May saw the publication of the fourth (of five) volume on the Archaeology of the Mary Rose. The publication programme is being managed for the Mary Rose Trust by Wessex Archaeology, with Julie Gardiner acting as the series editor. The latest volume Mary Rose: Your Noblest Shippe, Anatomy of a Tudor warship, largely written, and edited, by Peter Marsden is concerned primarily with a detailed description of the ship and how she operated as a functional warship.
The construction techniques used in building the original ship are discussed, and her structure as she was in 1545 is described deck by deck, from the Hold up to the Sterncastle. The rigging is described and reconstructed and operational aspects such as steering, mooring, anchoring, the ship’s boats, navigation and the removal of water discussed. A summary of the ship’s armaments is provided and her fighting capabilities considered. Evidence for how the ship was altered during her use, and how she might be reconstructed as a whole, are examined and the nature of and reasons for her sinking reviewed.
418p, 287 b/w illus plus 15 fold-out sheets of deck plans, elevations, sections and rigging diagrams. The volume is available from Oxbow Books price £45.00 (hardback, boxed set)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9544029-2-1
ISBN-10: 0-9544029-2-8