During the excavation on the Mary Rose, a number of cuttlefish living on the wreck site were adopted by the divers as pets!
One was affectionately called Cuthbert, as can be seen in this article from the Portsmouth News, although we suspect it was a general name for any cuttlefish who made an appearance.
As our digitisation team have discovered, the charming cephalopods were often captured on camera and frequently seemed to be trying to steal the limelight from our divers or pretending to be part of the archaeology!
We don’t know what happened to Cuthbert and his chums after the dig, but it’s very unlikely they are still out there in the Solent (cuttlefish only live for around one-two years).
Maybe their descendants are still living on the wreck site, talking about how their great (times 35!) grandparents took part in the largest underwater excavation to date?
