The Other Mary Roses - Page 1 of 2 by Stuart Vine
In 1555, a new Mary Rose was built, of 500 tons. This ship had a career that if anything was longer and more action packed than that of King Henry's Mary Rose. She was in the Armada campaign, and there are detailed accounts of the actions she took part in.
The division of the Lord Admiral pursuing the Spaniards up Channel from Plymouth, 21st July 1588, off Derry Head, "his Lordship, in the Ark Raleigh, with the Bear and the Mary Rose in his company, somewhat in his stern, pursued the enemy all night within culverin shot". On Tuesday, 23rd July, "the Triumph, with 5 ships, viz- Merchant Royall, Centurion, Margaret and John, Mary Rose and Golden Hind, were so far to leeward and separated from our fleet, that the galleasses took courage and bare room with them and assaulted them sharply. But they were very well resisted by these ships for the space of an hour and a half".
Later, the Lord Admiral, "called unto certain of her Majesty's Ships, then near at hand, and charged them straitly to follow him and to set freshly on the Spaniards and to go within musket shot of the enemy before they should discharge one piece of ordnance." This was "very well performed by the Ark, the Elizabeth Jonas, the Galleon of Leicester, the Golden Lion, the Victory, the Mary Rose, the Dreadnought, the Swallow, for so they went in order into the fight which the Duke of Medina perceiving came out with 16 of his best galleons to impeach his Lordship, - at which assault, after a wonderful sharp conflict, the Spaniards were forced to give way and to flock together like sheep."
On the 25th July, "the fleets drawing to one another, there began some fight, but it continued not long, saving that the Nonpareil and the Mary Rose struck their topsails and lay awhile by the whole fleet of Spain very bravely - a very sharp fight for the time."
On the 26th July, "Sir John Hawkyns in the Victory, accompanied with Mr Edward Fenton in the Mary Rose, Sir George Beeston in the Dreadnought, Mr. Richard Hawkyns in the Swallow and the rest of the ships appointed to his squadron, bare with the mist of the Spanish Army, and there continued in hot assault all that forenoon - the fight continued hotly". After this, Mr Edward Fenton in the Mary Rose, and a galleon encountered each other, the one standing to the Eastward and the other to the Westward, so close as they could conveniently pass by another, wherein the Captain and Company did very well."
On 4th September, 1588, the Mary Rose is listed as being in the Downs, with a complement that has been reduced from 250 to 160 by death and sickness. In the same year, she is officially listed as: "No. 13 is the Mary Rose of 600 tons, 150 mariners, 24 gunners, 78 soldiers, total 250". She was surveyed in the same month, and appeared not to be in the best condition: "this ship at the instant is very leaky, which may not only proceed from the imperfection of her timbers, but much more of the decayed stem and stern post which appeareth to be a cause thereof, as well as the sea as otherwise; the remedy whereof cannot well be done but in a dry dock. Besides her mainmast is decayed, her boat and pinnace is to be repaired." In 1589 she was in dry dock at Deptford being rebuilt.
She took part in Sir John Hawkyn's voyage to the coast of Spain and the Azores in 1590, a journey which accomplished little.
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