I recently went to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, mainly to visit the Mary Rose exhibition. I found the whole thing stunning and thoroughly recommend it. When you consider all that went into raising and restoring the ship and all the artefacts it is well worth the admission fee to the dockyard for that alone. The hull has been treated so that the cells of the wood will last for several hundred years. The substance used is still being dried out but when the process is complete, one will be able to view the remaining timbers unhindered. You can see the hull now but there are air pipes in place – they don’t obscure the view too much though.
Hundreds of artefacts were found – many well preserved having been sealed in silt and mud for 500 years. Many reveal evidence of life on board and the status of the crew members. There is an archer’s skeleton, identified by malformation of some bones due to the stresses and strains of using a longbow from an early age. We spent several absorbing hours viewing this well presented exhibition. Even my wife who’s not particularly into history was wowed by it. You must go! (HMS Victory’s not too shoddy either.)
Sorry about the quality of some of the photos but the light levels were low and I had no tripod.
Andrew.
