Lifting frame ready for Mary Rose salvage bid

Press, 14 April 1982, Page 11

Lifting frame ready for Mary Rose salvage bid

NZPA staff correspondent London Plans to raise- the sixteenth century Royal Navy warship Mary Rose from the Solent seabed have begun with the launching of a hugelifting frame. The frame will be used to complete what has been described as one of the most fascinating recovery ventures ever undertaken. The 700-ton four-masted warship, the pride of Henry VIIIs fleet, sank in full view of the King during a'skirmish with the French fleet in 1545. The French claimed to have hit the Mary Rose with cannon fire, but there is a theory that the crew panicked when a gust of wind hit the ship as the sails were being hoisted. The suggestion is that a clumsy tack, a sharp heel, open gun ports, and overloading caused the ship to go to the bottom off Portsmouth. The 39m vessel normally carried 415 sailors and soldiers but there may have been 700 aboard when she sank. Fewer than 40 survived. Apart from minor excavations in the 1830 s, the Tudor warship lay undisturbed in the Solent mud until 1967, when she was rediscovered by marine archaeologists. A project, “Solent Ships," had been initiated to find and investigate historic wrecks off Portsmouth. Eventually a three-dimen-sional plan of the Mary Rose wreck site was produced using a sonar survey under the mud. Excavation and a survey of the warship’s frames at seabed level showed that her timbers were well preserved in the mud. The Mary Rose Trust, with the Prince of Wales as president, was set up to undertake the job of recovery of the legally protected site. Prince Charles has already, made eight dives to the Mary Rose and on one brought back a hand-carved rigging block. “It is not the nicest place in the world to go diving," he said later, describing the waters as "like lentil soup.” One one dive the Prince

was startled by a skull leering at him. Since the project started. 950 volunteer divers have recovered more than 10,000 objects from the wreck 15m down. They include 4000 arrows and longbows, a bronze gun with its carriage, and hundreds of personal items. Divers recovered two pocket sundials and the barber-surgeon’s chest, containing among other things two syringes and a variety of wooden ointment jars. One of the most interesting finds was a sixteenth century musical instrument, a shawm, described -as the forerunner of the oboe, and said to be one of only four in Europe. Experts believe that it was part of a four-piece orchestra in the ship. . The basic hull of the Mary Rose is well preserved as are the oak pins used to secure the hull timbers. However, the iron nails which fastened the deck planking and internal structure have corroded away. Timber from the internal structures has been taken ashore and stored in a reefer box provided by Overseas Containers, Ltd.. The refrigerated container has an automatic defrosting facility which produces a freeze-drying effect. “The freeze-drying facility really has been a bonus anil has provided enormous assistance to the conservation team,” the Mary Rose Trust spokesman, Mr Arthur Rogers, said. The timber, which will be used for reconstructing wooden items from the wreck, will be kept in the container until the hull has been brought ashore, where it will become the centrepiece of a maritime museum. If everything goes according to plan, the trust hopes to raise the hull of the Mary Rose in. late September or October. The lifting frame, described by Mr .Rogers as looking like an enormous kitchen table, will stand on the seabed over the Mary Rose. Divers will tunnel under the hull with lift straps and the ship will be hauled out of the mud on a stretcher of nylon straps worked from the 37-tonne steel-tube lifting frame.