Boat trip marks Mary Rose anniversary
A boat trip was among events held in Portsmouth today to mark the 30th anniversary of the raising of the Mary Rose.
A boat trip was among events held in Portsmouth today to mark the 30th anniversary of the raising of the Mary Rose.
The trip, which visited the site on the bed of the Solent where the wreck lay for more than 400 years, was organised by the Mary Rose Trust and featured a commemorative salute by longbow archers and a musician playing 16th-century songs. The ship sank during an attack on a French fleet in 1545, and was successfully raised on 11 October 1982 at an estimated cost of £4m.
Restoration work on the ship's hull, made possible thanks to a £21m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, is currently underway. A new museum designed to house the ship at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, originally due to be open in time for the anniversary, is also set to open in 2013.
Prince Charles, president of the Mary Rose Trust, said: "The funding of both the conservation programme and the new museum has always been, as you can imagine, challenging. As president I can only offer my heartfelt thanks to all those who have made these achievements possible. Without the heritage lottery fund there would be no Mary Rose but there are many other donors, individual and corporate, who have so generously supported this project and exhibition. I am enormously grateful to them all for the outstanding legacy they have made possible."
Image credit and thanks to Melissa Gerbaldi
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