Mary Rose figurehead found
Maev Kennedy
Tuesday October 4, 2005
The Guardian
Archaeologists believe they have found the Tudor rose figurehead of the Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII's fleet, which has been buried deep in the silt of the Solent since 1545, when the ship sank within sight of the shore during a battle with the French.
Excavation director Alex Hildred said yesterday: "It's clearly not functional ... I believe this may well be decorative carving, and you have to wonder where that might have come from. Sometimes, even as an archaeologist, you have to let your imagination go."
The paddle-shaped piece of oak was brought up by divers on Sunday afternoon, covered in muck. The carving was a wholly unexpected discovery during survey work before a planned attempt next week to raise a five metre long iron anchor.
The Mary Rose was named after Henry's favourite sister and the royal Tudor rose which became its emblem. The Mary Rose was described by a contemporary as "the flower" of his fleet, and its humiliating loss one of the greatest disasters to befall Henry's navy. It became one of the most famous shipwrecks in the world in 1982, when an international audience watched live television coverage of the raising of the largest surviving piece of the hull.
In 1545 the ship had just undergone a major refit. One suggestion for the wreck was that it was top heavy with dozens of new guns. Because the ship sank so fast, the excavation provided a unique snapshot of medieval life at sea: finds included the barber surgeon's medicine chest and the captain's silver tableware, all preserved by being sealed by a dense layer of fine silt.
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