More Of The Mary Rose To Be Raised From The Sea

Marine archaeologists plan to raise another part of the wreck of the Mary Rose - Henry VIII's flagship which sank off Portsmouth in 1545, drowning nearly all her crew.

The team of divers, led by professional diving archaeologists from the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, will try to raise an anchor and the ship's 'stem'.

This is a big, important timber from the bow (the front of the ship).

Diving begins on September 23 2005 and will continue until October 14 2005. A large section of the ship, called the hull, has already been raised from the sea bed, where it had been lying for over 400 years.

It is hoped that the bow section will be raised on October 11 2005, the anniversary of the recovery of the hull in 1982.

Christopher Dobbs, Maritime Archaeologist at the Mary Rose Trust says:

"The stem timber is a particularly significant timber in a ship as it defines the shape of the hull at the bow. This is a vital piece in the Mary Rose jigsaw that had been lost until now.

For the last 23 years we have been displaying the hull in our Ship Hall without the bow and when this timber is conserved and put on display, it will be much easier for the public to see the shape of the ship."

The Mary Rose is the only 16th century warship on display anywhere and she's famous all over the world. You can visit her at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Portsmouth is still a very busy and important naval base - here's a photo of it taken from the air.

The Ministry of Defence has been funding (paying for) dives on the wreck site since 2003, to help move the most important finds and artefacts to safety - just in case they were disturbed by the Royal Navy's new, larger ships sailing past.

The painting below is what the Mary Rose would have looked like when she was a working warship.

To find out more about the history of the Mary Rose, life onboard and the thousands of objects found on the wreck, take a look at Dive In And Discover The Mary Rose and Explore The Mary Rose, from the Mary Rose Trust.

You can learn loads more about life in Tudor times (on land and sea) on Show Me's Tudors topic page, which is packed full of Tudor games and makes.

If you're into underwater archaeology, check out Show Me stories Shipwrecks And Underwater Archaeology and HMS Sussex: What's All The Fuss About?.

Photos: images 1 and 4 courtesy of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard; image 2 courtesy of the Mary Rose Trust; image 3 courtesy of the Royal Navy.