves or bars welded into cylinders and then reinforced by shrinking iron hoops and breech loaded and equipped with simpler gun-carriages made from hollowed-out elm logs with only one pair of wheels, or without wheels entirely. The bronze guns were cast in one piece and rested on four-wheel carriages which were essentially

6298-426: The quantity (and so weight) of heavy structural timbers that carry the higher guns. Modern understanding is that tumblehome does not improve stability by positioning the guns closer to the centreline, though that may have been the belief and intention of her builders. Since only part of the hull has survived, it is not possible to determine many of the basic dimensions with any great accuracy. The moulded breadth ,

6392-437: The reserves, "in ordinary". She was laid up for maintenance along with her sister ship the Peter Pomegranate in July 1514. In 1518 she received a routine repair and caulking , waterproofing with tar and oakum (old rope fibres) and was then assigned a small skeleton crew who lived on board the ship until 1522. She served briefly on a mission with other warships to "scour the seas" in preparation for Henry VIII's journey across

6486-495: The results were publicised in May 2013. In addition, researchers have extracted DNA from remains in the hopes of identifying origins of crew, and potentially living descendants. Of the vast majority of the crewmen, soldiers, sailors and gunners alike, nothing has been recorded. The only source of information for these men has been through osteological analysis of the human bones found at the wrecksite. An approximate composition of some of

6580-524: The roofs of the largest cathedrals in the High Middle Ages . An unworked hull plank would have weighed over 300 kg (660 lb), and one of the main deck beams would have weighed close to three-quarters of a tonne. The common explanation for the ship's name was that it was inspired by Henry VIII's favourite sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France , and the rose as the emblem of the Tudors . According to

6674-453: The round could be known as scrapshot or langrage. In 1718 Blackbeard armed his guns with a range of makeshift weaponry including langrage. Several of his cannons, still loaded with spikes and shot, have been recovered from the wreck site of his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge . Archaeologists have also retrieved conglomerations of lead shot, nails, spikes and glass from the site. Langrage

6768-400: The same as those used until the 19th century. The breech-loaders were cheaper to produce and both easier and faster to reload, but could take less powerful charges than cast bronze guns. Generally, the bronze guns used cast iron shot and were more suited to penetrate hull sides while the iron guns used stone shot that would shatter on impact and leave large, jagged holes, but both could also fire

6862-575: The ship according to the Anthony Roll , a figure confirmed roughly by the excavations. Swords and daggers were personal possessions and not listed in the inventories, but the remains of both have been found in great quantities, including the earliest dated example of a British basket-hilted sword . A total of 250 longbows were carried on board, and 172 of these have so far been found, as well as almost 4,000 arrows, bracers (arm guards) and other archery-related equipment. Longbow archery in Tudor England

6956-445: The ship's structural integrity, and it was assumed that she was later rebuilt to accommodate a hull with carvel edge-to-edge planking with a skeletal structure to support a hull perforated with gunports. Later examination indicates that the clinker planking is not present throughout the ship; only the outer structure of the sterncastle is built with overlapping planking, though not with a true clinker technique. The hull of Mary Rose

7050-418: The ship, right above the bottom planking and below the waterline. This is where the galley was situated and the food was cooked. Directly aft of the galley was the mast step, a rebate in the centre-most timber of the keelson , right above the keel , which supported the main mast, and next to it the main bilge pump . To increase the stability of the ship, the hold was where the ballast was placed and much of

7144-412: The supplies were kept. Right above the hold was the orlop , the lowest deck. Like the hold, it was partitioned and was also used as a storage area for everything from food to spare sails. Above the orlop lay the main deck , which housed the heaviest guns. The side of the hull on the main deck level had seven gunports on each side fitted with heavy lids that would have been watertight when closed. This

7238-451: The supply of balls was limited, nails, scrap iron or lead, wire, and other similar metal objects were included. The projectile had been known since at least the 16th century and was known by various nicknames in the 17th century such as hailshot or partridge shot. Rounds recovered from Henry VIII's warship Mary Rose (sunk 1545) were wooden cylinders filled with broken flint flakes. When filled with rubbish or scrap (rather than round bullets)

7332-416: The top of the masts) that were either painted or gilded. Constructing a warship of the size of the Mary Rose was a major undertaking, requiring vast quantities of high-quality material. For a state-of-the-art warship, these materials were primarily oak. The total amount of timber needed for the construction can only be roughly calculated since only about one third of the ship still exists. One estimate for

7426-461: The waist. It was a dedicated fighting deck without any known partitions and a mix of heavy and light guns. Over the open waist, the upper deck was entirely covered with a boarding net , a coarse netting that served as a defence measure against boarding. Though very little of the upper deck has survived, it has been suggested that it housed the main living quarters of the crew underneath the aftercastle. A drain located in this area has been identified as

7520-475: The weather deck level. This is in sharp contrast to the usual way of building a carvel hull today. The construction sequence used for Mary Rose was typical for a ship built during the lengthy transition period during which carvel became established in Northern Europe and the precise detail is one of the milestones in that story. Although only the lower fittings of the rigging survive, a 1514 inventory and

