Letters From The Mary Rose

The Mary Rose had been in service for more than 30 years when she flooded and sank in the Solent before the King’s very eyes on 19 July 1545 while preparing to fire a volley at an invasive French fleet. Despite determined efforts to raise her, she remained on the seabed for over 400 years.

This book, which was published with the Mary Rose Trust for the 20th anniversary of the raising of the ship, compliments the museum’s efforts to tell the story of life on board the ship. Based around letters from her days of active service, this book gives a vivid impression of what it was like to serve on the vessel or to be involved with her supply and maintenance between her launch in 1511 and that fateful day in 1545.

Also included are the main contemporary accounts of the sinking, one of which records a conversation with one of the few survivors. Each document is presented in modern spelling, with technical terms and obscure phrases fully explained. The documents are arranged within a narrative framework which tells the history of the ship and explains the historical background to the service she was called upon to perform.

The authors of this richly illustrated book possess impressive credentials as historians. CS Knighton compiled the ‘Catalogue of Modern Manuscripts’ in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge while David Loades is Honorary Research Professor at the University of Sheffield and has written many books on the Tudor period, including ‘The Tudor Navy’.

Letters From The Mary Rose
By CS Knighton and David Loades.
Published by Sutton Publishing in association with the Mary Rose Trust.
ISBN 0 7509 2839 5.
Hardback, 198 pages
Price £20.