Salisbury ESU

AT the March meeting of the Salisbury Branch of the English Speaking Union (ESU), the guest speaker was historian Edward Towne who gave a very interesting talk on the Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII's navy, most of which now sits in her permanent home within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Edward explained how the vessel looked formidable in its day with 5 masts and many cannons, appearing more like two castles joined together. When she set sail In 1545 she had 200 sailors, 185 soldiers and over 30 guns on board.

There are several possible reasons why she sank, including cannons sliding around causing the ship to list, water pouring through open gun ports and ill disciplined soldiers on board rushing to one side without knowing what to do. Captain of the Mary Rose, Sir George Carew (who went down with his ship) reportedly said that he had “yobs on board”, signifying a discipline issue that supports this particular theory.

When the Mary Rose sank, she went down on her starboard side with her port side exposed, slipping into cloying silt which preserved the starboard side, whilst the port side rotted away. She was eventually discovered in 1971 and raised on October 11, 1982, in one of the most complex and expensive maritime salvage projects in history.

As a result of the Coronavirus threat, the next ESU lecture and lunch at the White Hart hotel will be on September 21 where Vernon Phillips will talk about "Royal Navel Hovercraft in the Falkland Islands 50 years ago".