7614-421: The widest point of the ship roughly above the waterline, was about 12 metres (39 feet) and the keel about 32 metres (105 feet), although the ship's overall length is uncertain. The hull had four levels separated by three decks . Because the terminology for these was not yet standardised in the 16th century, the terms used here are those that were applied by the Mary Rose Trust . The hold lay furthest down in

7708-611: The wrought iron port pieces (a name that indicated they fired through ports), all of which required carriages, had longer range and were capable of doing serious damage to other ships. The analysis of the 1514 inventory combined with hints of structural changes in the ship both indicate that the gunports on the main deck were indeed a later addition. Various types of ammunition could be used for different purposes: plain spherical shot of stone or iron smashed hulls, spiked bar shot and shot linked with chains would tear sails or damage rigging, and canister shot packed with sharp flints produced

7802-473: The yards were hoisted and lowered as part of the normal processes of setting, hand ing or reducing sail. The furling of the square sails pulled much of the bulk of the sail into the centre of the yard, so the work aloft did not involve a lot of work on the yards (the foot-rope did not come into use until the early 18th century), with much being done from the tops. Ships of this era generally did not have reefing points (though they existed on boats' sails). Instead

7896-479: Was accompanied by fine lines , particularly in the run (the underwater hull shape aft of the midship section). Even in the full sections in the forward part of the hull there are some hollow lines. Generally, hull shape is a major contributor, in conjunction with the efficiency of the sails, to good sailing performance. This hull shape can certainly explain the reported good sailing qualities that Mary Rose displayed prior to her rebuild. The sailing capabilities of

7990-842: Was also found among the artifact assemblage of the Mardi Gras shipwreck, 4000 ft (1219 m) deep in the Gulf of Mexico . When fired, the canister disintegrates and its shards and projectiles spread out in a conical formation, causing a wide swath of destruction. It was particularly effective during the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War , where massed troops at close range (usually less than 400 yards) could be broken up by artillery batteries firing canister. At times, particularly at very close range, artillery crews would fire extremely lethal "double canister," where two rounds were loaded into

8084-467: Was also staffed by a barber-surgeon who tended to the sick and wounded, along with an apprentice or mate and possibly also a junior surgeon. The only positively identified person who went down with the ship was Vice-Admiral George Carew . McKee, Stirland and several other authors have also named Roger Grenville , father of Richard Grenville of the Elizabethan-era Revenge , captain during

8178-406: Was also the highest deck that was caulked and waterproof. Along the sides of the main deck there were cabins under the forecastle and aftercastle which have been identified as belonging to the carpenter, barber-surgeon , pilot and possibly also the master gunner and some of the officers. The top deck in the hull structure was the upper deck (or weather deck ) which was exposed to the elements in

8272-501: Was launched in 1511 and served for 34 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 19 July 1545. She led the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, but sank in the Solent , the strait north of the Isle of Wight . The wreck of the Mary Rose was located in 1971 and was raised on 11 October 1982 by

8366-487: Was mandatory for all able adult men, and despite the introduction of field artillery and handguns, they were used alongside new missile weapons in great quantities. On the Mary Rose , the longbows could only have been drawn and shot properly from behind protective panels in the open waist or from the top of the castles as the lower decks lacked sufficient headroom. There were several types of bows of various size and range. Lighter bows would have been used as "sniper" bows, while

8460-473: Was of African ancestry. In general they were strong, well-fed men, but many of the bones also reveal tell-tale signs of childhood diseases and a life of grinding toil. The bones also showed traces of numerous healed fractures, probably the result of on-board accidents. There are no extant written records of the make-up of the broader categories of soldiers and sailors, but since the Mary Rose carried some 300 longbows and several thousand arrows there had to be

8554-553: Was part of an anti-French alliance that included Ferdinand II of Aragon , Pope Julius II and Holy Roman emperor Maximilian . The small navy that Henry VIII inherited from his father had only two sizeable ships, the carracks Regent and Sovereign . Just months after his accession, two large ships were ordered: the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate (later known as Peter after being rebuilt in 1536) of about 500 and 450 tons respectively. Which king ordered

8648-529: Was set to the task of arranging another attack on Brittany. The fleet was not able to mount the planned attack because of adverse winds and great difficulties in supplying the ships adequately and the Mary Rose took up winter quarters in Southampton. In August the Scots joined France in war against England, but were dealt a crushing defeat at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513. A follow-up attack in early 1514

8742-410: Was supported by a naval force that included the Mary Rose , but without any known engagements. The French and English mounted raids on each other throughout that summer, but achieved little, and both sides were by then exhausted. By autumn the war was over and a peace treaty was sealed by the marriage of Henry's sister, Mary , to French king Louis XII . After the peace Mary Rose was placed in

8836-457: Was the reason given for the loss of 17 of these guns at Zorndorf, where they were overrun by cavalry before they could fire a second shot. There were some shot and shells produced for it, looking like rugby balls , but they found no practical use. Adding yet another type of ammunition created an additional burden for logistics. Canister shot Canister shot is a kind of anti-personnel artillery ammunition . It has been used since

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