Cold Open

It’s early evening on July 19th, 1545 on the Solent, a sea channel separating the south coast of England from the Isle of Wight.

A master gunner in the English navy pokes his head out of the gun port of his warship, the Mary Rose. He looks out to sea and judges the distance to a fleet of enemy vessels. Then, he announces to his crewmates on the gun deck that it’s finally time to ready their cannons. After more than an hour of drifting in calm conditions, the wind has picked up and they’re finally closing in on the French armada.

For hundreds of years, the English and French have been engaged in a series of off-and-on wars as the two kingdoms struggle for supremacy in Western Europe. Today, the French are attempting an invasion of southern England. It’s the job of the sailors aboard the Mary Rose, and the rest of the British fleet, to fend off the enemy armada before it lands on English soil.

Cannon fire in the distance indicates that the battle has begun. And it prompts a flurry of activity on the gun deck as the sailors on the Mary Rose prepare to take their first shots.

But before that can happen, the ship begins to tilt in the water. The master gunner struggles to maintain his balance, gripping onto a handhold on the wall as the Mary Rose leans over further and further.

Suddenly, seawater begins to enter through the open gun ports. The master gunner clings to the wall, hoping that the Mary Rose will right itself. But the ship remains at a dangerous angle, and the sea continues to pour in. The gunner shouts an order to evacuate, and his crewmates struggle through knee-high water to the stairs.

The master gunner has spent long enough at sea to know there’s no way the crew can bail this amount of water. The ship is going down.

The Mary Rose is renowned throughout England as the favorite ship of King Henry VIII, but it will sink in minutes after it suddenly flounders during the Battle of the Solent. From the shore, King Henry himself will witness its demise. Only 34 of 500 men on board the Mary Rose will survive. Every single sailor who served below deck will be lost, trapped by anti-boarding netting as the ship goes down. And over the next 400 years, the exact location of their watery tomb will be forgotten, but a recovery operation will manage to relocate the Mary Rose and bring it back to the surface on October 11th, 1982.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 11th, 1982: The Raising of the Mary Rose.

Act One

It’s July 1511 at a shipyard in Portsmouth, England, thirty-four years before the Mary Rose will sink.

King Henry VIII stands on a wooden deck and looks out at a ship. Inscribed on the vessel’s side is its name: the Mary Rose — a title derived from Henry’s strong Catholic faith and the floral symbol of the Tudor family. The King swells with pride as the shipyard’s foreman points out the many impressive features of this brand-new warship.

Two years ago, when Henry acceded to the throne, the English navy comprised only of five ships. But the new monarch was determined to change that. Henry was confident that increasing England’s sea power would give his kingdom an advantage in its centuries-long rivalry with France. So, he immediately commissioned several new warships and ordered the construction of new dockyards like this one to house the expanded Royal Navy. Now, King Henry is here to see the first of his new warships—the Mary Rose—undergo final checks before it’s ready for service.

Henry is eager to launch the ship too, because the Mary Rose is not only England’s newest warship—it is also her most powerful. Usually, sea battles involve ships sailing close to each other, so soldiers can try to overpower the enemy vessel in hand-to-hand fighting. But the Mary Rose is a pioneer of a new type of warship. She’s been designed as a floating gun platform, firing cannons from afar to cripple enemy ships.

As the shipbuilder tells Henry about the gun ports that allow cannons to fire from below deck, the 20-year-old king leans far over the rail to get a look at the innovative firing holes. When he straightens back up, Henry beams with joy at the shipbuilder, claps him on the shoulder, and congratulates him on a job well done. Then, he declares that with this new vessel, England will rule the waters of Europe.

Satisfied that the Mary Rose is ready for action, Henry leaves the new warship in the hands of his sailors. The following year, the Mary Rose embarks on its first naval campaign as the flagship of Admiral Edward Howard.

Over the course of two months, the Mary Rose sails at the head of the fleet and prowls the English Channel. The ship is not only well-armed, but it’s also fast and maneuverable, and Sir Edward’s fleet soon captures forty French ships and boats. Buoyed by the success of their first mission, King Henry orders Sir Edward and the Mary Rose back out to sea. This time, the English fleet corners a similar number of French ships off the coast of Brittany. And as the French try to retreat, Sir Edward maneuvers the Mary Rose into position to take advantage of the warship’s greatest strength: its cannons.

The relentless fire from the Mary Rose is too much for the French ships to withstand. Cannonballs shred the sails and main mast of one French vessel, and it drifts helplessly away from the battle. Then, Sir Edward turns his attention to the French flagship, the Cordelière. As the captain of the Cordelière tries to board an English ship, the Mary Rose fires shot after shot.

The results are devastating. The Cordelière is suddenly engulfed in a huge explosion as her ammunition magazine is breached. The detonation of the ship’s entire store of gunpowder leaves the French flagship a floating fireball. It also destroys the English warship that the sailors of the Cordelière were trying to board.

This enormous show of firepower makes the Mary Rose a formidable force, and this skirmish which will come to be known as the Battle of Saint-Mathieu is the turning point of the war with France. Two years later, the French king will sign a treaty that begins a brief period of peace between the warring nations.

By this point, King Henry VIII has commissioned ships for his growing navy at such a speed that the Mary Rose is already considered old when the peace treaty is signed. As dozens of new vessels enter production, the Mary Rose soon loses its status as the English flagship. Its successor is the Great Harry, a new warship that launches in 1514. It’s twice the size and carries double the number of cannons as the Mary Rose.

Superseded by newer vessels, the Mary Rose will be relegated to the naval reserve. Its role will be confined to occasional escort missions and the defense of the English coast. But the resumption of hostilities with France will see the Mary Rose called back into action.

Act Two

It’s the evening of July 19th, 1545 at South Sea Castle on the south coast of England, thirty-four years after the Mary Rose was launched.

