The Mary Rose had a keel length of 32m and a breadth of 11.66m. Her length at the waterline is estimated to have been 38.5m and her draught 4.6m. The surviving height of the ship is 13m, measured on the starboard side at the aftercastle. The weight of the ship increased during her lifetime, she was rated at 500 tons in 1512 and at 700 tons when she sank.
The Mary Rose underwent two recorded major refits, one in Portsmouth in 1527-28 and the other in the Thames around 1536, it is assumed her burden was increased to 700 tons during this last refit. The ship appears to have been skeleton built and carvel planked from her inception. There is no available evidence to suggest that she was converted from a clinker to a carvel built ship during her career.
The keel is constructed from three pieces of elm, scarfed together and bolted to the keelson which sits on top of the floor timbers. The keelson is oak, again consisting of three sections scarfed together, with the main mast step acting as the central sector. Just behind the mast step there is a circular hole by the keelson to make room for the lower end of the pump.
The majority of the frames do not appear to be attached to the floor timbers in the hold or to each other, but are held in place by the longitudinal stringers. In the hold the gaps between these stringers are filled with ceiling planking. The outer planking of the hull is fastened through the frames, stringers and ceiling planking by hand-cut wooden treenails. These are hammered into pre-drilled holes and may be up to a metre long. A considerable number of the trennels have caulking cuts in their outboard ends, packed with pitch, possibly to fulfil the same function. The butt ends of the outer planks are further secured by being fixed to the frames with large iron nails and are carefully staggered. These planks are oak, finely adzed on their outboard faces and approximately 100mm thick.
Dendrochronology work by Dr. Martin Bridge of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, (who did the work whilst at the former London Guildhall University), has confirmed that there was a considerable degree of extra strengthening inserted in the hull after the ship had been built. We have obtained dates from some riders, transom knees and diagonal and vertical braces that proves they were inserted during the two major refits undergone by the ship.
From surviving information, the Mary Rose appears to have to have had a hold and four decks: the orlop, main, upper and castle decks. There may have been more than one deck in the forecastle, and perhaps a small deck at the rear of the aftercastle, but due to erosion we lack archaeological evidence in these areas.
Elevation and numbering system: (the deck beams have the deck letter before and a 0 after the number, so on the main deck they go from M10 to M110, etc. The deck sectors are labelled M1 - M12, the sector preceding the deck beam, so M1 is forward of M10 for example)
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