Steering the Mary Rose

But how was it used? We found what appears to be a tiller, a long curved timber about 3m long on the Orlop Deck, which has a fitting to insert into the rudder itself, presumably in line with the upper deck of the Mary Rose. Annoyingly, it would have inserted into the top end, which we don’t have.

This tiller shows no sign of being fitted with a whipstaff, a long pole which would be attached to the tiller then emerge through to above decks, allowing the crew to steer the ship with a clear view of where they were going. The lack of evidence for this suggests that the Mary Rose’s rudder was worked from below decks, the presence of many navigational instruments on the upper deck, especially towards the stern backs this up, but it could just be that the tiller found was an unused spare, hence the lack of whipstaff attachments or markings.

This is one of those mysteries about the Mary Rose that still don’t have answers, but through the work of the Mary Rose Trust research team, we’re able to learn more about Henry VIII’s mighty warship.