King Henry VIII impatiently prowls the walls of the castle, barking orders at his officers and courtiers. Now fifty-four years old, Henry has lost the graceful athleticism of his youth. The overweight king limps along the battlements, cursing as a French invasion force nears.

A year ago, war resumed between the kingdoms of England and France. At first, the fighting went well for the English. But a week ago, Henry received some disturbing news—the French had assembled more than 200 ships to cross the English Channel with thousands of soldiers aboard. The King of France hopes to march on London and overthrow the Tudor dynasty. But Henry has no intention of letting that happen. He ordered his navy to intercept the French invaders before they made landfall, and Henry rushed to South Sea Castle to supervise the defense of England in person. Now, the French fleet is drifting off the coast in calm conditions, and King Henry is frustrated because the lack of wind means the English ships can’t get out of port.

But as Henry paces the battlement, a light breeze suddenly ruffles his red hair, halting the King in his tracks. With a grin, he turns and shouts the wind is picking up, and at last, the English fleet has a chance to raise anchor.

Henry’s hopes come true a few minutes later when two English ships slowly sail into the Solent. Henry squints, trying to identify the shapes on the water, but his eyesight is failing. So, he turns to a nearby soldier and asks which ships have made it out. The soldier answers that the bigger of the two vessels is the fleet’s flagship, the Great Harry. The smaller one is the Mary Rose.

The Mary Rose has greatly changed since it successfully prowled the English Channel and helped win the Battle of Saint-Mathieu. Nine years ago, the aging Mary Rose was put in a dry dock and given a major refit. The hull was strengthened, its gun decks were extended, and more powerful cannons were winched on board. The Mary Rose is now an even more formidable gun platform—but the rebuild has come at a cost. The once swift and maneuverable ship is now heavier and bulkier and has developed a reputation for being unstable and difficult to turn.

So now, as the two English warships sail past South Sea Castle, the Great Harry pulls ahead of the Mary Rose. It reaches the nearest French ship and begins firing. Meanwhile, the Mary Rose lags behind, sitting low in the water. It slows even further as it begins to turn, and a courtier close to Henry mutters that the captain can’t capture the wind. Then, suddenly, a solitary, strong gust blows across the water. The Mary Rose begins to lean to starboard. Henry holds his breath and waits for the ship to tilt back and steady itself, but it remains at an angle. Slowly, the ship tilts even further until it’s almost on its side, and then begins to disappear beneath the surface.

Henry can hear the shouts and screams travel over the water as sailors fight to get off the sinking ship. Behind him, a woman weeps. Henry turns and glares at the wife of the Mary Rose’s captain. She tries to stifle her sobs with a handkerchief but she can’t suppress her anguish. And unable to listen to the distressing cries any longer, Henry limps down a staircase toward his chambers.

But despite the sinking of the Mary Rose, the Great Harry does enough to push France’s fleet out of the Solent and end the threat of invasion. Henry celebrates the failure of the French plot, but the loss of his favorite warship pains him—so he orders that the Mary Rose be lifted from the bottom of the Solent and returned to service. But attempts to retrieve the ship are unsuccessful. Although it sank in relatively shallow water, the warship’s heavy hull is stuck in the clay of the seabed.

Despite Henry’s orders, the Mary Rose will be left to rot in the Solent and its last resting place will be forgotten as it grows cloaked in sediment. But in the middle of the twentieth century, amateur divers will scour the seabed of the Solent to find the Mary Rose—and when they do, the British government will pledge to honor King Henry’s 400-year-old orders.

Act Three

It’s 9 A.M, on October 11th, 1982 on a boat off the south coast of England, 437 years after the Mary Rose sank during the Battle of the Solent.

Charles, Prince of Wales, steadies himself as the vessel rocks in rough waves. The weather is dreadful. Gusty winds blow into the prince’s face, and he’s had to wear a long coat to keep out the rain. But underneath it, Charles is dressed in his Royal Navy uniform – the only outfit he believes fits the occasion.

Today, Charles is at sea to witness the raising of one of England’s first warships.

Almost twenty years ago, amateur divers began efforts to locate dozens of historic ships that sank in the Solent. In 1971, one of the wrecks they found was revealed to be the Mary Rose. After historians explained this warship was a favorite vessel of King Henry VIII, the public’s interest was ignited. And over the next eleven years, maritime archaeologists and volunteers painstakingly excavated the wreck. They've conducted over 28,000 dives, and tens of thousands of artifacts have been brought to the surface. Now, it’s time for the hull to come up too—and as a direct descendent of King Henry VIII, Prince Charles is here to give it a royal welcome.

Charles joins the cheers that break out as a yellow metal frame rises up from the water. Soon after, the wooden hull of the Mary Rose begins to emerge from the waves. Charles chatters excitedly to a member of the Mary Rose expedition, but conversation is suddenly cut short by a harsh metallic screech.

The yellow lifting platform lurches to one side as a part of the metal frame snaps. The operation pauses while engineers check their equipment and ensure that no damage has occurred to the Mary Rose. Fortunately, all is well, and after a short delay, the ancient warship resumes its journey to the surface.

After being safely extracted from the sea, the remains of the Mary Rose are taken to a dry dock in Portsmouth, returning the ship to the very place where it was built more than 400 years before. Over the next thirty years, the delicate, waterlogged timbers will be treated with chemicals to prevent degradation. And as the preservation work takes place, a museum is constructed around the hull of the Mary Rose. Today, the Mary Rose Museum now welcomes more than 350,000 visitors a year, some of whom still remember the excitement that accompanied the raising of Henry VIII’s first flagship on October 11th, 1982.

Outro

Next on History Daily. October 14th, 1947. Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mischa Stanton.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.