The Mary Rose blog Page 1 | The Mary Rose
The Mary Rose blog

Historical stories, conservation and collections updates and other stories from the Mary Rose

Southsea Castle 18 Sep 2023
The history of Henry VIII’s castle by the sea

Southsea Castle has a special place in the history of the Mary Rose – It was from here that Henry VIII witnessed the sinking of his favourite warship, and the first exhibition of objects recovered from the wreck was held within the castle keep. But what’s the full story behind...

Read More
Recording a Tudor Navy: The Anthony Roll 04 Sep 2023
The story behind the only known Tudor depiction of the Mary Rose...

Images are a powerful source of information that can tell us details words cannot. In this blog we explore the Anthony Roll, which depicts one of the most recognisable and iconic portraits of the Mary Rose

Guest blog written by Francesca Raine for the Mary Rose collections team

Read More
Steering the Mary Rose 31 Mar 2020
How did they steer the Mary Rose?

Popular imagination inspired by movies and paintings shows the great Tudor explorers stood on the upper decks of their ships, one hand on the ship’s wheel as they search for foreigners to shoot at. However, the famous ship’s wheel, used alongside the anchor to represent all things maritime, wasn't in...

Read More
The Plague in Portsmouth - 1545 16 Mar 2020
The loss of the Mary Rose wasn't the only misfortune to strike Portsmouth in 1545...

The Black Death hit Portsmouth several times in the city's history, with particularly nasty outbreaks in 1349, 1558, 1625 and 1665/6, but we're going to take a look at the outbreak that hit Henry VIII's fleet in September 1545.

Read More
Witchcraft, Belief and Religion on board the Mary Rose 31 Oct 2019
A blog by Alice Mew, Collections Volunteer

Here in the archives, myself and the other Collections Volunteers have been scanning away and have recently reached our 60,000 digitised images milestone! As we make our way through the (hundreds of) film strips, we’re continuing to see Tudor objects make their way from the bottom of the Solent...

Read More
The Animals of the Mary Rose 28 Oct 2019
The Mary Rose carried a crew of around 500 men, but they weren’t the only ones who called the Mary Rose their home!

As well as the human inhabitants, the Mary Rose was home to a number of animals, some welcome, others not so welcome…

Read More
Stay Updated

Follow us on social media to keep updated on all the latest Mary Rose news!