For thousands of years battles at sea were fought with rams, spears, fire, and arrows. Even catapults were mounted on ships, but it is only within the last 500 years of naval warfare that cannons were mounted on ships making them a force to be reckoned with. Today a ship is a formidable platform and can carry enough fire power to destroy much of the world. Witness the nuclear submarines that carry missiles with nuclear war heads. But as I said, ships weren't always so deadly. Prior to the 16th century ships were mostly used to haul cargo, passengers or troops. Then something profound happened.

Capture of the Scottish Ship Lion in 1511
Picture Source: Royal Navy. Picture subject to Royal Crown Copyright

The year was 1509 and King Henry VIII of Britian began a program to rearm. He decided to build a warship that had openings on the sides for cannons which would be mounted on the ship. He mounted 20 heavy and 60 light guns on a ship he named the Mary Rose. The ship was named after his sister Mary Tudor. This ship was either the first or one of the very first ships to be fitted with gun ports. Originally the ship was 600 tons and had a crew of four hundred. The crew still included archers. The Mary Rose became the flag ship of Sir Edward Howard during the first French war in 1513-14. The Mary Rose also served in the second French war in 1522-25.

One of the main motivations for the ship was to build a better ship than the Great Michael, a gun mounted Scottish ship. Scotland was allied to France at the time.

In 1536 the ship was rebuilt and updated. She was outfitted with new cast bronze muzzle-loading guns. She was also upgraded to a rating of 700 tons. Its funny because even though the Mary Rose was such an innovative ship, she is usually not remembered for this fact. She is usually remembered for the fact that she sank while making a turn in battle. The ship was loaded with 700 men and King Henry VIII was watching as she flipped and sank. Almost the entire crew was lost. The exact reason for the sinking was never discovered but it is thought that the ship was overloaded and when it turned, water poured in through its open gun ports.

Hundreds of years went by without the wreck being discovered but in 1836 divers brought up one of her small guns. But again the wreck could not be relocated and it wasn't until 1965 that it was found again. The wreck was dived upon from 1971 and it was decided that the ship should be brought up. The Mary Rose Trust was formed in 1979. When the ship was finally brought up and surveyed. 25,000 finds were brought ashore. In 1982 the ship was raised. Air bags were used to raise it and the hull was kept in a temperature maintained ship hall and sprayed with recycled chilled fresh water. The ship can be seen in the Mary Rose Ship Hall behind the HMS Victory in Portsmouth Dockyard in Great Britian.

In 1992 the National Historic Ships Committee (NHSC) was formed. It advises on UK historic ships that should be preserved. The Mary Rose was picked for the core collection of historic ships.