Part of a series on ship construction. The Mary Rose foundered and sank on July 19th, 1545. Her remains were discovered by acoustic profiling in the late 1960s; she was raised in 1982 and is now in a museum at Portsmouth. The upper parts of the fore and stern castles are missing, so there’s some debate about their reconstruction.

The Mary Rose was commissioned in 1509, so she had a reasonably long career before she sank. Therefore she changed some of her equipment over time. I was particularly interested in her armament. The Mary Rose was one of the first ships to have gunports; previously there were simply holes in the hull. That allowed mounting a row of guns further down in the hull (probably too low, contributing to her sinking). Naval armament wasn’t organized the way it was later; guns were named rather than listed by poundage. Thus she had wrought iron Murders, Slings, Demislings, Quarterslings, Fowlers, Bases, Top Pieces and Hailshot Pieces, and brass Cannon, Demicannon, Culverins, Demiculverins, Sakers, Falcons and Falconets. The wrought iron guns looked strange if you’re used to later naval guns; the barrels were made of iron bars welded side-by-side and reinforced with shrunk-on iron rings. Separate breach chambers were loaded with gunpowder and shout, secured to the barrel with wooded wedges and sledgehammers, fired, and removed for reloading. The breach-loader carriages had a single pair of wheels at about the middle of the barrel, with a post at the breach end; the barrel sat in a trough that ran the length of the carriage. The brass cannon were muzzle-loading and looked much like later cannon, with a four-wheeled carriage and the barrel mounted on trunnions.

Despite the plethora of cannon, the Mary Rose was still expected to win naval battles by closing with the enemy and boarding. Most of the cannon were relatively small antipersonnel pieces rather than heavy ship-smashers. Since the enemy would be trying to do the same thing, there were a number of cannon pointing inward, from the bow and stern castles, toward the waist. The majority of the ship’s complement was divided into “mariners” and “soldiers”. There were a number of gun captains and it’s assumed they would direct the gun crews, made up of soldiers; other books I’ve read suggested the gun crews were separate.

The ship was four-masted: foremast, mainmast, mizzenmast, and bonaventure mast. Nothing of the sails and rigging survive but contemporary paintings show her with square sails on the fore and main masts and triangular sails on the mizzen and bonaventure.

About half the book is a narrative discussion of the Mary Rose, with chapters on building, fitting out, manning, armaments, and other equipment. The remainder is detailed drawings of her construction (although the bow and stern castles are admittedly based on contemporary paintings rather than actual remains).

Extremely well illustrated, with photographs, drawings, and contemporary material. There are references at the end of each chapter rather than a single bibliography. For more on the Mary Rose, see The Warship Mary Rose. ( )