Today, Thursday 17th May, the Mary Rose Trust removed the five large Tudor bronze guns from the current museum in preparation for the new museum due to open at the end of the year at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Owing to the size of the original Tudor artefacts found with the hull, they were removed by crane through the roof of the building.
The largest gun measures 3.6metres and each weigh between 1 and a half and 2 and a half tonnes.
Nick Butterley, Exhibition Co Ordinator at the Mary Rose Trust commented: This is one of the last steps in preparing the artefacts for installation in the new museum. The guns form the centre piece of our new displays and its great for all of us to see them entering the final stages of their journey into the new building.
October 11th 2012 marks thirty years since the nation was glued to televisions watching the wreck of the Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, break the surface of the Solent. Late 2012 will be a momentous anniversary as history will be made once again when the Mary Rose Trust opens a new museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
The new museum will be the most significant development to take place in the Historic Dockyard in a decade. The £35 million heritage project to build an internationally renowned museum will reunite the Mary Rose hull and many of the 19,000 artefacts, placed in context, in a brand new museum.
The story of the Mary Rose has intrigued for centuries. Since Henry VIII watched, in vain, as his favourite ship sank in front of him taking hundreds of the crew to a tragic end, through the quest to find, excavate, raise and ultimately save her for the nation the story of Mary Rose continues to thrill.
As the story enters a new chapter with the building of a stunning museum, visitors are invited to get up close and personal with the existing collection in the current museum. A specially commissioned film, narrated by TV historian Dan Snow, relays the story thus far and tells of the human endeavour, tenacity, skill and passion required to discover and raise the Tudor flagship and excavate her many thousands of artefacts. Hitherto unseen footage of the hull is shown on a giant screen capturing parts of the ship not seen by visitors before. A new DVD explains the science behind the conservation of the artefacts, how they are being treated and protected in perpetuity. Visitors can meet the crew on a daily basis with costumed interpreters and get to grips with a large collection of original and replica artefacts for handling, covering the barber surgeon, navigation, the carpenter, everyday life on board and the weapons which made the Mary Rose such a formidable opponent. Plus friends and family can be challenged to a gun drill with a full size replica breech loading gun and learn how awesome a weapon it really was.
Its a fascinating look at everyday shipboard life from almost 500 years ago and compliments the other attractions in telling the wider history of 800 years of naval heritage.