Enlarge / The hull of Henry VIII’s favorite warship, the Mary Rose , and many thousands of recovered artifacts are housed in the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England. Johnny Black
One of (King Henry VIII ‘ s favorite warships was the Mary Rose
, which served as one of the flagships of the English Navy for over years , until she sank in a battle against the French in . She made headlines again in when she was successfully raised from the bottom of the straits where she had lain for centuries, along with thousands of artifacts that have been a boon to maritime archaeologists ever since.
Conservationists have worked tirelessly to preserve the ship’s remains and its many artifacts. And now high-energy X-ray analysis of chain mail links salvaged from the wreckage by a team of British scientists has revealed that the material composition of the armor is similar to modern (brass alloys , according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. There were also traces of lead and gold, whose origin has yet to be decisively determined.
“This study clearly shows the power of combining sophisticated techniques such as those available at a synchrotron source,” said co-author Eleanor Schofield , head of conservation at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. “We can glean information not only on the original production, but also on how it has reacted to being in the marine environment and crucially, how effective the conservation strategies have been.”
An English rose
The earliest known reference to the
Alas, the ship’s luck ran out during yet another outbreak of war with France, leading to the (Battle of the Solent) , as French ships tried to land troops on English soil in the straits just north of the Isle of Wight. Along with the Henry Grace à Dieu , the Mary Rose
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